As we mentioned on Friday, back on January 19, 2011, during the height of the left’s brief “new civility” tirade, CNN, which for 23 years hosted a popular debate show called Crossfire (which featured crosshairs in its logo), had this treacly moment:
On Tuesday’s John King USA, CNN’s John King issued a prompt on-air apology minutes after a guest on his program used the term “crosshairs” during a segment: “We’re trying to get away from using that kind of language” (audio available here). This action stands in stark contrast to an incident over a year earlier where former anchor Rick Sanchez took four days to apologize for using a unconfirmed quote attributed to Rush Limbaugh.
Flash-forward to 2012. CNN newsreader Roland Martin recently returned to the network after being suspended as a result of a Tweet that was perceived by his employers as being homophobic. Adding to the strangeness of that outburst, Martin seemed so eager last year to join the rest of the leftwing MSM in its calls for a new civility.
Bear with me for a moment as I try to reconstruct the MSM’s collective “logic” during that period. In the wake of clip art that a crazed apolitical assassin likely never saw being determined by the MSM as somehow leading to the shooting of Democrat Senator Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tuscon, Martin wrote an editorial at CNN with the now ironic title, “After Tucson, will media tone it down?”
Note the first sentence in the quoted passage below:
If we are to embrace the notion of civility and humility in our discourse, that means not falling into our old habits. I was impressed that Roger Ailes, head of Fox News Channel, relayed to Russell Simmons’ GlobalGrind.com what he told his staff after the Tucson shootings: “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.”
Who knows if this edict will be photocopied and posted in the office of every Fox talk show host, and throughout its newsroom, to serve as a reminder to everyone when the nation moves further and further away from the shooting?
And he’s correct; those who vehemently oppose the views of Fox News and conservative radio hosts must also adhere to the president’s call for civility.
Maybe what we should all do is make “Remember Gabby and the Tucson 6″ buttons, T-shirts, and bumper stickers, as a way to stop someone in his tracks who chooses to get out of control.
As Mr. Obama would say, words, just words: 
Of course, when Rev. Wright calls you “my long term friend,” no wonder the rest of the world can sometimes seem so off-kilter:
Update: Via Instapundit, who dubs Martin’s latest outburst “Stalinesque Media Hate Speech,” Tom Blumer writes at Newsbusters, “Though tempting, it might not be a good idea to lobby CNN to suspend Martin again. I sort of like how he’s showing the world who he really is, and what his continued employment says about the network which employes him.”
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