The Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer broke down the recent media frenzie over Saturday’s violence in Tucson, Ariz. into two points in his column today:
1) “The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the ‘climate of hate’ created by” Glenn Beck and other media figures.
2) “The verdict:” that the media jumped to “unheard of conclusions there were “reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence.”
Jared Loughner‘s motivations are still being looked into. But preliminary findings show that — as Krauthhammer wrote — there is “no evidence that Loughner was impelled to violence by any of those upon whom Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, the New York Times, the Tucson sheriff and other rabid partisans are fixated.”
The New York Times’ op-ed columnist, David Brooks, wrote a similar piece today titled “The Politicized Mind,” which also called out those who tried to make Loughner’s motives political.