Tell Murdoch & Ailes: Stop Violent Rhetoric

Tell Murdoch and Ailes: Violent rhetoric on FOX News is dangerous. It’s your responsibility to stop it. They must stop the next tragedy, not invite it. Clicking below will automatically add your name to this petition: The rhetoric of Glenn Beck and others on FOX News has caused real world death threats and assassination attempts. Yet you have not stopped it. You are ultimately responsible for the content on FOX, and your inaction is culpability. America will hold you responsible for any violent consequences that result from the reckless, dangerous rhetoric on FOX News. Please stop the rhetoric before it’s too late.      Dear Friend, In the wake of the tragedy in Arizona, FOX News and the right-wing media have cried foul, turned a blind eye to their record of violent rhetoric, and dug in deeper. In the most outrageous instance, Glenn Beck issued a so-called “anti-violence pledge,” that included death-threat inducing lies about 78-year-old professor and civil rights advocate Frances Fox Piven.1 Since these death threats were posted on Beck’s website — in comments like “we should blow up Piven’s Office” and “I have 5,000 rounds ready” and “…one shot, one kill”2 — Beck hasn’t backed off.3 About the only thing crazier and more irresponsible than Beck’s raving lunacy, is the fact that FOX President Roger Ailes and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch continue to provide Beck a platform to spew it. Are Ailes and Murdoch ready to accept responsibility for the tragedy their network invites every day? They must stop the rhetoric before it’s too late. Let’s make sure they know we’ll hold them responsible if they don’t. Tell Ailes and Murdoch: Stop the violent rhetoric on FOX News before it is too late. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Ailes is the boss at FOX. Murdoch is Ailes’ boss. They set the agenda, permit endless anti-government paranoia and Nazi comparisons, keep Sarah Palin on payroll so she can promote her trademark division and rhetoric, let Glenn Beck go wild. The risk posed by continuing to allow all of this on FOX is not theoretical. The threats to Piven’s life are real and scary. Much more so given that over the last year, Beck’s rantings have fueled three separate assassination attempts — — all thwarted — on Nancy Pelosi, Senator Patty Murray, and officials at the Tides foundation and ACLU.4 Jared Lee Loughner got much, much further. And his actions are a deafening sounding of the alarm bells that insane people exist in this world, and a grave warning against the reckless irresponsibility of intentionally feeding their anger and paranoia with blatantly false statements. But rather than toning it down at FOX, Beck and others have doubled down. Ailes and Murdoch have at least allowed it, and continue to do so. Despite overwhelming evidence that this rhetoric has consequences; despite the fact that over 100 advertisers have pulled their ads from Beck’s show5, which actually loses money for FOX. Do Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch feel no moral responsibility for the content on their network, or its consequences? Do they not see where this can lead? Do they not care? Murdoch and Ailes have more power than anyone else to stop this runaway train, before it crashes. As such, if the violent rhetoric on FOX News leads to tragic consequences, their inaction will be culpability. Tell Ailes and Murdoch: Stop violent rhetoric on FOX News before it is too late. Click here to automatically add your name. Thank you for fighting dangerous rhetoric on FOX. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager  CREDO Action from Working Assets 1. “Glenn Beck’s Dangerous Obsession With Frances Fox Piven,” FAIR, 1-20-11 2. ibid. 3. “Beck Continues To Demonize Piven After Reports Of Beck-Inspired Death Threats Against Her,” Media Matters, 1-25-2011 4. “Beck’s Incendiary Rhetoric Has Motivated Threats, Assassination Attempts,” Media Matters, 1-13-11 5. “So Who’s Still Advertising On Beck? January 25 Edition,” Media Matters, 1-25-2011