To see how public radio talk-show hosts in every college town pick up Bill Moyers talking points off PBS like manna falling from Manhattan, there’s this paragraph that appeared on ProfNet, a radio-booking service for political experts, from a Jim Lynch of WUSB 90.1 in Stony Brook, New York:
I'm seeking interviews with individuals with expertise on the increasing call of hate radio and television programs to "kill liberals" -- from the Kansas killing of a physician performing legal women's health services, to the church killings at liberal UU congregation in Tennessee, to the threats against Michael Moore and others. This is for "Everything is Broken," which airs Tuesdays at 1 p.m. This will be conversational and non-confrontational; no call-ins from listeners. Must be available for 30+ minutes. Contact: Jim Lynch [e-mail.]Notice the taxpayer-subsidized broadcasting modus operandi: we’ll be charging conservatives with killing liberals, but it will be "non-confrontational; no call-ins from listeners." That’s also just like Moyers. How much does the Jim-Lynching of conservatives match the Moyers talking points of Friday night? Let’s count the ways. 1. Conservatives Killing "Women’s Health" Providers.
MOYERS: In demonizing George Tiller, Randall Terry had help from the star of Fox News, Bill O'Reilly. For years, O'Reilly denounced the doctor as someone who would "kill a baby...for no reason whatsoever other than the mother has a pain in her foot." That wasn't true, of course, but 24 times altogether, O'Reilly denounced Tiller as a 'baby killer.'
2. Conservatives Killing Unitarians in Tennessee.
MOYERS: As news spread of Dr. Tiller's assassination, and more details emerged, I thought back to what happened in Knoxville, Tennessee, on July 27, 2008, one year ago this coming Monday.3. Talk of Killing Michael Moore.
GLENN BECK, soundbite used by Moyers:I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him. Is this wrong?As he borrowed this 2005 soundbite from Hillary Incorporated, Moyers left out what Beck said next, which drained some of the "kill liberals" vibe:
I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, "Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore," and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, "Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death." And you know, well, I'm not sure.
Radio hosts shouldn't even joke about killing liberals, since it risks them being compared to serious policy analysts like Alec Baldwin ("I gather up the body of the world’s most notorious terrorist and hurl it over the balcony. Then, in the final stroke of luck, bin Laden lands on Dick Cheney." ).
