In a thorough takedown of the left and the liberal media over their double standard in selectively assigning blame after mass shootings, the Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly dismantled on Monday night the arguments of abortion activists who have rushed to blame conservatives and the pro-life movement for supposedly causing the deadly shooting Friday at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado.
Using an excellent piece by National Review’s Jim Geraghty as the basis for her opening monologue, the Kelly File host laid out what’s actually known about the shooting before mentioning that “[w]hile police have been careful not to provide information on a possible motive, that has little to stop some from suggesting this has everything to do with political rhetoric from the right” and specifically pro-lifers.
Kelly then brought up Geraghty’s “powerful” post and quoted the crux of the piece going after what he deemed “the selective logic and occasional hypocrisy” by liberals when it comes to acts of violence.
For her first example of the left’s selective outrage, she brought up the anti-police rhetoric over the past year that included protesters chanting police are “[p]igs in a blanket” and should be “fr[ied] like bacon.” Kelly explained how, of course, protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement tried to counter that such chants “did nothing to fuel any of the attacks we saw on cops.”
Kelly then mentioned other cases Geraghty cited, including the left’s blaming of Pamela Geller for ISIS-inspired extremists trying to “shoot up [a] Mohammad cartoon event” she was hosting and blaming conservatives for the shooting of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011.
Nonetheless, the pair highlighted how the tragic Chattanooga shooting four Marines and a sailor in July was largely brushed off and “there was no national debate how people had demonized Tony Perkins and political opponents on the right” following a gunman’s attempt to storm the Family Research Council in 2011.
Concluding with the U.C. Santa Barbara shooting where some liberals reacted by declaring that “misogyny kills,” yawning over the targeting of Christians at Umpqua Community College, and why a gay African-American shot two former co-workers from WDBJ-TV in August, Kelly concluded: “It is enough to make your head spin and as Geraghty concludes, none of us can conclude what causes a crazy person to do crazy, evil things.”
Moments later, Kelly spoke with MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz and asked if he could possibly explain how this case doesn’t serve as “evidence of the bias in some of these reporters who see — who are on the pro-choice side and think any expression of the anti-abortion, the pro-life stance” translates to exclusively violent rhetoric.
Kurtz agreed by first emphasizing that pro-lifers are merely exercising their First Amendment rights and urged the media “to be careful about giving an uncritical megaphone to those who want to make this bogus link” as “[s]ome of the rhetoric from the left has been disturbing.”
Adding that he’s had to directly address “the guilt association types on the right as well as the left” each time there’s a mass shooting, Kurtz pointed out that it’s the left he’s having to call out here: “In this case, the people who are opposed to abortion and want to defund Planned Parenthood cannot be held responsible for the actions of a mad man with a gun.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s The Kelly File on November 30 can be found below.
FNC’s The Kelly File
November 30, 2015
9:00 p.m. Eastern
MEGYN KELLY: Breaking tonight, the man accused of killing three people in an attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado makes his first court appearance as the debate over possible motive and who is really to blame heats up. Welcome to The Kelly File, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. It started on Friday when a crazed gunman opened fire in Colorado Springs, killing a police officer, a mom, and an Iraq war veteran. While police have been careful not to provide information on a possible motive, that has little to stop some from suggesting this has everything to do with political rhetoric from the right as well as that series of anti-abortion videos released this year by a group known as the Center for Medical Progress. This is a theory that has yet to be confirmed. It sparked a powerful piece in the National Review by conservative contributor Jim Geraghty, who specifically points to what he calls “the selective logic and occasional hypocrisy” by some on the left when it comes to violence in America. Case in point, while many argue that Colorado was bound to happen due to criticism of Planned Parenthood, do you remember how some of those same folks reacted to chance like this?
BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS: Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon. Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon. Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.
KELLY: They argued that police describing police as pigs and calling them to be fried like bacon did nothing to fuel any of the attacks we saw on cops. When gunmen tried to shoot up Mohammad cartoon event, the one staged by Pamela Geller, Geraghty points out that many liberals suggested it was Geller's fault, that she triggered the attack. Is anyone saying that here? And at the same time, investigators contend we may never know what motivated a known, quote “home grown violent extremist” to kill four Marines and a sailor last July, but the man that shot Gabby Giffords and six others in 2011, while he clearly had used similar to right-wing extremists or so the theory goes. Geraghty goes on to point out that, when a young man was at the conservative Family Research Council, there was no national debate how people had demonized Tony Perkins and political opponents on the right, but when a young man who had a history of therapy went on a killing spree near U.C. Santa Barbara, some on the left were out there arguing that quote, “misogyny kills” and there’s little reason to talk about the gunman, apparently, who specifically targeted Christians on an Oregon campus this year? And how about when a self avowed white supremacist committed mass murder at a church in journalists declared white people are to blame. Some of them did. Meanwhile, the African gay man who killed his white co-workers on live television was described as a grievance monger. It is enough to make your head spin and as Geraghty concludes, none of us can conclude what causes a crazy person to do crazy, evil things.
(....)
KELLY: Howie, this is — you tell me, but is this not evidence of the bias in some of these reporters who see — who are on the pro-choice side and think any expression of the anti-abortion, the pro-life stance, is a rhetoric? If you used the term baby killers, which the pro-life people believe abortion is, that's the hateful rhetoric they want to shut down. That's the hateful rhetoric they want to pin this crime on.
HOWARD KURTZ: Yeah, it's also called free speech. Look, I think the media need to be careful about giving an uncritical megaphone to those who want to make this bogus link. Some of the rhetoric from the left has been disturbing. The executive vice president of Planned Parenthood saying “the Republican politicians are now claiming this tragedy had nothing to do with the hostile environment they helped create.” After every mass shooting, I say this to the guilt association types on the right as well as the left, depending on the situation. In this case, the people who are opposed to abortion and want to defund Planned Parenthood cannot be held responsible for the actions of a mad man with a gun.
