Roger Ailes moving Fox News to 'middle,' apparently sees himself responsible for Giffords shooting and wants to censor ordinary Americans

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This Poynter piece about a Kurtz article says there was a 'rhetoric' debate about the Giffords shooting, suggests Roger Ailes assumes some responsibility for it as is changing his network's focus as a result. There was no 'rhetoric' debate only an internet aided media fed hate/censorhip fest. The mentally ill shooter had been stalking Rep. Giffords since 2007. The article also references 'partisan sniping,' another media invention which simply means only one viewpoint is allowed.

Even Politico says the shooting was made political:

1/9/11, "One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor (Bill Clinton) did. “They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”"...

The 'rhetoric' was hate media who smeared right of center people in order to silence them. 'Free speech' used to be the left's rallying cry, now they can't stand it. The irrational Sheriff Dupnik was made a media star by ranting that political speech caused the shooting. Obama thanked him. (No mention that police had visited the shooter's home more than once before the killings). Hate speech from the left has multiplied since the shooting. Mob violence is even accepted now. Ailes is just moving farther into the Beltway establishment than he already is.

9/26/11, "Howard Kurtz: Fox News is ‘edging back toward the mainstream’," Poynter.org, Steve Myers

"Newsweek"

"Several factors have influenced Fox News president Roger Ailes’ shift to the middle, says Howard Kurtz: the debate over extreme rhetoric after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot, the country’s distaste with constant partisan sniping, the branding issue posed by Glenn Beck’s inflammatory rhetoric, and a desire to boost profits by capturing more mainstream viewers. Of what Ailes calls a “course correction,” Kurtz writes, “While Fox reporters ply their trade under Ailes’s much-mocked ‘fair and balanced’ banner, the opinion arm of the operation has been told to lower the temperature.”

Among the nuggets in the story:

• A prediction from Kurtz: “Next fall’s election could well pivot on whether Ailes is more interested in scoring political points or ramping up ratings and revenue.”
• A description of the way Fox News ”plotted how to trap the candidates” in a Republican presidential candidate debate in Orlando, which Kurtz likens to a reality TV show.
• Ailes’ reaction to an AP story reporting that a suicide bomber killed 29 worshipers in a Baghdad mosque: “How do we know they were worshiping? … I think the AP is so far over the hill, they’ve become left wing, antiwar. Gotta watch their copy.”
• A sign of how closely Ailes watches his anchors: “Ailes keeps a wary eye on anchor Shepard Smith, who occasionally backs aspects of the Obama record: ‘Every once in a while Shep Smith gets out there where the buses don’t run and we have a friendly talk.’ "

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From the Kurtz article cited by Poynter:

9/25/11, "Roger’s Reality Show," Daily Beast/Newsweek, Howard Kurtz, "

"First, Ailes dialed back the Tea Party talk. Now he’s turning the GOP race into a political X-Factor—and steering the election agenda one more time. ...

"The Fox News chairman is quietly repositioning America’s dominant cable-news channel."...

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Police had visited Loughner's home more than once before the shooting.

1/9/11, "Arizona Sheriff Calls State “A Mecca For Prejudice And Bigotry”," NewsOne

"His (Dupnik's) remarks especially resonated with liberals, who even before the name of the suspect was released suggested that the shooter may have had been incited by the tea party. There is no indication that the suspect, Jared Lee Lougner, identified with the tea party or was politically conservative. During the campaign, liberal pundits and politicians asserted that the sometimes militant language some conservative politicians used could incite violence."

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Loughner stalked Giffords in 2007 before anyone in the lower 48 states had ever heard of Sarah Palin:

1/10/11, "Loner" Jared Loughner Spoke to Giffords in 2007," CBS News

1/9/11, "Shooting Suspect's Nihilism Rose With Isolation," AP

"At an event roughly three years ago, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords took a question from Jared Loughner, the man accused of trying to assassinate her and killing six other people. According to two of his high school friends the question was essentially this: "What is government if words have no meaning?"

Loughner was angry about her response — she read the question and didn't have much to say.

"He was like...'What do you think of these people who are working for the government and they can't describe what they do?'" one friend told The Associated Press on Sunday. "He did not like government officials, how they spoke. Like they were just trying to cover up some conspiracy.""...

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1/10/11, "Obama Phones Sheriff Dupnik, Families of the Victims, The Heroes, and Giffords’ Rabbi," ABC News

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1/9/11, "Violence and politics merge," Politico

Democrats suggest Obama 'deftly' pin shootings on Tea Party as Clinton 'deftly' pinned Oklahoma bombing on 'militia and anti-government groups.'

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1/10/11, "Jared Loughner Had 5 Run-ins with College Police," CBS/AP

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1/12/11, "Sheriff Dupnik’s Officers Visited Loughner in his Home Multiple Times Before Shooting Incident," BigGovernment, Publius, via NY Times:

1/12/11, "Police Say They Visited Tucson Suspect’s Home Even Before Rampage," NY Times

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1/12/11, "The latest: Loughner was stopped for running a red light the morning of the shooting rampage and had been pursued by his father after retrieving a black bag from the trunk of the family car.

Also still unclear: What Dupnik knew and when about Loughner’s history of making death threats."...

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10/28/08, "Sarah Palin effigy hung in Halloween display," Reuters

Civil discourse.

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Below, George Bush burned in effigy for going to war, Nov. 2004. Media never complained about such 'rhetoric,' nor has anyone been seen burning Obama in effigy for ramping up US military attacks and carrying out an assassination.



Bush effigy via Zombietime.com

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1/28/11, "Curt Olds, the Lord High Executioner," WSJ.com, Taranto

"Eliminationist rhetoric against Sarah Palin: a production of a Montana community theater."

Community theatre inserted language about beheading Sarah Palin into "Mikado" production and the audience laughed.
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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]." ...

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1/8/11, "Sarah Palin Blamed by Bloggers for Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords," Huffington Post, Matt Lewis

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8/30/11, "The Racial Violence that Dare Not Speak Its Name," American Thinker, John T. Bennett


via Poynter.org