Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:40 pm
There is a twisted notion among conservatives, primarily of the evangelical and teabagger sect, that it is perfectly acceptable to inspire, offer to pay, encourage and incite other people to commit acts of violence and terror against innocent Americans. However, according to the legal definition of criminal solicitation;
“a person is guilty of solicitation to commit a crime if, with the purpose of promoting or facilitating its commission, they command, encourage or request another person to engage in specific conduct which would constitute such crime or an attempt to commit such crime or which would establish his complicity in its commission or attempted commission. It is immaterial that the actor fails to communicate with the person he solicits to commit a crime if his conduct was designed to effect such a communication.”
Now, under that definition, it is beyond refute that the Republicans and conservative media calling on other Americans to take action to correct some perceived wrong, like being Hispanic, Middle Eastern, belonging to the wrong religion or providing a legal medical service, are guilty of “criminal solicitation.” It is irrelevant that there are not more attacks on conservatives’ and evangelicals’ intended targets because the law is clear; it is a crime to promote, encourage, or incite another person to commit a crime such as murder, arson, or other act of domestic terrorism; even if there is no criminal activity.
After years and years of Fox News’ personalities inspiring violence against women’s reproductive health professionals, and possibly the recent deadly terror attack on a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, a Fox News commenter in Washington state was finally arrested for “posting terrorist threats.” It is a good start, but until federal law enforcement immediately begins arresting Fox News executives and on-air personalities, it is woefully insufficient and is not addressing the real source of the problem; Fox News. The man under arrest, Scott Anthony Orton, has been posting terrorist threats and calls for murder aimed at StemExpress, an organization formerly associated with Planned Parenthood.
The man predictably chose a “pro-confederate Civil War outlaw” name to solicit murder on the Fox News’ website, Fox Nation. Like most hate-inspired evangelicals calling for the execution of medical professionals, Orton’s solicitations were apparently sincere and blatantly hostile. Besides appealing to like-minded Fox viewers to join his domestic terror crusade, he telegraphed his own intent to commit pre-meditated murder of innocent Americans. Regardless if the man is an American evangelical or not, his actions, like those of Fox News’ presenters and Donald Trump, are exactly the same as those of the dreaded Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or IS).
As noted by several other news outlets, Fox News’ pundits have no small amount of innocent Americans’ blood on their hands including dirty liar and bloviate Bill O’Reilly who repeatedly referred to Dr. George Tiller as “Tiller the baby killer.” O’Reilly preached that the doctor was a murderer right up to the time that Dr. Tiller was murdered in church by “an enraged anti-abortion activist.” A murderous evangelical who claimed, like the Colorado Springs domestic terrorist, that he was preventing health professionals from killing babies. Forget that the evangelicals’ own god said a fetus is not a living being, Fox News evangelicals say abortion providers are killing “air-breathing living beings” and innocent Americans are murdered because of their filthy lies and incitement to terror attacks.
It is not just healthcare providers being targeted by Fox viewers, one man who firebombed a mosque justified his terrorist act by saying, “I only know what I hear on Fox News.” In another terror plot foiled in upstate New York, an ordained Christian National Church minister explained that he heard a Fox News analyst say an “entire Muslim community was training to launch domestic terror attacks on innocent Americans.” The Christian preacher pleaded guilty to plotting to massacre the entire Muslim community based on what he heard on Fox News; the organization guilty of criminal solicitation of domestic terror attacks.
According to reports from 2010, Glenn Beck is responsible for inciting three violent criminals to commit acts of terror including assassinating the President of the United States. While the criminals pleaded guilty to a bevy of weapons and explosive charges, Glenn Beck and Fox News were left unmolested when they should have been arrested, charged with criminal solicitation for domestic terrorism and sent to Guantanamo Bay for ‘rendition’ like any other enemy combatant or terror suspect. Sadly, like Beck, O’Reilly, or Trump, the Fox News commenter will not spend one day in Guantanamo Bay being ‘renditioned’ for inciting terror attacks on American soil or solicitation of murder.
There is a list of the calls to commit various acts of terror, and murder, against StemExpress and government officials here; this column cannot justify repeating the “murder for hire” adverts seen on the Fox Nation website, including offers to pay whichever terrorist kills innocent Americans. Suffice it to say, the calls for terror are brutal and it leads one to wonder why law enforcement has not taken a more pro-active and very provocative position of intolerance of any criminal solicitation; whether it is by Fox’s audience or the network’s on-air employees. Law enforcement is quick to pursue any suspected Muslim incitement to commit terror, but that is likely because it is precisely what Fox News demands the justice system’s job entails.
One would like to imagine that with yet another Fox devotee garnering law enforcement’s attention, the network will dial back its terror crusade. But after over a decade of incitement to terrorism and violence, even if Fox went out of business today, the damage is done. At least one terrorist is under arrest, it is just too bad the whole network is not rotting in a prison cell next to Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP hate-mongers and domestic terrorists.
h/t newscorpse
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