Poll: Only 15 Percent Think Tucson Shooting Caused by Heated Political Rhetoric
A new poll just released by Quinnipiac University finds very few Americans agree with the media's view that heated political rhetoric was responsible for Saturday's tragic shootings in Tucson, Arizona.
What should also surprise all of the so-called journalists that have been accusing conservative politicians and pundits for inciting Jared Lee Loughner to commit this heinous act is that people feel liberals are more responsible for this rhetoric than folks on the right (emphasis added throughout):
Saturday's shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in which six people were killed, could not have been prevented, 40 percent of American voters say in a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Another 23 percent blame the mental health system, while 15 percent say it was due to heated political rhetoric and 9 percent attribute the tragedy to lax gun control. [...]
"Americans seem to be rejecting the blame game for the Arizona shooting. By far, the largest number thinks this tragedy could not have been prevented," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Although a bare majority of voters say political rhetoric might drive unstable people to violence, less than one in seven blame it for the Arizona incident.'
All those that have been claiming since the first bullet was fired that Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin, and members of the Tea Party were to blame should be so proud of their reporting.
But there's more:
American voters say 52 - 41 percent that "heated political rhetoric drives unstable people to commit violence," the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Liberals rather than conservatives are more responsible for such rhetoric, voters say 36 - 32 percent.
Add it all up, and not only have Americans soundly rejected the media's dishonest claims that heated political rhetoric caused this tragedy, they also feel liberals are more guilty of this rhetoric than conservatives.
Maybe the folks in the press should be toning down their own vitriol rather than pointing fingers at others.
(H/T Ed Morrissey)
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Comments
the more I learn about politics
Submitted by Hoosier Conservative on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:09pm.
the more it looks like liberals just lie about everything - or they are so crazy they are delusional.
Hoosier, the left makes up
Submitted by Smartypants on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 3:24pm.
Hoosier, the left makes up reality as they go along, whatever fits the agenda. There are no principles to adhere to, and they can't be bothered with consistency. So, you will see them crucify (excuse the term) conservatives for the very same behavior they will excuse from one of their own. Liberal politicians can lie, cheat and steal and still hold public office. If a conservative so much as sneezes the wrong way, (s)he is out of office forever.
In otherwords most real
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:16pm.
In other words most real Americans still feel liberals both lie and suck as much or more now, as before they shamlessly promoted the murdered and mamed victims in Arizona for the past 5 days. Did anyone really need a poll to know the answer? I didn't think so....
Barack_Must_Go.....
To use the lib's logic, the reason only 15% are swallowing the
Submitted by virginia republican on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:16pm.
bovine excrement being spewed is because the lib's aren't doing a good enough job of explaining why heated political rhetoric caused the Tucson tragedy. Of course, that's just a nice way of saying the other 85% are just too damned stupid to understand, especially if they're conservatives. The same reason we don't understand the benefits of ObamaCare.
What scares the hell out of
Submitted by ninerdog on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:17pm.
What scares the hell out of me is these 15% are among us as we speak. Thank god for concealed carry.
I don't think that's too bad.
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:38pm.
After all, with 20% of the population claiming to be "liberal" and a recent study espousing as fact that "19% of Americans have a mental illness", I don't think that 15% of the population believing that is too far off. And, and this is just my opionion, those numbers probably came out of the same group - liberals.
So, we see the smug,
Submitted by bassndude on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:31pm.
So, we see the smug, lecturing media pointing fingers and instructing us on who is to blame, is once again losing the argument.
Not surprising, at all. The majority of Americans are smarter than those in the media. They know where the blame lies. At the feet of the perp. And now, the media is complacent in the crime, by trying to provide the perp an alibi.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal/troll!!
Chickens coming home to roost
Submitted by Blonde on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:36pm.
I really really really (really) hope they keep this up until and so that Obama focuses his SOTU on "uncivility" in politics.
Because by then, it will be a huge national shrug. And Obama, for the fourth time, will have to focus on jobs like a laser.
The media keeps trying to prop up this administration, and it's not working. In fact, its to the point of being counterproductive (hee hee). Even the most naive and politically unaware amongst us can see this concerted media spin for what it is, and they are furious for having been lied to all this time!
More chickens headed in to the coop, too (that the media is trying its best to cover up)....gasoline headed back to $5 a gallon, soaring food prices, an even more dismal foreclosure rate in 2011, and of course, no improvement in the unemployment rate.
Keep on lying, media! The best part about it, is there is no way they can do a one-eighty and all of a sudden start reporting the facts of anything in a neutral way. They've killed themselves (oops, was that too violent? /sarc).
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Projection is the last refuge
Submitted by Ashrak on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:39pm.
Projection is the last refuge for a fool and the court jesters themselves are the only ones believing it or finding it amusing.
These polls will not LEAD the news anywhere except.........
Submitted by Tomorama on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:45pm.
Take a bow NB and all your excellent staff as places like NB, Drudge, Hot air, Fox nation, Michelle Mallkin and Annie's sites EXPOSE this bullshit on a daily basis.
This poll and the other polls along with the November elections PROVE WE ARE WINNING THE DEBATE.
Name one FN thing the media whores and the Dem stooges have gotten right lately and the public was on their sides????
I was over at Big Hollywood
Submitted by Hunter12 on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 1:48pm.
I was over at Big Hollywood and John Nolte has posted an article based on some of the facts coming out about the psycho and it turns out the major influences in his life are all leftist souces:
There is news on this front to report now. Interesting news. According to those who know the suspect, we now know that (my edit ->) Idiot von Moron (must it always be three names?) absolutely loved the punk band Anti-Flag. The Incredible Shrinking L.A. Times informs us, that Anti-Flag is a ”radical leftist punk band whose music focuses on themes of corporate greed, U.S. foreign policy and opposition to war.” We’ve also been told that Moron was “driven over the edge “by a film called “Zeitgeist” – a conspiracy theory documentary that touched on subjects as diverse as 9/11, currency, and religion.
Leftist notions and not conservative themes were what he believed in. Talk about Incovenient Truths. Maybe the MSM will finally shut up and put the blame for his actions on the person pulling the trigger, where it belongs.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill
And you know, THAT'S going to STING!
Submitted by Blonde on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 2:02pm.
Leftist notions and not conservative themes were what he believed in. Talk about Incovenient Truths. Maybe the MSM will finally shut up and put the blame for his actions on the person pulling the trigger, where it belongs.
This is going to be a bitter pill to swallow, after a non-stop week of lies, made up facts, supposition, smears, and putting into words every stray idiot liberal thought that pops into their demented heads, and repeating, ad nauseum, the knee-jerk ideas of the democrat Congresscritters.
What it is going to look like to Joe America (not us political creatures)...is that the media was dead-wrong on the "cause" and the "blame" in Arizona, therefore, since the media also took the side of the democrat critters....that must be wrong, too. Bye bye Fairness Doctrine, Special Laws (as if we need more of those!) for Critters, Thought Police, Further Restrictions of the 2nd Amendment, etc.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)