Paul Krugman is correct in his concern about the level of bellicose puffery emanating from right-wing media and I share his concerns. When Fox news sends out a steady stream of commentary across the nation which uses the language of “America under attack“, “the war against Christmas”, and “the need for citizens to take back our nation”, we should not be surprised by anything. But for him to suggest a direct linkage between the use of that speech and either a lack of willingness to address the security threat from white supremacists like James W. von Brunn or actual support for his actions by Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh, is perverse and offensive.
It’s also pretty ironic since Mr. Krugman writes about them (and I no fan of theirs) in precisely the same tones which they write and talk about those they oppose! Not to mention that every night on MSNBC we are treated to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman telling us about the continued danger from “war criminals” like former VP Cheney, and explaining to us how someone from the right is “the worst person in the world”.
Would Mr. Krugman suggest that we are doing a less than stellar job in Iraq or actually pulling for al-Qaeda in Pakistan because of Maddow and Olberman? I think not!
The bottom line is that hate speech exists on both the left and the right, and it serves none of us well. I suppose we should thank Mr. Krugman for demonstrating that with his piece in this morning’s New York Times, but that’s a little more gratitude than I can muster after a week like this. Instead, I suggest we take a page from Jewish mourning practice as the family of Holocaust Museum guard, Stephen Johns, mourns the loss of their heroic son, grandson, and brother.
Nothing is normal for the first seven days after the funeral. No work, no going out, no attending to the business of life. It’s called Shiva and it’s a time to be comforted by friends, family and the community as a whole. It’s not a time for politics.
So perhaps Mr. Krugman and those on the right who are using this tragedy to politic for looser gun laws (“someone would have been able to shoot von Brunn before he ever fired a shot”), among other issues, can back off and let us mourn and reflect before returning to the battle talk and hate speech they all love so much.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted June 12, 2009 at 1:13 pm
You say that hate speech exists on the left and on the right. But no one from the left has shot and killed a state political party leader, innocent bystanders in a church, three police officers simply doing their job, a doctor passing out bulletins in his church, and a security guard at a museum. There is a huge difference between saying nasty things like a bunch of mean school children and inciting violence. Only the right has ratcheted things up to a level that has led their followers to kill, so it is disingenuous to say the levels of hateful rhetoric on both sides are the same.
posted June 12, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I hate to bring this up to you Mr. Hirschfield, but Cheney is a war criminal by many standards. Using torture to get an Iraqi-al Qaeda link that simply didn’t exist is criminal action.
Also, Al Qaeda wouldn’t be 50 miles within nukes if we had put our focus on them rather than engaged in a war of choice.
I’m amazed you glossed over Krugman’s article and missed the fact that Mr. Glen Beck said that Obama was gonna start FEMA concentration camps. If you’re okay with that, then all the right-wing “Glen Becks” are gonna be your cross to carry. As far as I can tell that kinda talk only desensitizes folks to what Jews actually suffered.
Since diversity really isn’t part of the right-wing program, right wing venom can just as easily be spewed on Jews that “don’t accept Christ as their Lord and Savior”.
posted June 12, 2009 at 2:10 pm
If only it was that simple.
Think about the following names:
Tim Macvey, the shooter from the Holacaust Museum, Yigal Amir, Yona Abrushmi.
You guessed it, they all come from the right wing of the map. There is little parrallel coming from the left as far as political violence goes.
Even if NPR is as hateful as Fox news is fact is no listener acted on it.
posted June 12, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I agree with the excellent points in the posts previous to mine.
Hate speech exists on both sides. But hate SPEECH isn’t killing people. Hate ACTIONS are.
The radical right-wing has now become our most deadly domestic terrorists.
posted June 12, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Fair enough. I will take your words to heart and give it a rest.
Thank you for your reasoned approach.
posted June 12, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Hate speech from either side is wrong. It gives a sense of justification to the extemists on bothe sides. When it comes from persons in the news they think they will have popular support and will hailed as heroes.
posted June 12, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I agree hate speech has come from both the left and right.
posted June 12, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow do not spew hate speech! Try watching their programs, Rabbi!
They DO report the facts about the criminality of the Bush regime in lying the U.S. into an illegal, unjustified Iraqi war; violating our laws, the laws of the world, and God’s LAW against torture and inhumane treatment of human beings; killing and maiming and emotionally wounding multi-thousands of American soldiers, killing and wounding a hundred thousand Iraqis. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of the Bush gang should be in prison for the rest of their lives for their crimes of violating the U.S. Constitution and the war crimes!
posted June 13, 2009 at 1:01 am
Most of America is moderate, but we are allowing the far edges of our parties to dictate the direction of the country; therefore, it always seems we are at odds with each other. We have to start condemning and reigning in those in our OWN respective parties for their bad influence and even criminal behavior. As the old song goes, “let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with ME.”
posted June 13, 2009 at 10:40 am
Rabbi Brad:
Have you checked the self-righteous, bullying ‘hate speech’ directed against liberals and Reform Jews by David Klinghoffer?
He has even insulted YOUR halachic competence!
posted June 13, 2009 at 10:52 am
Rabbi Brad: why will you not post my Leo Baeck comment?
posted June 13, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I agree with Rob. The MSNBC reports are hardly hate speech. The
political commentary is more factual, liberal yes, but not hateful.
There is no implicit damming (sometimes not so implicit) of “the Government” as the enemy and nor is there any incendiary language
with more than just a hint of being at “war with the government”.
It seems unjust that the those who were supporters of the previous
administration selectively forget who caused problems for the past
eight years and then project the problems onto the current administration, wishing that those with short memories too, blame
the current administration for all our current problems, The new adminstration has only been funtioning for six months. The claim that the current administration is to blame is ammunition and the tone of the speech on the right is inflamatory, very close to incitement to violence. All those in the media on the right would do well to cut down on such speech before more nuts fall out of the tree ready for a shoot out or worse…
Those on the right in the media are also now becoming together with Dick Cheney an alliance of apologists and are redacting the previous eight years to once again bend the minds of the public. However, the public can only be bent so far.
It is upseting to hear a Rabbi talking this way, because like Rob said
it appears to be obvious that maybe the Rabbi doesn’t really listen
to MSNBC.
posted June 13, 2009 at 2:00 pm
what you say, rabbi, is not true. i watch fox cable, i am a jew and i am not offended by them…not at all. as a matter of fact, i see and hear more suppost for jewish issues and the state of israel from that news service than i EVER do from MSNBC, CNN and the other major news networks. i am moderate and i swing to the right on some issues and to the left on others. i feel there is more “hate-mongering” from the left than from the right. of course, the EXTREME lefties and the EXTREME righties continue to be the most dangerous elements of our society. the EXTREME right is not on fox. anything to the right is considered extreme and demonized by most mainstream media while the leftwing crazies are never demonized. why is that, rabbi?
posted June 13, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Don’t get your news from slanted agencies. The major news agencies are owned by corporations with their own interests and bias’. Get your news from a public station. http://Www.NPR.org. You’re gonna find slanted news anywhere else.
L’shalom
posted June 13, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Fox News and many of the right-wing commentators (i.e. Rush, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, Coulter) are spawning a hateful dialogue as I have not seen in my many years. People who are a little off-kilter are being prompted to push the envelope beyond the normal realm of acceptable conduct, some to the point killing. These killings we are now seeing are from the extreme right wing. Fox News anchor Shephard Smith is seeing the nut cases via email to Fox and he has the sense to state that he is a little more than concerned.
posted June 14, 2009 at 11:42 am
Unfortunately, there is no “unbaised” point of view. For example, if you listen to NPR, you never hear about inconsistencies in “liberal” or “progressive” people. Many, like Al Gore, are good people and fight for the right causes (e.g., the environment and the containnment of global warming), but Gore owns several houses, airplanes, boats, and uses more energy than any other citizen. Others talk about equality in education, yet they send their children to elite public schools.
I drove through the South, and I could understand a little better how those on the right see the world. Their communities are white, church-going Christians who live a (relatively) rural,not urban, life.I can at least understand how they might feel threatened by the changes in the country.
Particularly: (1) gay marriage. Even I can understand the conception that marriage is between and man and a woman. (2) abortion. When you see sonograms of the foetus sucking its thumb, you do begin to wonder about where the line should be drawn.
posted June 14, 2009 at 2:34 pm
are u crazy????????? MSNBC is the MOST hateful, anti american and anti israel networks,ever. that olberman and maddow, just hate and are jealous of the successful fox news, those 2 are vicious!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted June 14, 2009 at 8:37 pm
When your so-called “hate speech on the left” leads to actual murders, get back to me, you wingnut apologist. What Maddow and Olbermann say, as stinging as it may sound to your Republican ears, is nothing remotely like the vile garbage that spews out of O’Reilly, Beck, Savage, Coulter, Hannity and other filthmongers on the right. Political discourse in this country has been so hijacked and perverted by Fox News and other right wing extremists, that it is almost impossible for the left to be heard at all; and when we dare fight back, we’re libeled as being filled with hate. When, really, what we are is angry, and quite righteously so. And if you yourself weren’t such a right wing tool, you’d understand that.
posted June 14, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I am not a Republican nor Democrat. I am affiliated with the party of Reason, the Libertarian Party. As for the abberant views of the R’s and the D’s concerning each other, both are single minded in attitude toward each other. They ascribe radicalism to each other by their outright dismissal of the other’s talking points. I dislike intensely what the Obama administration is doing to the country but do I ascribe evil purpose to their methods of governing? No! I feel that Barrack sinscerely believes that socialism is the correct form of government (this flying in the face of ALL the failed socialistic government examples). There are a multitude of sins in the reasoning of the Left and the Right and recognition of the failed policies is essential to correcting them. Harsh critical blame on either side is non-productive. Only with dialog (effective argumentation rather than dismissive invective) will this country reach a govenment that was described by our forefathers and encoded in the Constitution.
posted January 11, 2011 at 2:52 pm
The left response, like all responses, to the AZ murders is to blame conservatives for the murders. Why because they mostly are controlled by emotion and not logic.
For example… There way to reduce gun violence is to attack the guns an not the criminal. In fact much of the left is sympathetic to the criminal because the right must have “made him do it”. The left primarily thinks emotionally hence the AZ Murders are a direct result of rightwing hate speech.