Arizona Daily Star cartoonist and columnist David Fitzsimmons was among the first in the media to blame conservatives for the shooting in Tucson. He did it emotionally and without any evidence whatsoever. Here’s what he told CNN shortly after the shooting:
“I’m pretty shaken frankly. This is a very surreal, dream-like experience. As a columnist who’s covered politics in this state, it was inevitable from my perspective.” According to the Daily Star, the cartoonist “viewed the shooting as inevitable in a state with an intense gun culture and politics that are to the rabid right.”
That’s pretty much what most of the mainstream media did, including all the networks, Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post, only they actually named Sarah Palin as complicit for, well, just existing, it seems.
For reasons we don’t yet know, Fitzsimmons had a change of heart. Did he really understand how grotesque his comments were, or did his editors have to tell him? Whatever happened, he has issued an apology:
“Today I have offended many with my emotional, partisan and inappropriate remarks, broadcast on CNN, regarding the horror of this day. As Congresswoman Giffords battles for her life let us join in prayer for her, for the dead and for the injured. Reflecting on the moment, I know my remarks would have disappointed Congresswoman Giffords, a public servant who is admired for her nonpartisan, gracious and intelligent approach to public discourse.”
Will Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, and most of the left-wing blogosphere similarly apologize? Waiting….
