"Shepard, how dare you tell us to get over Obama not being a U.S. citizen. Where is the birth certificate? Where? He won't show it, so why are you so trumped-up to believe it. I cannot stand 'Hussein.' He is a socialist, marxist, who is at fast rate destroying out country."
After, Smith added this:
"If you're one who believes that abortion is murder, at what point do you go out and kill someone who is performing abortions? Well, I think we've just learned from the killer of Dr. Tiller. If you are one who believes these sorts of things about the president of the United States — and I could read a hundred of them like this, I mean from today... They're on web sites feeding each other the same bunch of hate that's not based in fact. ... more and more it seems that people are taking the extra step and getting the gun out."
Kudos to Shep for stating the obvious. But unfortunately, despite his passion, his concerns beg an even more obvious question: What else does he expect since the very news organization he works for is feeding the ignorance that he condemns?
Of course Fox viewers are going to question Smith's insistence that they "get over Obama not being a U.S. citizen" when his more popular co-workers, such as Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, drum into their heads that Obama is "communist" and "socialist," or sit silently by while, for example, Ann Coulter calls Obama a racist and compares him to Hitler.
There's no way to gauge exactly how much responsibility Fox News must take for the hate-filled mail its reporters receive, but no one in his right might would absolve the organization totally. The sad truth is, Fox News studios aren't only infected with ignorance, but the infected are eager to spread it — and not just with false information concerning Obama.
Given the events of the day, Smith focused his concern on angry pro-life and anti-Obama conservatives, but his words could easily be applied to the enraged anti-gay segment of society. I doubt Shep would have to dig far down into his mailbox to find letters from viewers furious over gay marriage, for example.
Whether the people who listened to Smith yesterday are willing to connect the dots as I have is anyone's guess, but the fact remains that hate not based in fact is viral and, like a virus, in order to stop it we all have to minimize our risk of being infected.
Shepard Smith can lead that charge by putting his money where his mouth is. But I won't hold my breath while waiting for him to resign.
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