Toxic Talk

The president in his celebrated speech commemorating those who died in the Arizona shooting, said that their death were not caused by any one's speech. Nevertheless, he did call for more civility in political discourse. It appeared that most news commentators on the left and right agreed with the president. Listening to a Sunday replay of one of the radio commentators, it is obvious that this view is not unanimous.


Left wing commentator and radio talk show host, Bill Press, wrote a book called, Toxic Talk. He says that the purpose of his book is to expose the hate speech of right wing radio talk show hosts. His thesis would have more credibility if he didn't indulge in so much hate speech himself. On his Friday show he launch a non-stop vicious attack against Sarah Palin. He was especially critical of her recent video in which she addressed accusations against her of inciting violence. He said that, coming so soon after the killings that she incited, the fact that she dared to defend herself was disgusting. His diatribe went on and on and I will not repeat it here. His hate speech against Ms. Palin is certainly on various websites and he will certainly continue it in future programs for anyone who is interested.

Before Bill Press' show, Bobbie Kennedy, Jr. had a show in which he renewed the accusations against Sarah Palin and conservative talk shows. Apparently, the left has no intention of listening to President Oboma's call for civility. There was little if any discussion of issues on these two programs, only vilification of the right.

If the left has any interest in improving the tone of debate, they can start by reforming their constant expression of hatred for Sarah Palin. After that, they can open a dialog on the issues they have "deemed" to be settled. These issues, such as health care, global warming, financial reform, etc. were never debated. The only dialog from the left was vilification of anyone who disagreed with them. If they could not ram through their thousand-page laws, they got what they wanted through unconstitutionally broad rule making by the bureaucratic agencies. Certain right wing talk show personalities have been complaining about just that. In fact, they have been crying like stuck pigs. Their vehement denunciation of the methods of the left is, I guess what the left calls hate speech.


Bill Press on his book, (along with comments that say that he's pretty toxic himself) Toxic Talk:

http://www.billpressshow.com/2010/05/25/toxic-talk-how-the-radical-right-has-poisoned-americas-airwaves/

Link to media matters with some Mark Levin and Michael Savage quotes regarding matters that the left finds objectionable, but for the most part refuses to discuss:

http://mediamatters.org/research/201101120041