Did Jokes About John McCain's Anger Contribute to Climate of Hate?

"John McCain stands now less a paragon of straight talk and independence for new members to admire, and more like an object lesson of how f*#@ing mad someone gets when they don't get their way." – Jon Stewart, announcing a new initiative to annoy the hell out of John McCain

"The lights are too bright and it's burning my skin! You're going to make me look like a Mexican. Build the dang fence!" – angry puppet John McCain, making his debut on The Daily Show last week.

From columnist Ron Hart, on spurious accusations of right-wing hate leading to Jared Loughner's shooting spree.

Whole Hart col here.

McCain puppet bit below:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Let's All Stand on John McCain's Lawn
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes	Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>	The Daily Show on Facebook

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

It's kind of a hoot watching the right pull out all these violent, hateful comments from the left.

Hypocrisy is a hell of a drug.

[Rick James]

You know what else is a hell of a drug?

[Pro Libertate]

Charlie Murphy!

[Reginod]

How is this hypocracy?
The answer is it isn't.

First, for it to be hypocracy John Stewart would have had to blaim the shooting on violent political rhetoric. In point of fact, he went out of his way (on Monday) to say that, while, he belives the polictical culture is toxic and he hates it, you can'ty balim the shooting on political rhetoric. "I just don't think you can do it." He actualy spoke somewhat seriously about the shooting, blamed it on "crazy", and said that he belives everyone who uses violent rhetoric does not want things like this to happen. He said he would like for violent rehetoric to be toned down, but that is a far cry from baliming the shooting on such rhetoric. (In fact, he did a good piece on Wednesday calling out the stupidity of legal bans aimed at such rhetoric).

Second, for it to be hypocracy John Stewart would have had to use violent rhetoric in the video. Calling John McCain an angry man is not violent rhetoric. The most violent thing John Stewart said in the piece is "Let's all stand on John McCain's lawn." And he followed that by saying he didn't even mean that litteraly.

Look you may not like Stewart, but this is not a case of him being a hypocrate.

[David]

I liked you points, but please learn to spell the word "blame" correctly.

[pmains]

As well as hypocrisy, political (well, you got it the first time), actually, literally and hypocrite.

[Zeb]

I don't think anyone was calling Stewart a hypocrite. But you can't deny that there are loads of hypocrites on the left (and right) that are really showing their colors right now.

[Debbie Wasserman Schultz]

"After my daughter heard that, you know, Gabby had been shot, the first thing she asked me was, you know, 'Mommy, are you going to get shot? Does that mean you're going to get shot?' And then I, you know, did my best to reassure her, tell her, 'No, you know, Mommy takes precautions. You've been to my meetings. You know we have, we take steps to make sure that we're all safe.' But then the next thing she said to me was ? and this is where you don't realize how closely they're watching ? 'But Mommy, Florida's going to pass an immigration law like Arizona and then people are going to be mad at you.' You know, they're paying attention. The civil discourse is very important because it's not just ? it's not just adults that ? that this permeates. It's our children."

[For The Children?]

"After my daughter heard that, you know, Gabby had been shot, the first thing she asked me was, you know, 'Mommy, are you going to get shot? Does that mean you're going to get shot?' And then I, you know, did my best to reassure her, tell her, 'No, you know, Mommy takes precautions. You've been to my meetings. You know we have, we take steps to make sure that we're all safe.' But then the next thing she said to me was ? and this is where you don't realize how closely they're watching ? 'But Mommy, Florida's going to pass an immigration law like Arizona and then people are going to be mad at you.' You know, they're paying attention. The civil discourse is very important because it's not just ? it's not just adults that ? that this permeates. It's our children."
-Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

[guy in the back row]

Perhaps Ms. Wasserman should resign in favor of someone else?

[alan]

I saw her own Diane Sawyer. What is it about frizzy haired, duck lipped Jewish lasses that makes me feel randy?

[East Bay Jay]

Keep on feeling Randy becasue the lady is married to the guy with the ear plugs.

[alan]

So long as Randy isn't complaining. I'm taken, but my girlfriend's fuck up shifts at the hospital don't do me any good if I'm flipping through the channels and there is a hot squirrely haired gal on to start me thinking.

[barfman]

BAAAARRRRRRRRFFFFFFFF!!!!

[Debbie's Daughter]

Mommy, does "BAAAARRRRRFFFFF!" mean they want to shoot you?

[CalebT]

You know, I'm not one to give up on strongly held beliefs, but after watching both Fox News and MSNBC's coverage of the shootings this week, I wonder if it would just be better to stop thinking critically and just adopt the paradigm of politicizing tragedies for cheap political points.

Gaming culture was very important to me as a child, and I grew up during the video game hysteria surrounding Mortal Kombat, first-person shooters, and the Columbine Massacre that I feel a deep sense of moral outrage when the political class uses a subculture (in this case, the Tea Party) as a scapegoat for what was, at its most fundamental, a senseless tragedy.

Personally, I can't stand Sarah Palin, but I find myself siding with her so often this week that I make myself sick thinking how the Left has actually managed to make her seem sympathetic.

Congratulations, Jared Lee Loughner. Your madness, combined our stupid political culture, has gained far more notoriety than ever should have.

[Pro Libertate]

I wish the media would voluntarily refrain from heavily publicizing the name and life of the crazy guy du jour. I know it sells and they'll keep doing it, but not giving a lunatic the kind of forum they do might make this sort of act less attractive. He should just be an unfortunate suicide, or maybe a voiceover guy.

[Zeb]

I can certainly understand what you are saying, but come on, don't you want to know what kind of crazy this guy was?

[Pro Libertate]

Not that much, no.

[East Bay Jay]

Not interested in what they found on his computer? That's okay. Neither is the media.

[generic Brand]

I wish the media would voluntarily refrain from heavily publicizing the name and life of the crazy guy du jour. I know it sells and they'll keep doing it, but not giving a lunatic the kind of forum they do might make this sort of act less attractive. He should just be an unfortunate suicide, or maybe a voiceover guy.

Wait, are you talking about Jared Loughner or Ted Williams?

[Mike in PA]

Yeah, I hear ya on the Sarah Palin thing. They blame her for the shooting, then, when they're wrong, they say the "tone of her rhetoric" created the atmosphere they caused the shooting. She calls bullshit on them (although porly), and then they go after her for not getting it. Chris Matthews has been relentless in his stupidity because he hates this woman.

I'm not a big fan either, but come on... This was one dude and not the fault of any collective. She isn't allowed to point that out without drawing more ire?

[CalebT]

It just surprises me how little people realizes about the population of this country. A dozen people are involved in this incident, and the other 308 million of us have to think about how the rest of us are involved. It reminds me a lot of the George Carlin bit about "Saving the Earth."

[CalebT]

By the way, how come assassins always seem to become known by their full, three names?

[Isaac Bartram]

IIANM, it's because police reports usually list all of a suspect's given names and the media then reports the name verbatim from the police reports.

However, while John Wilkes Booth was actually known by all three of his names (it was a family thing) in everday life, Lee Oswald was not.

[BakedPenguin]

Also, you never hear about Charlie Milles Manson, although that might be because he was just the ringleader.

[Charlie Milles Manson]

Hey, I just got some chicks high, screwed them, told them some colorful stories and political polemics, so what am still doing behind bars though nothing put me at the scene of the crimes?

[Fist of Etiquette]

McCain used to be a Daily Show darling. But his ultimate sin was not to go all anti-illegal immigration. It was to run against Barack Obama.

I wish Stewart would make more of these idiots his personal project (and not just the Repukes).

[Mike in PA]

Nah, his sin was to win the nomination... His political stances were irrelevant.

[BeBe]

Hart brings up a great point, the mean comments of the leftist writers of late night comic shows are directly entirely at the right and Rand Paul. Anyone they see who stands in the way of their agenda. Great column.

[nobody]

Good morning sock puppet!

[Jerry]

I blame the leftish media paranoic pre-occupation with Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Without the leftish media, they could have never become the center of attention from which this supposed vitriol is spewing.

[Mike in PA]

Hmm... a leftish fetish? a fleftish?

[Independent-minded libertarian]

Poor Sarah Palin! Poor John McCain! Poor, poor GOP! Does your taint need warming, GOP? Here's my tongue.

[Pro Libertate]

Is that you, Moose?

[Mike in PA]

As much as I wouldn't mind warming Palin's taint (I've done worse), it's not like I appreciate her policies. But dammit, how can you defend the lefties here? Anyone with an open mind who dislikes both of these parties has to be able to see what the left is doing here. It's disgusting.

[Pro Libertate]

I just can't help wondering about the left when it largely behaves like this. Are lies and deceit all that's left to them?

I despise and repudiate much of what the GOP does, but they're moving another notch up in comparison to the Democrats. Only in comparison, of course. And only "up" in the sense that their opposition is moving down.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

Yes of course... after all president obama really does hang out with terrorists. And michelle obama really does hate American. And there really are death panels! Yes Sarah Palin is such a

[Independent-minded libertarian]

victim.

[Pro Libertate]

No, the right is ridiculous, too. But there's not even a kernel of truth to this one. It's an act of desperation than many on the left are repudiating, anyway. It's very Big Lie-like. Too much so.

I hate spin, too, but that's the world we live in, where people accept political and media figures taking facts and distorting them all out of shape. But there are limits.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

MMM that's some tasty Republican taint.

[So...]

...Bill Ayers and Mrs. Bill Ayers *wasn't* a terrorist?

[pmains]

I'm with So. What is the argument here? Is it that hanging out with Bill Ayers was so wrong that it becomes impolite to point this out? What if Barack had killed a guy (not that he has)? Would we all be obligated to demurely indicate that discussing such a subject is in bad taste?

[Independent-minded libertarian]

Ah now the crux of the issue.

Sarah Palin is not in fact a gigantic hypocrite for spreading vicious lies about her political enemies and the bitching about her mean, awful treatment... because they weren't lies at all!

Bill Ayers IS a terrorist, inexplicably a free man teaching college, and Barack Obama was besttest friends with him, and not merely a fellow Chicagoan.

Also, there are granny shooting ranges over near the watermelon patches at the white house. I saw it on Newsmax, Sarah Palin's news source of choice.

[East Bay Jay]

You're making a great case. For the other side.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

And you know what I heard. The bullet that went through Gabby Gifford's skill actually continued its trajectory and ended ricocheting into Sarah Palin.

Also, Sarah Palin is a survivor of the holocaust. Did you know that? The holocaust of not letting her use the term blood libel. She is SUCH a victim of everything! Poor woman, they should build monuments to her great suffering.

[Mike in PA]

Ok, so let me get your logic...

They blame her -> she says "don't blame me" -> she's claiming to be a victim?

You probably think she should have taken responsibility for the shooting? I don't get it. I do understand you hate her, I just don't get why her defending herself has got you all pissed off.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

Do I sound pissed off? I'm in total agreement that all politicians suck, that no amount of hyperbole is too much (for Democrats), and that Sarah Palin, great voice of warning about death panels, terrorist pals, hating America, Democrats not being 'real' Americans, is for some reason exempt from our indiscriminate hatred and mocking of politicians. Maybe it's her boobies?

[James Ard]

You might want to consult Paul Krugman about that whole death panel thing.

[pmains]

Silly James. It's only true when Democrats say it.

[hmm]

Did someone say boobies?

[Zeb]

Yeah. Nobody on here ever mocks Palin.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I'm not sure Palin unartfully complaining about being even being mentioned in connection with the shooting is the same as her claiming to be THE victim here. She isn't.

Frankly, the left is going whole hog to make her a martyr of sorts. She's totally blameless. So is anyone other than the shooter, and maybe that girl who dumped him.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

Pretty sure it's her coming out and complaining about her being a victim that makes her seem like she's claiming to be a victim.

She is complaining that she can't use the term "blood libel" as if the term, according to her confidant John Ziegler, "unbeknownst to most Americans had been apparently legally copyrighted by the Jewish people hundreds of years ago."

It is a moral crime to require Sarah Palin to acquire a larger vocabulary and imagination. She is an honorary holocaust victim now.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, for the love of God.

[John]

First, the term blood libel is used all the time in the context she is using it. Even fucking Alan Dershowitz came out and said that there was nothing wrong with her use of the term.

Second, when someone slanders you and says you are responsible for a murder, you have a right to defend yourself. That is not playing the victim. Let me come over to your house and kick you in the balls. When you say "what the hell did you do that for?", I will say "stop playing the victim".

[Tony]

John I want a source for a single person accusing Sarah Palin of murder. One.

I'm sure y'all were equally incensed over all of Palin's ridiculous slanders over the years.

[John]

Andrew Sullivan

Many are merely saying that her recklessly violent and inflammatory rhetoric has poisoned the discourse and has long run the risk of empowering the deranged. We are saying it's about time someone took responsibility for this kind of rhetorical extremism, because it can and has led to violence and murder." He points out that Giffords herself had expressed concern about Palin's map.

That is accusing her of abetting murder. No shut the fuck up Tony.

[Tony]

It is not accusing her of murder, so if you want other people to stop lashing out with hyperbole at dear Sarah Palin then why don't you stop doing the same?

[Tony's thick skull]

It is accusing her of aiding and abetting murder, you dishonest douchenozzle. But I suppose that's okay with you.

[Tony]

I just don't have time to weep over the poor treatment of politicians who have a long history of engaging in the exact same bullshit they're not whining about when it's supposedly being applied to them.

[Tony]

not=now

[Tony's thick skull]

"politicians who have a long history of engaging in the exact same bullshit they're not whining about when it's supposedly being applied to them."
Citation? I can't recall Palin accusing a democrat of aiding and abetting a mass murder by a paranoid schizophrenic. But we all know you can't argue honestly.

[Tony]

No she just said the president of the U.S. hangs out with terrorists.

[Tony's thick skull]

Bill Ayers and wife are not terrorists? And thanks for admitting the falsehood of your previous comment. idiot

[bill]

I'm not sure if this qualifies, i saw another article there the day after the shooting of someone crying about sarah palin calling a hit

http://www.democraticundergrou.....385x544002

[Devil Inchoate]

don't waste your time with him. You can't understand the deranged. They do crazy things for no apparent reason at all. A woman pisses them off and three, four years later, they shoot up the place.

[John]

I guess it was okay then for every liberal troll to accuse her of being partially responsible for the murder because she put a target sign on a map. And there was nothing wrong with Paul Krugman's Monday column.

The liberal troll tactic seems to be as follows.

1. Make outragous and false allegations.

2. When even the President says the allegations are rediculous, act like you never made them and accuse the people you slandered of playing the victim by defending themselves.

[Independent-minded libertarian]

I don't recall any liberals saying she was responsible for the shooting, ever. So in fact you are blood libeling liberals!

But that's okay, we're independent-minded libertarians, and it's all in good fun when we trash politicians with ridiculous hyperbole.

Except Sarah Palin.

[John]

You don't recall? Is Paul Krugman not a liberal? Is the Daily KOS not a liberal publication?

See step two, pretend like you never made the allegation and accuse those you slandered of playing the victim.

[SugarFree]

Don't be his porn.

[East Bay Jay]

Sometimes you just have to stand back and admire the stupid.

[Lawrence Taylor]

She should have asked the global warming folks for advice on how they registered with the Jews to license the word "denier".

[generic Brand]

Someone forgot to change their joke tag from earlier.

[Jimm S]

Totally off topic - Has anyone seen Nick's new 'stache? While I truly dont mean to be mean spirited, Nick's trademark black leather jacket and fumanchu make him look like the biker from the Village People.

I too have started growing a 'stache. But I think Nicks would be better off with an '80s porno look, than gay biker look.

[Pro Libertate]

He's Trapper John, Gould style.

[Brett L]

Its gone now. According to a fairly awesome post in one of the comment threads last night, The Jacket defeated it in single combat and vanquished it from Nick's body.

[Fatty Bolger]

Come on. Everybody knows that the hate only comes from the right and those nutty but dangerous libertarians. Oh, sure, there is sometimes frustration on the left, but that's perfectly understandable given how they're just trying to do the right thing, but keep being thwarted by lies, illogical thinking, and appeals to emotion. It's hard having an exclusive lock on reality, you know, but it's the duty of progressives to shoulder that burden and keep moving forward, past the hate and the stupidity and the obstruction.

[Pro Libertate]

The Venality-Based Community.

[The Media]

There's the good party and the evil party. Choose whichever you like?

[Tony]

Ah the grievances of those who won't allow anyone else to have grievances.

Jon Stewart has been good on the shooting issue.

Here he is on FOX News trying desperately to find something to criticize about the memorial service.

This post is kind of stupid. The clip is from before the shooting. And Stewart isn't calling for satire and mocking of politicians to be toned down. That's his job, after all.

[creech]

"Death Panels" was a brilliant p.r. stroke by whomever on Palin's staff thought of it. But whatever was Obama talking about early in 2009 when he opined that while he personally would spend any amount of money to keep his grandmother alive, we would have to accept the fact that a conversation would have to ensue about the ability of our system to do that for everyone.
I think libertarians do accept that
someone has to decide when enough spending is enough and that someone is the one paying the bills. Yes, a decision will be a "death panel" whether it will be composed of the ill person's family and physician or Medicare/medicaid officials acting under the responsibility of the voting taxpaying public.

[Fatty Bolger]

Sure, but nobody is freaking out over family "death panels." What creeps people out is the idea of the government deciding who is "worth" saving and who is not.

[East Bay Jay]

Palin's Death Panel work up is wrong for only one reason: it's unavoidable future reality. Doesn't matter who's running the show. But 40 years from now I see these death panel deniers saying 'oh, there really are death panels' as the nurse kicks the plug on the machine keeping him/her alive.

[Fatty Bolger]

Um, no, no more than everybody starving and/or eating Soylent Green was the unavoidable future 40 years ago.

[hmm]

Ya gotta admit, "sit on the felt finger" has a certain ring to it.

[R C Dean]

I think creech is saying that death panels will inevitably arise when government-funded health care hits the wall of fiscal reality. And he's right about that.

The part about unelected, tenured bureaucrats acting under the responsibility of the voting public, I'm not so sure.

[Fatty Bolger]

I think creech is saying that death panels will inevitably arise when government-funded health care hits the wall of fiscal reality.

And wasn't that Palin's point?

[P Brooks]

Maybe Stewart is beginning to see himself as the Court Jester who's one bad joke away from spending his "retirement" chained upside down on a dungeon wall.

Picking on crazy Grandpa McCain is a bid to get back in the ruling class' good graces. Or maybe he's an unfunny hack; like Ron Hart.

[Tulpa]

This comment inspired me to look up the Court Jester article on Wikipedia, which contained this sad brickbat about Merry Old England:

In 2004 English Heritage appointed Nigel Roder ("Kester the Jester") as the State Jester for England, the first since Muckle John 355 years previously. However following an objection by the National Guild of Jesters, English Heritage accepted they were not authorised to grant such a title.

[generic Brand]

You forgot the "e" in Olde. Otherwise, hilarious evidence that shows we are all much better off for having declared our independence.

[Zeb]

Politics is and has always been full of violent metaphors. The word "campaign" itself is about war.

I am actually surprised at the level of stupidity that has come out of this. And I expected a lot of stupid shit.

[ed]

The freak-out is entirely media-driven. They have become both reporter and participant in national affairs, and they have a vested interest in leftist causes. After their spectacular success in the 2008 elections, they've been forced into a defensive position as more and more Americans (most of whom are conservative or at least centrist in their contradictory political and economic beliefs) have turned against the Administration's (and their own) agenda. The media, the Democratic party and all their assorted "strategists" saw the Tucson shootings as a gift that could not go unredeemed, but I think most Americans can see through the lefty media's craven and cynical strategy.

[Skip]

I think its pretty funny how George Bush was portrayed as Gay Hater in Chief while all the lefties shoveled praise on McCain from 2000 to 2007.

[HMDK]

This is all so true.
Mocking someone is the same as calling for their deaths. Thank you, I have seen the light of REASON.
(Too bad that it's a bicycle-light running out of power).