# Right-wing media fearmongering taken to its logical end **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 24, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310 "2009-09-24T00:09:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/61 "2009-09-24T15:11:02Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’m not quite sure what the liberals on this board want with respect to the right-wing media. Do you really wish to muzzle them? We want to **shame** them. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/62 "2009-09-24T15:18:56Z")
The FBI has [suspended door-to-door interviews](http://abcnews.go.com/US/census-interviews-suspended-worker-found-hanged-kentucky/story?id=8659585)in the area where Sparkman’s body was found. This is weird. Apparently, he’d been missing for a while, and his body was “decomposed” when it was found. By the way, the linked article says his body was found on Sept. 12. So, apparently he was killed some time before that, if his body was already decomposed by the time they found it. The linked article also raises the suggestion that this could be related to drugs rather than anti-government sentiment. It looks like the guy was without steady work. Maybe (and I stress that this is a WAG) he was trying to earn a few bucks, either by getting into the drug trade himself or by informing on what he saw while taking census. It’s possible that didn’t out well. Do “writing on the body” cases ever turn out to be what they seem? I seem to recall a number of cases where someone turns up, either dead or claiming to have been attacked, with stuff written on their body, and the writing turns out to be some kind of diversion. There was, of course, the “B-carved-on-the-face” lady from the campaign. And, I have a dim memory of a woman some years ago claiming to have been raped and have had racial slurs scrawled on her body, which turned out to be a hoax. Am I off-base thinking that this sounds suspiciously hoaxy? I don’t discount the possibility that this is some dimwitted political attack. But, my BS meter is creeping up. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/63 "2009-09-24T15:26:21Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Am I off-base thinking that this sounds suspiciously hoaxy? (Obviously the guy’s murder isn’t a hoax – I mean that the writing-on-the-body sounds to me like a tactic taken from the hoaxers playbook.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/64 "2009-09-24T15:26:51Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Do “writing on the body” cases ever turn out to be what they seem? I seem to recall a number of cases where someone turns up, either dead or claiming to have been attacked, with stuff written on their body, and the writing turns out to be some kind of diversion. There was, of course, the “B-carved-on-the-face” lady from the campaign. And, I have a dim memory of a woman some years ago claiming to have been raped and have had racial slurs scrawled on her body, which turned out to be a hoax. Am I off-base thinking that this sounds suspiciously hoaxy? Except, of course, that neither Tawana Brawley nor Ashley Todd were actually, y’know, KILLED. I seriously doubt that this guy carved “FED” in his own chest then hung himself. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/65 "2009-09-24T15:33:57Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’m not quite sure what the liberals on this board want with respect to the right-wing media. Do you really wish to muzzle them? If they really are directly inciting people to violence they can be prosecuted under existing laws. Otherwise they’re protected by the First Amendment, and rightly so. You really want to change that? I don’t want to prosecute them, or muzzle them. I want people to know them for what they are. I want decent people to stand up and say enough, and stop listening to them, and to stop buying the products shilled on their shows. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/66 "2009-09-24T15:37:10Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > IOW: much as I usually appreciate your input (that’s serious, not sarcastic), **jsg** , I think most of us know that what we’re doing here is speculating. It’s not really the speculating that bugs me. It’s the fact that every single one of the right wing knuckledraggers on this forum will come to or back to this thread to claim that “SEE! You accuse us of X!” They’ll pull it up even _years_ from now in order to say how biased and kneejerk teh libruls are. Besides, if Beck and Bachmann get accused of too much that turns out to be false, they’ll skate on the real things. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/67 "2009-09-24T15:38:54Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Except, of course, that neither Tawana Brawley nor Ashley Todd were actually, y’know, KILLED. I seriously doubt that this guy carved “FED” in his own chest then hung himself. I couldn’t remember if it was Tawana Brawley I was thinking about or not. Thanks. Anyway, I know that there’s a big difference here because the guy was killed. I doubt that he wrote on his own body and then hung himself. I just mean that I wonder how often real attackers of any kind actually write the reason for the attack on the victim. I don’t know. I just don’t hear about it really happening all that often. Is it more likely that an attacker motived by something else entirely would write on Sparkman’s body as a diversion? ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/68 "2009-09-24T15:55:56Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’m not quite sure what the liberals on this board want with respect to the right-wing media. Do you really wish to muzzle them? Are the militias and gun-extremists getting guns in order to kill “liberals”? No? Then “liberals” aren’t trying to “muzzle” them. > [@](#): > > Liberals are quite free to compete for the attention of the population, there are plenty of liberals with deep pockets. Perhaps if they didn’t show such deep contempt for certain sections of the populace that populace might be inclined to listen a little more. WTF? Who is showing deep contempt for certain sections of the populace in the course of successfully competing for attention? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/69 "2009-09-24T15:58:56Z")
The entire right wing movement is currently based on nothing BUT contempt, fear and hatred for large swaths of the population. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/70 "2009-09-24T16:42:09Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’m not quite sure what the liberals on this board want with respect to the right-wing media. Do you really wish to muzzle them? If they really are directly inciting people to violence they can be prosecuted under existing laws. Otherwise they’re protected by the First Amendment, and rightly so. You really want to change that? > > Nobody forces people to listen to the right-wing media. Liberals are quite free to compete for the attention of the population, there are plenty of liberals with deep pockets. Perhaps if they didn’t show such deep contempt for certain sections of the populace that populace might be inclined to listen a little more. Have you ever seen someone do something that was legal, but you found it offensive or irresponsible? If so, then you’d probably like for them to stop. Would you like to make them stop by passing a law against what they are doing or throwing them into jail? Naw, you’d probably just want to let them know why they are doing wrong, warn others, and make sure the blame lies squarely at their feet should the consequences of their actions spin out of control. Make sense? The first amendment has no place in any argument where nobody is asking for the government to prosecute speech. Most misused argument ever. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/71 "2009-09-24T17:46:03Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I just mean that I wonder how often real attackers of any kind actually write the reason for the attack on the victim. Hanging him is intended to send a message. Writing on him makes the message clear (well clearer, anyway). It is a typical act of terrorism, and terrorists of all stripes frequently issue a statement taking credit for their acts and stating their justification for committing them. By doing this they have succeeded in stopping all census interviewers in the county. If he had been found shot or stabbed, it might be just this one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/72 "2009-09-24T18:43:44Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > On another site, someone suggested that that area is a large pot- and meth-producing region. I haven’t the faintest idea if that is accurate or not. (Plus, that site was Free Republic\*, so I’m more than a tad skeptical). Anybody know if that’s true? I don’t know it for a fact, but I’ve been talking to people from the other end of that state and they would agree: lots of drugs come out of there, it’s a very poor region. > [@](#): > > If so, I could see that – remote area, drug producers, guy asking questions … all adding up to the drug guys issuing a warning to the others. Making it clear the man was killed because he was working for The Man by scrawling Fed across his chest is one of the best ways to get the attention of the FBI I can think of. > [@](#): > > My money is still on “right wing nut”, but not too much money yet. That’s the working hypothesis, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/73 "2009-09-24T18:54:26Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I’m not quite sure what the liberals on this board want with respect to the right-wing media. Do you really wish to muzzle them? If they really are directly inciting people to violence they can be prosecuted under existing laws. Otherwise they’re protected by the First Amendment, and rightly so. You really want to change that? We want them to police themselves, idiot. Telling people that Liberal Policy X will be bad for the economy is one thing. Telling people that Liberal Policy X will lead to FEMA death camp czars coming to perform mandatory abortions on your children and indoctrinate them with alternating readings of _Mein Kampf_ and _The Communist Manifesto_ is another. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/74 "2009-09-24T19:06:31Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > The FBI has [suspended door-to-door interviews](http://abcnews.go.com/US/census-interviews-suspended-worker-found-hanged-kentucky/story?id=8659585)in the area where Sparkman’s body was found. Actually, the article doesn’t say that; it says _the federal government_ has suspended interviews. And [other](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9ATASJ00) [articles](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/eye_opener_census_worker_hange.html) make it clear that the _Census Bureau_ has suspended interviews: > [@](#): > > Census employees were told Sparkman’s truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month. > > Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said. > > Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said. > > The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. While Sparkman grew up outside the area, and it isn’t clear when he moved there, it sounds as if he’d been there long enough to know the territory. It’s hard for me to believe he was confused with the DEA, or the FBI, or the IRS. And after at least 6 years in the area, he surely knew enough to ‘hello the house’ before coming up the driveway, if he was out in the country. So I’m just not seeing this as a case of tripping over a meth lab or pot farm. Could be, but I’d sure bet the other way. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/75 "2009-09-24T19:11:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > We want them to police themselves, idiot. Are you serious? If they’re gaining massive audiences by doing what they’re doing, and they are, why the hell should they ‘police’ themselves to please liberals? The idea is bizarre in the extreme. But I guess hope springs eternal. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/76 "2009-09-24T19:14:35Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Actually, the article doesn’t say that; it says _the federal government_ has suspended interviews. And [other](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9ATASJ00) [articles](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/eye_opener_census_worker_hange.html) make it clear that the _Census Bureau_ has suspended interviews :smack: You’re right, of course. I was thinking “interview” in the sense of law enforcement interview, which was kind of dumb of me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/77 "2009-09-24T19:20:12Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Are you serious? If they’re gaining massive audiences by doing what they’re doing, and they are, why the hell should they ‘police’ themselves to please liberals? The idea is bizarre in the extreme. But I guess hope springs eternal. So, you’re basically just coming right out and saying, as a conservative, that it’s unreasonable to expect conservatives to practice basic decency and honesty? That’s a hell of an admission, **aldi** , but I guess you’re in a better position to know that sort of thing than I am. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/78 "2009-09-24T19:23:44Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > So, you’re basically just coming right out and saying, as a conservative, that it’s unreasonable to expect conservatives to practice basic decency and honesty? > > That’s a hell of an admission, **aldi** , but I guess you’re in a better position to know that sort of thing than I am. That’s pure capitalism for you. Morality and ethics mean nothing, only profit. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/79 "2009-09-24T19:30:22Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Are you serious? If they’re gaining massive audiences by doing what they’re doing, and they are, why the hell should they ‘police’ themselves to please liberals? The idea is bizarre in the extreme. But I guess hope springs eternal. They shouldn’t police themselves to please us, you festering pus-boil on the anus of humanity. They should police themselves because by not doing so, they may very well have incited the death of multiple innocents. And I probably shouldn’t have to be telling you that it’s a good thing that innocent people don’t die, but apparently I do. If you can win the arguments through debate, do it. But by consistently demonizing your opponent into some nefarious “other,” it makes it easy for the steadily increasing nutcase component of your political persuasion to justify going out and FUCKING KILLING them. Which, you know (apparently only since I just told you), isn’t all that great. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310/80 "2009-09-24T19:33:09Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > That’s pure capitalism for you. Morality and ethics mean nothing, only profit. > [@](#): > > There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Lord Voldemort, or **aldiboronti**? Sometimes it’s hard to tell… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/right-wing-media-fearmongering-taken-to-its-logical-end/511310.md?page=5)