It's not the crime, it's the nature of the crime. Trump has said the media are the enemy of the American people. This guy is a Trump disciple and a day before the election he physically attacks a reporter who is asking about a health care plan designed to kick tens of millions of people off health insurance. It's part of a trend in Republican politics that is dangerous for the country as a whole. Liberals have every bit the right to question Republican candidates and any journalist from a legitimate newspaper and not some nutty conspiracy website certainly has that right whether wingnuts wants to characterize them as liberal or not. A free press is a cornerstone to our Democracy that Trump is actively looking to quash.
He didn't say the media are the enemy of the American people and you saying he did is an outright lie. Repeating a lie over and over again doesn't make it true no matter how much some people would like it to. He said "The FAKE NEWS media is the enemy of the American People" and he has repeated that statement both on Twitter and in speeches many times, always with the FAKE NEWS caveat. Trump has never said "the media is the enemy of the American People". Accuracy matters.
Yet you were pushing the Seth Rich conspiracy BS in another thread. It seems accuracy only matters when its convenient.
LOL Accuracy matters. Trump thinks any news that is unfavorable is FAKE NEWS and that's why he listed the five, arguably, largest non-shill networks and papers in existence in this country. You're a riot. The New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN are all FAKE NEWS. Yep. Good call Aces, thanks for the stellar correction, it changes much. So where is the "real news"? Faux News, Breitbart, InforWars. You're hilarious. All news is fake news unless it comes from a conservative, conspiracy theory site. That's great. It's even more funny when the FAKE NEWS media reports a story, the White House and you nuts say it's not true, and then Trump confirms it's true. Then you all conveniently forget that you all called it fake and move right on to saying it doesn't matter. Like, what?
That's fine. I think you're making entirely too much of it. This bodyslam, imo, is not part of a grand conspiracy to suppress the fourth estate. He's just a hothead who was tired and frustrated and lashed out at a source of annoyance.
Keep in mind the voters of Montana didn't have a much better choice in Rob Quist...the democratic candidate. All this crying over how bad Gianforte is in one bad moment without taking into account what a scumbag Quist has been over the course of decades reeks of hypocrisy. http://billingsgazette.com/news/gov...cle_a660f016-9229-5e3c-9114-f831a0ba012f.html http://billingsgazette.com/news/gov...cle_7eed1b5a-6937-54e2-b06b-442d6bb6a9a9.html
Wait, did Quist duck releasing his tax returns? As far as anyone knows, Trump also has tax law issues too... after all, why would he be audited all this time?
Using "grand conspiracy" as some discrediting device is pretty lame actually. It's not a conspiracy in a secretive sense but it's most certainly a grand design and Republican voters are not only supporting it but actively encouraging it. If it were merely a hotheaded response to a reporter there wouldn't have been the campaign's lie afterwards and the liberal reporter accusation. Your response is boiling frog worthy. Quite fitting that an a-hole scumbag like Abbott would joke about shooting reporters after this incident.
Would be interesting to see the conservative response if the reporter had shot and killed Gianforte in self defense.
Of course it's horrible. And I'm glad I got that reaction out of you. You should think it's one of the worst posts you ever read. And that goes for Sweet Lou, etc. I'm glad it got a visceral reaction. That's why I wrote it, and I'm not changing it. And if someone quotes this on me in the future, I'll gladly explain the context in which I wrote it. Now, what you should do is think long and hard about why I wrote that. Because when you accept what this politician did, that is exactly what you are doing. You are disregarding human decency in the name of politics. Just like I pretended to do. The difference between myself and you is that I actually believe what this person did was horrible. You don't. Republican or Democrat has nothing to do with it. And that's what has declined over the past 1.5 years. Families refusing to talk to each other. Friends unfriending each other. Violent skirmishes. Heck, CNN's main story right now is about the growing number of incidents of people spewing racial hatred. It's gotten to the point where we can't agree that an obvious assault on a human being (2 eyewitnesses and a recording), based on a verbal provocation, has no justification. And, very sadly, BigTexxx, you seem to accept that. The only thing I am sorry about is that politics lets people get to the point where political ideology trumps human decency. I'd rather cease ever discussing politics again if I truly get to that stage. This politician should never be allowed to hold a public office. And that goes for any Democrat guilty of a similar transgression.
No, Democrats are not losing it. People refuse to accept what this person did - whereas you do. Just answer me this: do you think he was justified?
Absolutely not. I'd rather people criticize me and ridicule me. Anyone doesn't like it, they can gladly block me. I'd rather have every single poster block me than remove that post. Enough is enough.
Anything short of a full apology is completely inappropriate at this point. Instead you chose to continue your pathetic attacks. I'm sorry to say this, but I think you need to consider counseling or some other kind of psychological help. You're not in a good state of mind. I'm really trying to help you.
I don't think you quite get my point. After the incident, some on the rights said he / aka 'the liberal press' deserved it, and they were happy that the incident happen. I also heard reports that there was a surge of contributions to the GOP candidate after the incident. It's pretty clear that the altitude toward the press went from they are 'bias' to they are the enemy. Trump use that exact word - the press is your enemy. You know what people do when they view other as enemy? I don't recall this type of altitude toward the press in recent times. It is new to the Trump era and it will fester and grow when sane folks think it's always been like this. As to your other point - that's is already the case. There is a clear double standard. Negative attacks has been the norm, but it work much better against the left than the right. Negative attacks will not deteriorate votes from the right base as much as it would from the left base. Simply put - the right has an extremely loyal base that has now and will continue to excuse away their candidate's negative factors. And if the negatives are from news - you got it - it's fake if it's negative toward GOP but it's absolutely true otherwise. I can see the forward going strategy from the GOP is attack attack attack because eventually, the outcome is - yea, my candidate is not what i want, but the other is horrible. It's so far a SHORT TERM winning strategy. Heck, I don't think Jesus with a "D" label can even come out as acceptable to these folks on the right. But, I still believe in the long run, the GOP party as is today is done.
Well, while some of y'all hug it out, I think one editorial board, at least, finally has an appropriate response. "If any of our journalists have ever made Mr. Gianforte feel threatened in any way at all, whether by holding a recorder too close to his face, writing a story that did not paint him in a positive light, or disrespectfully seeking clarification on a point he or his party might have made, we encourage him to use his fists, knees, elbows, or a blunt object of his choice to make it known through repeated physical blows how we have upset him. To demonstrate our publication’s commitment to the solemn mission of maintaining the press’s proper subservience to the privileged and powerful, we invite—indeed, we encourage—Mr. Gianforte... upon entering our offices, he will promptly be directed to the rows of desks where our editorial staff produce their reportage so that he may assault each and every one of us for as long as he deems necessary."
