Several Hollywood celebrities were among the first to jump on the leftist bandwagon blaming the weekend shootings in Arizona on Sarah Palin and Fox News, singling out Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, and other conservatives,
according to the Hollywood Reporter. Fox News head Roger Ailes countered that the accusations were just ploys to bait the network.
Jane Fonda said on her blog the day of the shooting, before much was known about shooter Jared Lee Loughner, that she was "sure" Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot by "right wing fanatics who have been repeatedly harassing and threatening Giffords, egged on by Sarah Palin and Glen (sic) Beck and Tea Party members." She reiterated those sentiments in several tweets.
Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted: "When Palin put crosshairs on a map w/Rep. Giffords & 19 other Dem congressmen/women, she urged followers to 'reload' & 'aim' for Democrats."
Comedienne Kathy Griffin weighed in from the D List with this tweet: "Congresswoman in AZ, who is ON Sarah Palin's crosshairs map was SHOT in the head 2day. Happy now Sarah?"
Ailes chose an unusual venue to defend against the critics who claimed his network's star talent incite violence, telling Russell Simmons on the hip-hop mogul's GlobalGrind.com website that "it's just a bulls**t way to use the death of a little girl to get Fox News in an argument."
He noted that maps with target-like images are used often in politics, including one from the Democrats in 2007 that contained "targets on it for the Palin district." Nevertheless, Ailes said he advised personalities on Fox News to tread lightly.
"I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually," he told Simmons. "You don't have to do it with bombast."
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