NBC: Connecting Right-Wing rhetoric to assasinations since 1963 (footage included)

As most of us have discussed until we're blue in the face, the Left and their stalwarts in the media have trumpeted a supposed "connection" between allegedly vitriolic Right-Wing rhetoric and the assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

But what if I told you that wasn't the first time the media tried to play this card? You'd probably say, "Ok, you're going to go through the media's reaction to the Oklahoma City bombings, aren't you?" I could do so--and it certainly be relevant. However, the meme goes back even further!

The following footage is from the NBC live coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy back in 1963. This particular piece includes a series of "Man on the street" interviews (remember, we didn't have blogs back then!). The interviews start at 2:02 in the clip--but at the 2:38 mark the reporter begins asking two questions that perfectly set up the interviewee to speculate and place blame for the assassination--tasks he is only too happy to undertake:



Notice the first gentleman's answer to the question--he's extremely quick to blame "ultra-conservative groups" that he accuses of "spreading hate".

Does this sound familiar at all?

The reporter doesn't challenge the man's accusations, he just quickly says "of course no one knows if these people are, indeed responsible" (the journalistic version of "covering one's own backside"). But that's not all--after all, the "ultra-conservative groups" (aka. "Goldwater Republicans", a group of people in 1963 who were essentially the "original" Tea Party), were not the only political enemies of JFK--therefore there was more mud to spread around. Next, the reporter goes onto a lady and directly asks her to speculate if Kennedy's racial policies were connected to the assassination. And again, the lady is only too happy to place blame at the feet of the segregationists (not that I'm a fan of segregationists...but of all the things you could accuse them of, I'm pretty sure assassinating a sitting President isn't one of them).

So the pattern of the Leftist media fueling unwarranted speculation upon political enemies after an assassination is certainly nothing new. The only difference was that back then, they disguised it a bit better.

Rather than sticking to the facts during the breaking story (something that the Left would tell you *all* journalists used to do back in the "good ol' days") or perhaps restricting his questions to the feelings of the "man on the street" or specifics about how they heard the news, this reporter chose a line of questioning that did little but attempt to establish a speculative connection to polticial enemies of the Left of that era.