Tiller Aftermath: Coordinated Media Attacks?

There is a certain amount of coordination among left-wing political groups and certain high-profile national media and blog sites. We've all heard about the talking point memos that emerge from various war rooms, the press released from Media Matters with the out-of-context clips from various talk shows, etc.

But the shrill, over-the-top, borderline insane attacks on Fox News and Bill O'Reilly? Are they, too, being coordinated?

If so, it's one of the more repulsive spectacles in recent history, and that's saying a lot.

Keith Olbermann has blamed abortionist George Tiller's death on Bill O'Reilly. That's not too surprising as KO goes off the deep end on pretty much a daily basis, and BOR is a favorite target. I think KO believes that, if he metaphorically tears out BOR's heart and eats it on air, he will gain O'Reilly's rating points. That might explain his weird obsession.

But the same charge was leveled on posts at Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, and Salon, with very, very similar talking points.

If this is coordinated, it is very offensive and very destructive to the national conversation. The politics of personal destruction waged in media circles.

O'Reilly isn't my cup of tea, and yet we probably agree on 90 percent of the issues. I think he's pompous, and he irritates me when he interrupts his guests to extrude his own opinion in lieu of theirs. So I don't watch him much, and if I do it's to catch Dennis Miller. He's a hoot!

For all his pomposity, O'Reilly is very careful to stay issues oriented with the exception of his "pinheads" segment, which I don't think applies in this case. George Tiller was fair game for O'Reilly's 29 citations over the last four years because Tiller's controversial techniques tested the boundaries of what is legal in an area already laden with controversy. Also, 29 citations sounds like a lot, but in the context of a show that runs five episodes a week for 50 weeks, you are talking about 29 "Tiller references" in about 1,000 hours of programming. Very small percentage.

The idea that Bill O'Reilly should get the blame for Tiller's death is just another way for the Left to say, "Our issues are off limits. Your's are not."

I don't hear anyone seriously suggesting that MoveOn.org, or Olbermann, or Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink, should be blamed for the death of that military recruiter in Little Rock.

People are and should be responsible for their own actions. To go down any other line of logic is to court madness and invite judicial mayhem. There are a lot of weird voices in our media-saturated culture. That they influence our thinking is beyond question: in fact, that's the very reason for their existence. We tolerate this cacophony of opinions and voices because inside it we often find nuggets of truth and wisdom. Our Founding Fathers believed that the potential good to be derived from this far outweighed the damage it could, and sometimes does, cause.

Another pet peeve: The dishonest blogger who claims that so-and-so supports killing abortionists because he allowed an objectionable comment to be posted. I saw this "technique" used today by an Oklahoma-based blog site. I say "technique" because it is not an ethical journalistic practice. It is what used to be called "yellow journalism."

I would not waste my time posting a reply on their site or any like it. They deserve to be ignored and left to wonder why no one gives them credibility.

Credibility has to be earned, and maintained. Everyone has an opinion, but some are incapable of presenting the opinions of others without resorting to cheap demonization.

Likewise, "gang attacks" where the message is coordinated to conduct character assassinations is reprehensible journalism -- if you can consider it journalism at all.