[ April 18, 2024 ]
As I said in my article a few days back “The Coming Civil War,” the left has declared war — everywhere — in the schools, in the streets, in the media, the movies, the music, etc. And people are taking a stand. Pelley’s remarks are grotesque and savage, but not surprising. He considers himself a General in the war of ideas (despite his termination from 60 Minutes). The media has been on the vanguard in the war on Americanism, freedom and individual rights.
You, too, had better declare. There are no casual observers, no innocent bystanders in the war on freedom.
Scott Pelley: D.C. Attack on Congressmen Was ‘to Some Degree Self-Inflicted’
By Tom Blumer, Newsbusters, June 18, 2017:
Story continues below advertisementThursday evening, CBS’s Scott Pelley, who officially ended his tenure as the network’s Evening News anchor the following evening, told viewers that “It’s time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress Wednesday was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted.”
It’s clear from Pelley’s subsequent commentary that his answers to all three elements are “Yes.” It’s equally clear from the examples he supplied as support that he sees (or wants viewers to see) the problem as predominantly about the conduct of those on the right.
Here is Pelley’s full commentary:
Transcript below:
It’s time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress, yesterday, was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted.
Too many leaders, and political commentators, who set an example for us to follow, have led us into an abyss of violent rhetoric which, it should be no surprise, has led to violence.
Yesterday was not the first time.
In December last year, a man with an assault rifle stormed into a Washington-area pizzeria to free child sex slaves whom Hillary Clinton was holding there — or at least that’s what political blog sites had said. He fired into a locked door to discover no children in chains.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has called the president the “most dangerous in history.” The shooter yesterday was a Sanders volunteer.
You might think that no sane person would act on political hate speech, and you’d be right. Trouble is, there are a lot of Americans who struggle with mental illness.
In February, the president tweeted that the news media were the “enemy of the American people”:
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Later, at a lunch for reporters, President Trump was asked whether he worried that language would incite violence. His pause indicated it had never crossed his mind. Then he said, “No, that doesn’t worry me.”
As children we’re taught, “Words will never hurt me.” But when you think about it, violence almost always begins with words. In “Twitter world,” we’ve come to believe that our first thought is our best thought.
It’s past time for all of us — presidents, politicians, reporters, citizens, all of us — to pause to think again.
So, “to some degree,” Steve Scalise’s near death and his continued hospitalization are his, his party’s, and Donald Trump’s fault. The examples Pelley cited support that interpretation.
Of all the recent examples of violence, Pelley first chose one (the Pizzagate shooting incident) where the person involved did not actually attempt to harm anyone, and from all appearances, and as described by the anchor himself, betrayed no actual intent to hurt a person.
In only choosing this bizarre incident, Pelley somehow missed the long list of actual left-driven violence directed at Trump supporters, Republicans and conservatives before and after last November’s election — and that’s before getting to the actual threats and incidents involving sitting GOP congresspersons.
Pelley then went on to cite quotes from Bernie Sanders and President Trump using descriptors (“most dangerous” and “enemy of the people”) which have been used in the U.S. for decades without violent consequences by politicians, commentators and others to describe opponents.
There are many examples demonstrating this, but two specific items and one general one will suffice:
- In the mid-1970s, Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson described the 94th Congress as “the most dangerous in history as a result of the willingness on the part of some Congressmen to relax our defense posture.”
- In the mid-1960s, during Ronald Reagan’s first and ultimately successful campaign to become California’s governor, his opponent, incumbent Governor Pat Brown, called Reagan — you guessed it — “an enemy of the people” in a joint Meet The Press appearance. Brown’s smear is more recent than any of the direct “enemy of the people” citations the New York Times used in late February to try to describe Trump’s quote as an indication that he’s somehow a de facto Stalinist wannabe.
- Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and individual Republicans, conservatives and libertarians have been called “an enemy of working people,” which in most instances has really meant “an opponent of organized labor’s political agenda,” more times than anyone could hope to count.
As to Trump’s specific quote, it should be obvious by now that his tweet wasn’t an opinion. It was an observation, given how many journalists and news organizations, with their managements’ clear blessing or at least acquiescence, now insist that they are under no obligation whatsoever to even try to cover the Trump administration in a fair, balanced or even objective manner.
This is not what the country’s Founders envisioned when they enshrined freedom of the press in this nation’s Constitution. It is indeed fair to say, as Fox News’s Todd Starnes has, that the press has become a declared enemy at least of those who elected Trump, and of those who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law:
The fourth estate is indeed the Opposition Party — and I believe they are complicit in spreading disinformation and propaganda to destabilize the Trump presidency.
Pelley himself has proactively promoted the destabilization effort. In late April, Rich Noyes at NewsBusters correctly criticized the then-CBS anchor for his “hostile approach in covering Donald Trump,” and noted that Pelley’s posturing had made him “something of a rock star among his fellow journalists.” (Thanks to declining ratings, near-rock star status among the media wasn’t enough to save Pelley from losing his anchor’s perch; his stance arguably contributed to his downfall.)
Pelley also apparently believes he’s a mindreader. He just knows that Trump’s hesitation when asked about his tweet means that a violent reaction to his comment had “never crossed his mind.” How does he know that Trump wasn’t measuring his response before delivering? The answer is that he doesn’t, but pretends to.
Pelley, in his reference to “Twitter world,” only danced around the real reasons why things are different now.
Yes, it’s obvious that Twitter, social media and universal access to the Internet have enabled the extreme and violence-advocating views of people who were never seen or heard outside of their own homes to gain attention. But that’s nowhere near as much of a problem as the following developments, all of which are either overtly violent or passive-aggressive reactions to a Republican’s presidential campaign and his ultimate victory:
- As was seen during the fall campaign, Democratic operatives with connections to the Hillary Clinton campaign went to Trump events (and even a Scott Walker event) with the express intention of goading attendees into violent behavior. That the strategy rarely worked, and never on a major scale, is a testament to Trump supporters’ relative civility.
- Supposedly responsible and publicly visible leftist politicians, entertainers, and pundits have gone beyond aggressive rhetoric, and are now either openly advocating violence or celebrating it when it occurs (with rare challenges from the media when such comments are made), or looking the other way when it happens.
- Finally, as the Daily Wire’s John Nolte contends with plentiful evidence, the press and the entertainment industry have been “engaged in a not-very-subtle campaign to have candidate/President Trump assassinated” for more than a year. Kathy Griffin’s Trump-severed-head stunt and a New York theater’s conversion of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into a Trump-assassination fantasy are only the two most obvious among many manifestations.
Pelley’s failures to go beyond virtually irrelevant examples and to note the factors just cited — along with his bogus citation of “mental illness” to describe violent people who know exactly what they’re doing, a subtopic which would require a separate post to properly disassemble — demonstrates that his meaning of “to some degree, self-inflicted” is really, “To some degree, Steve Scalise got what he deserved.”
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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25 Comments
6 years ago
Question! Who is to shoot Mr Pelley first. It is not a contest but the first one might be in for a surprise.
6 years ago
As the article here informs us, Scott Pelly has stepped away from the anchor position at CBS News. He will now be primarily a reporter for 60 Minutes, and his first piece for 60 Minutes after leaving the CBS Evening News was a reprise of his “White Helmets” report. http://b1ff5939f6.nxcli.net/2016/12/60-minutes-carries-water-al-qaeda.html/
Andrew Klavan calls him Ted Baxter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyai4V4d9T4
6 years ago
Apparently the lame stream media outlets are having a contest to see which one is the stupidest.
6 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
Since every one of them parrots the talking point line of the day over and over and over, it’s going to be a tight contest. They may all get a stupid trophy.
.
Hey, how’d you like how Pajama Boy in Georgia beat the Republican? What a referendum on that mean old Trump, eh? Better get out the coloring books, puppy dogs, and safe spaces.
#WINNING!
🙂
6 years ago
Reply to
Make an anchor out of him!
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6 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
Mahou I’m beginning to wonder: Is there ANY sanity left in the Democrats??
6 years ago
Reply to
Pathfinder0100
So far, none seen, no rumours of it existing. Suspect democrats have completely inbred sanity out of the species.
6 years ago
Hope he takes a brick to his stupid head when covering a future riot
D
6 years ago
Pompous ass …
6 years ago
Since that hate-monger uses the term “Self-Inflicted” to describe the D. C. attack, let’s make sure that hate-monger be having some great “Self-Inflicted” time himself !!
6 years ago
I’d like to see if Scott (the Weasel) Pelley has the guts to go visit Congressman Scalise and tell him to his face that he bears responsibility for it. The only violence day after day verbal or physical has been the Media, leftist/Islamic Axis on and off campus, leftist hooligans sent to disrupt the Democratic process of Congressmen meeting with constituents. Even the Charlotte murder if three Muslims over a Parking space was blamed one the Right by BO & CAIR until did proved by Law Enforcement and DOJ. No presidential or CAIR apologies just dead silence, Scott the tool. Thank G-d they finally pulled you.
6 years ago
This rhetoric is more than dangerous, it is Treasonous. This fool needs to be locked up as he is a main distributor of hate speech. Please tell me one thing that Trump has said that was an incitement to violence, unless of course draining a swamp is a violent act?? We have to close these liberal media outlets down as they are warmongers and haters of true democracy and an impediment to all progress.
6 years ago
Reply to
Peter Joffe
If you want to close the media outlets down—move to Iran! SCOTUS actually upheld hate speech the other day (so long as it isn’t actual incitement to lawless action).
6 years ago
CBS = Communist Bull Sh*t
6 years ago
With that kind of logic if some irate listener who hates the liberal play book – in this case the blame card – goes out and shoots an incredibly insensitive perpetually dumbstruck looking a-hole like this one or others then it could be said that their sudden demise was “to some degree self-inflicted”. This mockery by the left will be long remembered as the payback rolls around for its due. The sad part is his kind will whine they were only engaging in free speech.
6 years ago
It wasn’t self-inflicted you effing MORON. It was DEMONCRAP inflicted
Yuse guy are always blaming other people for what YOU DO!!
6 years ago
His being fired as “self inflicted”
Use the BS ring on this loon
6 years ago
While not being much of a conspiracy theorist, it is frightening to wonder what we would do in the face of some national emergency and be in need of a credible media for an adequate response to the situation. On whom could we rely for a straight answer, a government with its own agenda or a discredited media who threw its own reputation to the wind?
6 years ago
Wow, Scalise pulled Hodgkinson’s trigger finger from second base.
6 years ago
Pelley speaks in slow motion cause his mind is trying to catch up with his tongue
6 years ago
Another example of CBS’s being joined at the hip with the other lib trash networks that spew propaganda instead of real unbiased news.
6 years ago
Pelley was the reason we stopped watching the CBS National News. He lacks ability to
analyze news (information) and slants, infer and embellish the news to what he wants
it to be, not what the facts really are. He hates Republicans and President Trump.
One other reason we left: He is so, so boring and has no talent for the industry he is working in.
D
6 years ago
Pelly who? Oh wait.
