It's all Rush, Savage, Levin, and Beck's fault say Obama media MSNBC et al.

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1/14/11, "So...it's all Rush's fault," Talk Radio Watch, Kathy Shaidle

"Even the Los Angeles Times admits: "There is no evidence that Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the shooting of [Rep. Gabrielle] Giffords and the killing of six others, even listened to [talk radio]."

• That didn't stop left-leaning pundits and politicians (as well as Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnick, a Democrat) from blaming Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for the massacre last weekend.

However, rising radio star Jon Justice (dubbed "Tucson's Rush Limbaugh" ) bravely joined his beleaguered colleagues by insisting repeatedly all week that "heated political rhetoric on the airwaves does not cause violence."

• Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee didn't get the memo – and evidently hasn't read the Constitution, either: He quickly banned state employees from listening to, or doing interviews with, talk radio.

Neither did one sponsor of "The Jon Justice Show." The company pulled its ads at the first sign of a local boycott, one that leftists organizers vow to continue.

Rush Limbaugh

In response to the faux outrage and calls for "civility" (which he noted was just another word for "censorship") Rush Limbaugh recorded a special one-minute message to fellow broadcasters.

• He declared, "I can't speak for others that do what I do, but I'm not going to be silenced by this. ... I say this to all the people who do what I do: Hold your heads high, and turn this back on the media and the Democrats."

Talk radio colleague Michael Berry created a satirical video summing up the tone of mainstream rhetoric this week: "Rush Limbaugh Blamed for All World Problems."...

Michael Savage

MSNBC host Chris Matthews singled out Michael Savage for blame in the wake of the Tucson massacre.

Savage responded, "This is a blood libel by Matthews. His remarks may cause me serious economic damage. I only hope his inconsiderate, malicious libel against me does not bring harm to myself or my family. I pray that an imbalanced left-wing fanatic does not

• take Matthews' libel against me to heart and seek to inflict bodily harm on myself or my family."

In fact, as WND columnist Barry Farber observed, the event actually proved that Savage had correctly diagnosed

• liberalism as "a mental disorder":

"When famous radio talk-show host Mike Savage wrote a book entitled 'Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder,'" writes Farber, "I slapped my thigh and chortled with delight. ... But I didn't take it seriously.

"Now, after the Arizona massacre of Jan. 8, I fear I short-changed my buddy Mike," Farber writes. "Mike's point is strengthened by the fact that we don't hear

• of one single case of someone on the right ignorantly and arrogantly blaming the 'left.'"

Savage praised Sarah Palin's response to the shooting, calling her the only true national leader who emerged after the mass murder (FREE audio).

However, Michael Savage encouraged Donald Trump to run for President in 2012 this week, saying Trump is the only man who can "run the country like a business and not an empire" (FREE audio)....

Mark Levin

On Monday night, Mark Levin praised the American people for displaying "more respect and dignity" than the journalists who purport to present the "news" to them (FREE audio).

Levin was furious when MSNBC's Chris Matthews singled him out by name as someone "responsible" for the tragedy.

• "Did [the murderer] have a TV in his house?" Levin asked rhetorically. "Has anybody in his house ever watched MSNBC? Did they ever watch Chris Matthews?"

"Maybe Chris Matthews' tone and rhetoric is very upsetting to people," Levin continued, later offering $100,000 to Matthews

• if he could dig up evidence that Sarah Palin ever called for the death of a public official.

Levin also aimed his ire at Sheriff Dubnik, an "incompetent political hack" who'd also blamed the Giffords shooting on conservative talk radio hosts (FREE audio)....

And now, from the left side of the dial ...

Right after the Tucson shooting, "Radio Equalizer" Brian Maloney began chronicling the mainstream media's predictable response. He noted that the timing of the tragedy put talk radio at a disadvantage:

• "Talk show hosts must deal with the fallout nearly 48 hours after the rampage occurred," Maloney writes. "That's because the medium completely shuts down on weekends and increasingly during holiday periods as well."

Among all the contenders for this week's "honors," I have to select

Stephanie Miller's declaration that the shooting "came right out of Glenn Beck transcripts"

• and her guest's insistence that "Beck is one drink away from being" the would-be assassin (FREE video)."

via RadioDailyNews