April, 08 2010, 11:28am EDT
Pelosi Death Threats Linked to Fox News
Media Matters' Burns: There are "real consequences" to network's history of violent rhetoric
WASHINGTON
Today, after the mother of
Gregory
Giusti -- the man arrested for allegedly threatening Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's life over health care reform -- stated that Fox News was a
factor in her son's alleged actions, Media
Matters for America released the following statement:
"The violent language and scare
tactics we see on Fox News every day have real consequences," said
Eric
Burns, President of Media Matters.
"This is a network that ran a 14-month
campaign against health care reform,
which left their viewers confused and angry. The question is, now
that one of those viewers has allegedly threatened Speaker Pelosi's life
over health care reform, is Fox News going to do anything about it?"
BACKGROUND
On April 7, the
Los Angeles Timesreported
that "[s]everal
federal officials say the man [Giusti]
made dozens of calls to Pelosi's homes in California and
Washington, D.C., and to her husband's business office. The suspect
allegedly
recited her home address and said that if she wanted to see it again,
she
should not support the healthcare overhaul bill that was recently
signed."
The same day, Giusti's
mother, Eleanor Giusti, made the following comments to ABC's San
Francisco affiliate,
KGO-TV:
ELEANOR GIUSTI: Greg has -- frequently gets in with
a
group of people that have really radical ideas and that are not
consistent with
myself or the rest of the family and -- which gets him into problems.
And
apparently I would say this must be another one that somehow he's gotten
onto
either by -- I'd say Fox News or all of those that are really radical,
and he
-- that's where he comes from.
As Media Matters has
noted, Fox News hosts and guests have repeatedly
used
violent rhetoric and apocalyptic language to describe health care reform
and other issues. Additionally,
a number of network personalities have a history of issuing
inflammatory
remarks about Pelosi.
Most notably, Glenn Beck discussed "put[ting] poison" in Pelosi's wine:
INFLAMMATORY REMARKS
ABOUT PELOSI
- Beck
talks about "put[ting] poison" in Pelosi's wine.
Glenn Beck stated:
BECK: So, Speaker Pelosi, I just wanted to -- you
gonna drink your wine? Are you blind? Do those eyes not work? There you
-- I
want you to drink it now. Drink it. Drink it. Drink it.I really just wanted to thank you for having me
over
here to wine country. You know, to be invited, I thought I had to be a
major
Democratic donor or a longtime friend of yours, which I'm not.By the way, I put poison in your -- no, I -- I look
forward to all the policy discussions that we're supposed to have -- you
know,
on health care, energy reform, and the economy. [Glenn Beck, 8/6/09]
- Cal
Thomas: Pelosi's "deliberately provocative" walk across Capitol
was like "the march through Skokie,
Illinois, by the
Nazis." Columnist Cal Thomas said, "When Nancy
Pelosi went through those tea partiers, it was like -- what should
we
analogize this to? -- the march through Skokie, Illinois,
by the Nazis. It was deliberately provocative. They wanted a
reaction." [Fox News Watch,
3/27/10]
- Fox & Friends re-enacts
pro-life
heckler who told Pelosi to "burn in hell." Co-host Steve
Doocy played a heckler who shouted, "Nancy Pelosi, you'll burn in
hell!" during a Pelosi speech while co-host Alisyn Camerota
imitated
Pelosi. After they re-enacted the events, co-host Peter Johnson Jr.
laughed. [Fox & Friends,
10/30/09]
- Beck
asks if Pelosi was "inciting" tea partiers with House gavel --
"a big hammer." Beck asked, "If [Pelosi]
was really worried about violence and she thought these people were
violent, why would you grab a big hammer and walk into a sea of
these
people?" He later asked, "Did anyone say to Nancy Pelosi,
'You're inciting these people. You're slapping them across the
face'?"
[Glenn Beck, 3/25/10]
- O'Reilly
says Pelosi is pushing "Fidel Castro stuff." Bill
O'Reilly stated that "Nancy Pelosi and her far-left crew want to
raise
the top tax rate to 45 percent. That's not capitalism, that's Fidel
Castro
stuff, confiscating wages that people honestly earn. [The
O'Reilly Factor, 11/4/2009]
- Beck
lists Pelosi among California's
"really dangerous people" that include communists,
eco-terrorists,
Black Panthers. Beck stated that "California has become
quite a hotbed
for all kinds of radicals -- communists, socialists, all in the
1960s, but
they were here before -- progressives. Now, eco-terrorists, they're
here.
You have the Panthers formed here. Nancy Pelosi is here. A lot of
really
dangerous people in a state as volatile as this one, and it is on
the
edge." [Glenn Beck, 2/9/10]
- O'Reilly
hosts tea party activist who says it "would have been more symbolic
had [Pelosi] had a whip." On The O'Reilly Factor,
tea party
activist Kevin Jackson characterized the walk to the Capitol by
Pelosi and
other members of Congress on the day the House voted for health
care
reform as "this very wealthy white lady leading a group of black,
you
know, men up to the thing with her gavel in her hand. It would have
been
more symbolic had she had a whip." [The
O'Reilly Factor, 3/31/10]
- Miller:
Pelosi has a "sub-reptilian intellect." On The
O'Reilly Factor, radio host
Dennis Miller claimed that voters "did not want to turn $1.2
million
over to a sub-reptilian intellect like Nancy Pelosi." After
O'Reilly
compared Pelosi's comments following the November 2009 elections to
"George Custer at the Little Big Horn, before the arrow went
through
his throat," Miller added, "This woman could lose a game of
Tic-Tac-Toe to an amoeba, for God's sakes. It will show you the
holes in
the system we have that this is the most powerful woman in the
United States of America.
Look at her -- she's sub-reptilian. ... Empty, vapid, nobody's
home."
[The O'Reilly Factor, 11/4/09]
- Miller:
"If you go in with her and the long knives ... you better be ready
to
play hard." Dennis Miller said of Pelosi:
"There's blood in the water on her, and I hope they bring in
Cousteau's kid to document it because this is going to be a
beautiful
demise. ... It's going to get ugly, and if you go in with her and
the long
knives, I would warn you -- and you're not a plastic surgeon, you
better
be ready to play hard, because you will get the speaker's gavel
from her
when you pry it from her cold, dead hand, as they say in the
trade."
[The O'Reilly Factor, 5/19/09]
- Doocy
thought O'Reilly asking if Pelosi is a "kook" was a "great
question." On Fox
& Friends, Doocy played a clip of O'Reilly asking Sarah
Palin, "Do you think that [Pelosi's] a kook? ... Do you think she's
actually crazy?" Doocy added, "What a great question: 'Is she a
kook?' " [Fox & Friends,
1/13/10]
VIOLENT, APOCALYPIC
RHETORIC
- Palin: "Don't Retreat, Instead -
RELOAD!" Palin
posted
a list of House Democrats who voted for health care reform with
crosshairs
aimed at their locations. In a March 23 tweet about her map, Palin wrote:
" 'Don't Retreat, Instead -- RELOAD!' " Palin's list was
criticized by conservative Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who introduced and
endorsed Palin during the 2008 campaign, as helping
foster
a climate of violent rhetoric. Hasselbeck added that the list is
"purely despicable" and "insane."
- Beck: "Grab a
torch." Asserting that politicians are
addicted to spending, Beck stated: "When do we ever run those who
are
bankrupting our country and literally stealing our children's
future out
of town? Grab a torch." [Glenn
Beck, 1/6/10]
- Huckabee: Members of
Congress "should be tarred and feathered as the original tea
partiers
would have done." As RightWingWatch.org
noted, Fox News host Mike Huckabee said
of members of Congress in January:
HUCKABEE: Every member of Congress knows in his gut
what's in the people's interest and what's in K Street's interest. If
you think your
real boss is some smug guy in a corner office with his Gucci loafers up
on a
mahogany deck and not the folks back home, those folks who voted for
you, who
gave you 25 or 50 hard-earned bucks, who put up yard signs and made
calls for
you, you deserve to lose. Shame on you, you shouldn't just be fired, you
should
be tarred and feathered as the original tea partiers would have done.
That's my
view and I welcome yours. [Fox News' Huckabee,
1/25/10]
- Stossel said he has
"Barney Frank in effigy" hanging above his sofa. Ina February 3 interview with New York magazine,
when Fox Business host John Stossel was asked, "What's hanging
above
your sofa?" he responded: "Barney Frank in effigy." [New
York, 2/3/10]
- Morris: "Those
crazies in Montana
who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going
to take
over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case."
During a long conspiracy theory about a "super-national
authority" that will oversee U.S. financial institutions, Fox News
contributor Dick Morris asserted that because President Obama's
policies
are "internationalist ... [t]hose crazies in Montana who say,
'We're
going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' --
well,
they're beginning to have a case." [Fox News' Your World
with Neil Cavuto, 3/31/09]
- Beck portrays Obama,
Democrats as vampires, suggests "driv[ing] a stake through the
heart
of the bloodsuckers." Beck aired a graphic
portraying Obama and Democrats as vampires and said, "The
government
is full of vampires, and they are trying to suck the lifeblood out
of the
economy." Beck then suggested "driv[ing] a stake through the
heart of the bloodsuckers." [Glenn
Beck, 3/30/09]
- Beck: "To the
day I die, I am going to be a progressive hunter."
Telling his listeners that they "are going to learn so much on
Friday," Beck compared himself to "Israeli Nazi hunters"
and commented, "I'm going to find these big progressives and, to
the
day I die, I'm going to be a progressive hunter." He added:
BECK: I'm going to find these people that have done
this to our -- you know, to our country, and expose them. I don't care
where --
I don't care if they're in nursing homes. I'm going to expose what they
have
done and make sure that the people understand, because our Constitution,
our
republic -- if it survives -- it will only survive because the people
are
waking up and through the grace of God, because we are that close to
losing our
republic. [Premiere Radio Networks' The
Glenn Beck Program, 1/20/10]
- Beck:
"This is the end of prosperity in America
forever ... the end of America
as you know it." Telling his audience, "You
must not allow this to pass," Beck stated in November 2009 that
"they're going to get passed that 60-vote barrier. And they'll get
there by people like [Sen.] Joe Lieberman, who's a reasonable guy
and has
good intent. You'll get passed it by people like that, who say, you
know
what? Look, we got to be reasonable; we have to have a debate. And
then
Harry Reid will go for the 51 count and he'll pass this thing. And
it will
be a nail in the coffin of America."
Beck added: "You must -- must get on the phone in your districts.
You
must wake everybody up you know. This is the end of prosperity in
America
forever if this bill passes. This is the end of America as you know
it."
[Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn
Beck Program, 11/19/09]
- Beck:
"[T]he fundamental transformation of America is complete."
Beck also said: "Not only are they doing health care, but they are
doing education in this same bill. Education and health care." He
added: "It is overwhelming the system. And I'm telling you, if this
bill passes -- health care and education all in one bill -- if this
passes, the fundamental transformation of America is complete.
There's
no going back from this point. It must not pass." [The Glenn
Beck Program, 3/15/10]
- Beck:
"If you can be deemed someone who maybe shouldn't have a baby, they
can have their people come in." Beck said on his
Fox News show: "You know and I know in this 2,300-page bill that
includes education, the control that this government has is
endless. They
will -- if this passes, they will control every aspect of your
life."
Beck further said: "They will be able to -- there is places in here
that if you can be deemed someone who maybe shouldn't have a baby,
they
can have their people come in. The government is in our homes on
this." [Glenn Beck, 3/16/10]
- Beck:
We lose "the Democratic Party to the socialists."
On his March 19 Fox News program, Beck stated: "If this passes, I
think it makes the election of people like Lindsey Graham, who are
the
compromise with big government, darn near impossible, because you
can't
tone this one down. You've got to pull this back by strong
constitutionalists. Don't we -- if this passes, don't we lose,
really, the
Democratic Party to the socialists? And the Republican Party either
has to
be, you know, real federalists, real people that understand
controlled
power, or you are going to have a third party?" [Glenn Beck,
3/19/10]
- Moore:
"This is a dark day for America if we pass this
bill." Discussing the market reaction to passing the
health bill, The Wall Street Journal's
Stephen Moore said on Fox News: "I think personally -- I think that
the markets have always thought for the last year and a half that
eventually this day would come. And I think, by the way, this is a
dark
day for America
if we pass this bill." [America's News HQ, 3/21/10]
- Cal
Thomas claimed health reform "is an outrage" and "a
sham"; "[e]uthanasia is coming." On Fox
News' America's News HQ,
Thomas said the health bill is "a triumph of the humanistic,
atheistic philosophy. Instead of being endowed by our creator with
certain
inalienable rights, those rights are going to be taken away by
bureaucrats
who will decide whether you get a hip replacement or a heart
bypass, based
on your age and your ability to pay more taxes." He continued:
THOMAS: It
is an outrage. It is a sham. Euthanasia is coming. You can call them
death
panels. That's exactly what they're going to be. We are going to really
be sorry
for this, but, unfortunately, when the guy in the white robe comes to
give us
our little pill, as President Obama told ABC, the 100-year-old woman who
wants
to live must get in order to make it equal for everybody and not to
spend so
much, it will be too late. [America's News HQ, 11/21/09]
- Hannity:
"If we get nationalized health care, it's over; this is
socialism." In November 2009, Sean Hannity said, "When you
look at
the extreme czars, and you look at Barack Obama, and you look at
the
Barack Obama that portrayed himself one year ago as a very
different
candidate, you know, why -- I feel like I have been vindicated. I
was
excoriated for saying he is far more radical than people know. You
know,
what do you see about him? Do you think he is far -- do you think
he's a
socialist? Do you think he's -- because I think this is -- if we
get
nationalized health care, it's over. This is socialism, and that's a
kind
word." [Fox News' Hannity,
11/2/09]
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
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