Since the shocking assassination attempt of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, activists on the left and the right have taken to the radio airwaves, the blogosphere, and occasionally even on cable television to accuse the 22-year-old killer, Jared Lee Loughner, of either being a conservative or liberal extremist - in addition to be a psychopath.
But at the time of this written, there is little known about him except for the books that he read, and some postings he made on MySpace and Twitter.
So what's the "responsible" media to do? On Sunday morning, the usual public affairs shows did what they could to provide some perspective, and the most newsworthy aspect of it was the discussion about the heated rhetoric in the public discourse, which some consider never to be more toxic than in the past couple of years.
That's certainly been the case of Arizona, not according to any talking head, but the Sheriff of Pima County, Clarence Dupnik, who said in his news conference Saturday afternoon that because of its bitter divisions in the discussions of illegal immigration and health care reform, Arizona had become "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry." And he attributed the harsh rhetoric to contributing to Loughner's descent into madness:
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous."
Dupnik also noted that a weapon dropped out of the pants of a protester at a meeting Giffords held in 2009.
On Sunday's Meet The Press on NBC, Missouri Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. Cleaver, you might recall, claimed that Tea Party members spat on him in Washington last year, a claim that was vigorously disputed by Bill O'Reilly and others, because there was no video tape to back up that assertion.
REP. CLEAVER: But I, I, I think that as soon as we can we need to come back to deal with the business of the, of the people. But we, we ought to come back with a different attitude. Congressman Frank mentioned earlier that, that we don't know why this happened. And I think—and I agree with it. It doesn't matter, however. This ought to be a wake-up call to, not only the members of Congress, but the people in this country, that we're headed in the wrong direction. Congress meets a lot, but it rarely comes together. We are coming from, from two different points of view—which is a democracy and we ought to do that—but we, we come for the purpose of fighting. And, and it's, it's entertainment, I guess, for the nation, for some. But for some it, it gives them an excuse to exercise the bitterness that, that may be deep inside of them. And we've, we've got to watch what we say, and we're not doing it. It starts when—in campaigns. You know, campaigns now are opportunities for people to say anything and do anything about one—to each other and about one another. And I think it's, it's devastating, and it'll probably get worse unless something dramatic happens.
