Shortest

Shorter, Shorterer and Shorterest SUZANNE:  “Look!  Over there!  It’s Evil Media!!“

Today Our Lady of the Zygotes takes issue with the AP story about how murder suspect Scott Roeder is gleefully sending out Army of God tracts, from his jail cell no less, that glorify the lethal deeds of people who did exactly what he’s accused of, killing a doctor.

Not because killing doctors is a scummy thing to do, let alone glorify, much less from a jail cell where one awaits trial for that very crime.

Not because allowing Roeder’s murderous proselytizing through the mail seems to indicate a serious lapse in correctional facility security.

And not because the fact that he was able to do this probably means he had help from someone sympathetic inside said correctional facility, not to mention the terrorists on the outside that he’s apparently still palling around with.

No, Our Lady of Perpetual Fetophilia is exercised over an imagined equivalence between AP reporting the story about Roeder’s vile correspondence, and the actual dissemination of material glorifying and encouraging the killing of doctors by someone who really believes in it.  “This kind of rhetoric supposedly endangers lives but AP publishes it” she grouses, demanding to know why AP isn’t taking some heat for doing their job, which is reporting.  Huh!?

And isn’t this type of language supposed to be potentially fatal. Shouldn’t AP take the heat for spreading Roeder’s message.

Fortunately, most of us can distinguish between reporting the news that someone is willfully inciting others to murder, and the actual act of willfully inciting others to murder.  Look at it this way:  If Zacarias Moussaui was sending out tracts that glorified the 9/11 highjackers and encouraged more of the same from his prison cell, and CNN and Fox News reported on it, would that mean CNN and Fox News endorse Moussaui’s wretched views?  Obviously not.  Would you want to know about it?  I sure would.  Just like I want to know what this whackaloon Roeder is up to.

We’ve already seen a few attempts to draw false equivalences in order to create the illusion that anti-choicers aren’t  any more violent and hateful than pro-choicers, and they’re just getting started.   It promises to be a long hot summer spent debunking all their crackpot theories… but I’ve got a fan at my back and a tall sweaty glass of Long Island Ice Tea at my keyboard — bring it on.