Just when I thought MSNBC couldn't get any worse or sink any lower.... they do.
The latest bit of ridiculousness comes when host Alex Wagner and guests basically blame Infowars' Alex Jones for being responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings and accuse him of being racist.
“Alex Jones may sound crazy, but he has 300 million people that have watched him on YouTube,” said Wagner, characterizing Jones as “deeply racist,” despite the fact that Jones has preached a message of peaceful, non-violent inclusiveness for the best part of two decades.
“These folks are getting paid to be racist,” remarked former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, as MSNBC showed a screenshot of Infowars.com. Steele went on to claim that only a “small percentage” of people read Infowars despite the fact that it gets more web traffic than MSNBC.com.Wagner wasn't done though, no... he then insinuated that terrorist activities are caused by a distrust of the government and people like Alex Jones, who point out why the government shouldn't be trusted, as well as highlighting the consistent lies the administration continues to tell, are responsible for terrorist attacks.
Convoluted and defamatory, to say the least.
Alex Jones issued a statement via his website:
“No one should feel safe in this climate. The establishment media can put out whatever lie they want and the Republican Party, represented on Wagner’s show by Michael Steele, will just agree with it because it shows the establishment itself is threatened by the awakening that is happening. They’ve identified Infowars.com and the journalistic system we’re building as a major threat. That’s what the MSNBC segment is, a premeditated attack. So anyone who supports freedom of the press needs to get behind Infowars.com and all the other alternative media that is under attack, like investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald and whistleblower Edward Snowden, and so many others. This is exactly how countries fall to authoritarianism, because if they can intimidate us, shut us down and defame us, they can defame anybody. If you care about freedom, remember this quote from German pastor Martin Niemöller, who resisted the Nazis:
First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Catholic.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
This meets the precise definition of willful, conscious defamation with malice of forethought with intent to do harm. I have sued people before for defamation successfully. I don’t like to do this, but clearly, if I don’t respond to this they will make up even more outrageous stuff… will I be a child molester tomorrow? Will they say I’m the bomber? They’re already saying I made people bomb stuff and I’m deeply racist without showing a shred of proof. This is outrageous authoritarianism. So, I am putting them on notice. I want massive retractions right now. This is your tort warning. You are now on notice. Do you guys think you’re invincible because you have the White House behind you? Richard Nixon thought he was invincible, too. The American people are going to stand up against this intimidation against the press.”
Cross posted to Before it's News