the mainstream media is no longer news worthy, they have an agenda and they don't even try to hide it. People that just watch the three networks are uninformed, just the way they want it.

Nice column, Jeff. The ABC News reaction, was very typical, and it should be a lesson. While those who have a partisan agenda may seek political advantage at any time, a news operation is not supposed to have a political agenda. Obviously, ABC does.

Jeff, I agree. I just hope that, when enough time has passed, you will join the call for limits on the sale of assault rifles to the general public. They really don't give deer (or people) a sporting chance. Stock up on hunting rifles and pistols if you must, but sanity is not served by allowing anyone to own an assault rifle with 100 rounds of ammuntion.

Bravo! At the risk of incuring the words of the immortal bard, "Thou dost protest too loudly", I not only respect my liberal peers, I enjoy their political discourse and the exchange of ideas. This wonderful column is a breath of fresh air in a climate of political hatred that seems to rage between liberals and conservatives. I frequently enjoinder those who disagree to educate me rather than hurl expletives. Unfortunately, all too often the opposite occurs. Speaking personally, I used to be accepted as a moderate politically when I expressed my view that personal liberty included the right to change my mind. I grew up believing that labor was oppressed because my Italian immigrant father labored in sweat shops in Hartford for 50 cents a day for twelve hours. In recent years, I changed my mind. Boeing unions stopped representing oppressed workers when they denied South Carolina workers the right to a decent job in Charleston. I changed my mind again when as a former small business owner with five kids, I heard my president declare my personal courage, sweat, frequent panics and risk taking did not make my business successful. I took that personally. Yet, I did not hurl invectives. Yes, I disagree with todays liberals who were yesterdays moderates.

Hi Jeff! The first mention of politics that I heard in connection with the Colorado massacre was from Greg Gutfeld of "The Five,", a TV show on Fox News that was created to retain the Glen Beck audience. Gutfeld warned viewers that The Media (of which he is a member) would take advantage of this tragedy (which his network and show were covering wall-to-wall) and use it for political reasons (as he was doing right at that moment) and we should Beware! (they're going after our Second Amendment rights!) but that he, Gutfield was not going to join in (too late!) and would just shut up about it. Then his show and network returned to talking about the tragedy. I hadn't thought about politics in connection with the shootings until that moment. Thanks to Fox News, I do now!

Uranidiot

The president did not say that. He said younhad help from someone and you did. Younareanidiot and jacoby is a tool. By all means let's wait.

Jeff, your Sally Ride example works better than the Aurora CO one. As much as those on the right want the conversation about limiting gun rights to simply go away, the issue will never be settled because in this case facts have a liberal bias. There is just no rational reason not to have a federal ban on the assault weapons currently available to twisted individuals like this "Joker". The example begs the discussion and I smell a rat. When an idiot like Limbaugh starts to wring his hands about preserving the sanctity of the victims and not politicizing the situation for cheap gain, I get the feeling he really doesn't care about the victims at all-he just want to close all discussion on the issue. As you're attempting to do here today.

Jeff, I don't see why you equate Brian Ross with your five conservative friends: he was the one who rushed to politicize; the tea party really had to defend itself and deplore being demonized.

I like the respectful tone you take, but with the same respect, I inform you that your President did not say any such thing. || He said the free enterprise system, the roads, the internet, the things that made your business possible, were built by your fellow Americans. He never said your own efforts did not build your business, but he did say that your own success was possible because of what was around you.

Well, the "friends" used a paranoid fantasy about the so-called liberal media as a way to make themselves into victims. If that's not politicizing a tragedy, the phrase has no meaning.

Be honest. Jeff could have written "liberals suck" a thousand times and you would have had the same reaction.

Apparently The Rush To Knock Off A Column prevented Mr. Jacoby from fingering a single, uh, Republican. Does the name Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) ring a bell? And don't forget about the religious right's interpretation of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as God's punishments for liberal values regarding gay rights and civil liberties.

I can agree with everything said here, which is a tribute to JJ's ability to talk so the other side can hear. The one notable exception is the link to "political grandstanding" after Aurora which blasts the left for bringing up gun control. It is not only natural to discuss limiting weapons and ammunition after an incident in which our society appears at the least, irresponsible about their sale. By these standards it is impossible to ever discuss gun control in America, since it seems the shooting spree stories aren't very far apart. The right has gotten away with shutting down discussion on this issue for years.

Thank you for this breath of fresh air. we have many issues that need discussion objective discussion ! this should be required reading for writers and reporters all over America! J E Tonra Stuart Fl

The media's obsession with pinning every violent act on the right is scary and should be called out September 2009: The discovery of hanged census-taker Bill Sparkman in rural Kentucky fueled media speculation that he'd been killed by anti-government Tea Partiers. In fact, he'd killed himself and staged his corpse to look like a homicide so his family could collect on life insurance. * February 2010: Joe Stack flew his small plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. The media immediately suggested that the anti-tax rhetoric of the Tea Party led to the attack. In fact, Stack's suicide note quoted the Communist Manifesto. * That same month, a professor at the University of Alabama, Amy Bishop, shot and killed three colleagues at a faculty meeting. The gun-loving Tea Party came under immediate suspicion. But Bishop was a lifelong Democrat and Obama donor. * March 2010: John Patrick Bedell shot two Pentagon security officers at close range. The media went wild with speculation that a right-wing extremist had reached the end of his rope. Bedell turned out to be a registered Democrat and 9/11 Truther. * May 2010: New York authorities disarmed a massive car bomb in Times Square. Mayor Bloomberg immediately speculated that the bomber was someone upset about the president's new health-care law. The media trumpeted the idea that crazed conservatives had (again, they implied) turned to violence. In fact, the perp was Faisal Shahzad, an Islamic extremist. * August 2010: Amidst the debate over the Ground Zero Mosque, Michael Enright stabbed a Muslim cab driver in the neck. It was immediately dubbed an "anti-Muslim stabbing," with "rising Islamophobia" on the political right to blame. In fact, Enright, a left-leaning art student, had worked with a firm that produced a pro-mosque statement. * September 2010: James Lee, 43, took three hostages at the Discovery Channel's headquarters in Maryland. The media speculation was unstoppable: Lee was surely a "climate-change denier" who'd resorted to violence. Oops: He was an environmentalist who viewed humans as parasites on the Earth. * January 2011: Jared Lee Loughner went on a rampage in Tucson, Ariz. Again the media knew just who to blame: the Tea Party and its extremist rhetoric. In fact, Loughner was mostly apolitical — a conspiracy theorist who, to date, has been judged too mentally incompetent to stand trial. The media's habitual blaming of the political right is endemic and incurable. Media figures sincerely believe the right wing is violent, so naturally assume that violent people must be right-wing. This won't be the last time they make that mistake. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/of_massacres_media_myths_iwxYulFJ9jKcrBTk50kpOL#ixzz21dr612YS

When a Muslim is stabbed amidst a great deal of anti-Muslim hysteria, it does not necessarily follow that the hysteria caused the stabbing. But we would be remiss if we categorically denied the climate of anti-Muslim sentiment surrounding the incident. Likewise, when a Democrat is shot amidst a political climate in which another politician posted her picture in the sights of a gun, should we ignore the possibility that a connection might exist? Is it wrong to even ask the question? Likewise the Joe Stack IRS incident during the Tea Party anti-tax summer of 2010. On the other hand, I never heard any suggestion that the Amy Bishop incident was anything but personal. All shooting sprees are a direct result of people who become unhinged, but it is wrong to assume that a climate of exaggerated and sometimes violent rhetoric is completely irrelevant.

It cannot be said often enough: just because I may disagree with you, it does not mean that I hate you, or think you are stupid, evil or acting in bad faith. I know many thoughtful, intelligent people with whom I disagree on various matters, but I don't "hate" them. My neighbor, of generally liberal political and social views, is very friendly with another neighbor of generally conservative political and social views--and they discuss their views all of the time, without shouting or insults. That is the model for how views can be exchanged. When one is confident in one's own beliefs, really listening to someone else's ideas with an open mind can be an interesting and enlightening experience, and often leads to friendships without weakening anyone's personal ideology.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sarah-palin-had-targeted-gabrielle-giffords-with-gun-sights Sorry. It was her name and district. Relax, my error doesn't make me unhinged.

O luxury! thou cursed by Heaven's decree, How ill exchanged are things like these for thee! How do thy potions, with insidious joy, Diffuse thy pleasures only to destroy! Kingdoms by thee, to sickly greatness grown, Boast of a florid vigour not their own; At every draught more large and large they grow, A bloated mass of rank unwieldly woe; Till, sapped their strength, and every part unsound, Down, down they sink, and spread the ruin round.