Thursday talk radio update
When news of the Fort Hood massacre began breaking while I was delivering papers Thursday afternoon, two thoughts kept running through my mind.
The first was that, bad as the shooting was, the one good thing about it happening on an Army base is that nearly everybody around would have had some training in first aid. I’m not sure why, but this thought went through my head every few moments, all Thursday evening and well into Friday. I guess it was just a way of making myself feel better. Turns out, fortunately, that there also was some truth to it. Reports that began coming out Friday indicated that fatalities might have been higher if not for the good, quick first aid the wounded got. Small blessings.
The second was distracting and therefore also consoling. It was how right-wing talk radio would use the attack to criticize Obama. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Fred Thompson was all over this story. It’s too brainless to deserve a response really.
Filling in for Limbaugh, Mark Steyn seemed to be trying on Friday to make some sort of point about how the MSM refused to face the reality, which was that the shooter was a Muslim. I can’t imagine what he meant by this. Every news report I heard did mention he was Muslim. So then what? The mind boggles.
As usual, NPR kicked butt. As it often is, NPR was a bit slow to hit the ground — I was surprised when I flipped to AM radio how many more details Hannity had in the early afternoon than NPR did — but NPR soon caught up and then left the competition far behind. And since it broke out of the gate a little slower, it had far fewer errors to correct than, say, Fox, where Hannity kept arguing that the fact there were three gunmen showed it was a terrorist plot. I don’t know if he ever corrected the error.
Friday morning, Aaron Flint interviewed Denny Rehberg, who continued to amaze with closely his talking points about health care reform resemble those coming out every day from the national party and from the radio gabbers. Sometimes I wonder if he’s ever actually thought about health care at all.
November 7th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
The first thoughts I had were for family. My sister teaches in one of the schools in Killeen, and her husband, who has completed two tours in Iraq, is based on Ft. Hood. My husband thought of his colleagues with The Nature Conservancy, which has a large project and employees associated with that project located on Ft. Hood. Having ascertained that all we knew were safe, my daughter, who was home all week, sick, turned to me and asked if this, too, was going to be blamed on President Obama.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I heard some of it, the administartion was criticized, rightly so, for instantly going into PC mode, not wanting anybody to know that the psychiatrist-turned-psycho was a muslim.
I was waiting for a bunch of liberals shouting about more gun controls, but I guess they figured out that disarming soldiers would be a tough-sell.
NPR kicked butt? Oh – you’re the one listening to them – wondered who it was – LOL
November 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Hey, congratulations! You made Mark Steyn’s “Reader of the Day” portal. Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame before sinking back into the realm of those of whom it is said, “Never have so many had so much to say to so few.”
November 10th, 2009 at 7:57 am
I am being completely honest about this Anita, but my first thought was that the act was committed by a muslim soldier. Don’t ask me why I thought that, but it just seemed to make sense (and was later proven correct).
As for blaming Obama (or Bush), no. The blame is on the lone nut followed by those around him that did nothing to bring him to the attention of authorities (such as those he worked with or those in his Mosque where he was known to have “radical’ beliefs). Political correctness is slowly destroying the West … very sad.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Well, I have family in Killeen, and a brother-in-law who had just left post before the massacre. Also, I lived near Killeen recently and taught at the local community college in Killeen where so many of my students were soldiers. Of course, I would think of those people first. At no time, however, did I think , “The soldier must have been a Muslim.” And I am definitely not so politically correct as to be able to control my first, unvoiced thoughts! Quite honestly, I was hoping it was no one I knew suffering from PTSD.
Also, I guess I’m not so pessimistic as to believe the West is being destroyed, at least not by ideas. I think people just don’t want to take responsibility for what they observe or fear in others. I’ve had personal experience with people turning a blind eye to the questionable behavior of those they know or love. Wishful thinking goes a long way in supporting denial. That’s nothing new. However, I was under the impression that the shooter HAD been brought to the attention of the authorities before this happened. Maybe I have my facts wrong.
That the soldier was a Muslim who had been radicalized is not surprising, just as it is not surprising that a radicalized Christian might kill a doctor at an abortion clinic or leave a bomb in a crowded area at the Olympics. All heinous acts. All to be decried.