Humanity and Society
Yesterday, unknown person or persons perpetrated an unspeakable and senseless crime against innocents in an American city. Three people are dead, over a hundred injured – people who got up yesterday morning, got dressed, went over to Boylston to watch people finish a marathon. People like you and me. Videos showed timed, coordinated bombings going off along the Boylston Street terminus of the Boston Marathon, designed to inflict massive carnage in crowded groups of celebrants.
There’s no sense in trying to speculate who might be behind it until there’s actual news reported about it. For instance, one would have been dramatically misinformed had he relied on the horrible Murdoch rag the “New York Post” for news about the attack.
Some people are insufferably horrible – especially those cynical vampires who make their living by being conspiratorial, paranoid idiots.
Boston was my second hometown, and I’m sick over this. We live in a dangerous world with a lot of crazy people, and there’s absolutely no way that we can always prevent bad people from doing horrific things, no matter what we do.
But if you’re one of those people who see a tragedy and immediately speculate – without any proof, evidence, or information – as to the perpetrators or cause of a horrible terrorist act like this, you’re just a horrible person. Is it hillbilly militiamen protesting tax day? Is it brown-skinned people with accents? If those are the questions you’re asking right away, you’re an idiot.
If, like conspiracy salesman Alex Jones, you’re suggesting that the government is behind it, you deserve nothing but scorn and humiliation. If, like newly minted glibertarian but former Bush supporter, Patriot Act backer, Iraq War microphone belligerent, and security-porn enthusiast Tom Bauerle, you warn against “liberties” being taken away, you’ve missed the point of anything important about humanity. When you think about how a tragedy such as this affects your personal comfort, while 400 miles away an 8 year-old dies and people struggle with catastrophic injuries, you’re sort of a monster.
Humanity makes me sick when innocent people are murdered or attacked without cause or provocation, but also when it worries about how others’ misfortune might affect their individual political prejudices.
Also disgusting is the open rooting by both conservatives and liberals that the perpetrators are from whatever “side” they are trying to discredit. Conservatives immediately began arguing that the bombers were Islamic, because that would make it easier to blame Obama, while MSNBC could not stop trying to convince viewers that the bombers were homegrown right-wing extremists.
Whoever did this does not represent any legitimate wing of American politics. And, like stated above, these types of discussions distract from the people who were killed or horribly injured.
Excellent comment. Agreed.
What a tragedy.
And just a reminder that in Buffalo on a.m. radio it’s Entercom taking in profits from both viewpoints. I could appreciate and understand a corporation’s politics a great deal more if it wasn’t playing both sides against the middle.
Bauerle is generally detestable, but there’s nothing wrong with his
statement about the way these events get used by politicians. We know
that politicians have used previous events to pass bad legislation and
whip up an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. There’s no reason to think
they won’t do it again, and keeping quiet only helps them do their nasty
business.
Well, there is something odd about his statement. He seems to think the Atlanta Olympics bomber, Eric Rudolph, was not the same kind of conservative Bauerle is. In addition to the olympics, he also bombed a gay bar and an abortion clinic. I bet Bauerle has pictures of him on his bedroom ceiling.
@John – I wouldn’t know if he’s changed recently, but back when I sometimes listened to Bauerle he talked favorably about gay rights and legalizing same sex marriage. What’s any reason for you saying he’s the same kind of anything as gay bar bombing Eric Rudolph?
On abortion, polling shows many if not most Americans are against abortion rights in some or all circumstances. It varies up and down with time and how the question is worded. But isn’t it a big leap to assume even someone in the 13 to 22% who oppose it in all cases would agree with Eric Rudolph’s bombing of clinics?
The extremism from some people toward Bauerle had now made me partially glad he’s still on the air even though I still dislike listening.
So, if someone points out what an awful and horrible human being he is and how ugly his ideas are, then it’s good he’s still on air? I’m failing to see the logic.
Do you see any logic in John’s comment to which I replied, in which John claimed Bauerle supports gay bar bombing and abortion clinic bombing? Or did you also fail to see the truth or logic in John’s comment also – only silently for that one? I’ll at least take it as a compliment if you have a higher standard for me than for John.
The logic of why I’m partially glad he’s still on the air is due to comments like John’s and Jim’s above. Especially John’s.
When people spread what look like false serious claims as John did, or say people are subjected to any radio shows when there’s many other choices in radio and other media – sure, it makes me a bit glad if they’re continuing to be bothered.
There were some local hosts on 1230/WECK who I didn’t agree with or like listening to. (I didn’t like any of them except Brad Riter, as I recall.) So I just stopped listening to them. If instead of that approach, if I had played the victim card by claiming I and others were subjected to them, or if I’d lied in web forums that they supported bombing anything like gay bars and abortion clinics – wouldn’t seeing that that make you at least partially glad that those hosts were on the air irritating me?
Yes Starrrbuck you are absolutely correct. There are plenty of other stations one could switch to. However sometimes in life you just get sick of slinking away. The people that have hijacked WBEN are wrongheaded and should be called out. The vitriol they spew does nothing to move us forward, rather it is divisive. I may not mind if they offered some semblance of discourse. But to disagree with the hosts is to subject yourself to ridicule during and after the call. Mind you I am not one to call a talk show but I like hearing opposing points of view. Which is why I like this site. People can have differing opinions but for the most part it is civil dialogue. WBEN should engage a broad audience, it is talk radio for crying out loud. Yet they choose to target a narrow group that becomes a circle jerk.
Saying hijacked looks even worse than subjected. You’re still trailing John’s comment in the degree of strange claims, although you’ve closed the gap a little.
If you prefer a different kind of show, I’d probably agree with you. At the same time, however, some listeners evidently do like what it is now. Yours and my preferences aren’t more important than theirs even if you despise anything about their views or choices.
If I had ever said WECK-1230 was “hijacked” back when they had O’Loughlin and Mendola on just because I couldn’t stand their shows (like I can’t stand Bauerle’s), how strange and arrogant would that have sounded?
So you agree with my premise, you just think I conveyed it poorly. Fair enough. I just wonder, if you had a pie chart, how small the slice would be that represents real fans of this type of radio. Which causes me to wonder why an advertiser would want to target this audience. Of course I could be wrong and the slice could be very large. I sense not though.
Agree with your premise? No, not at all.
There’s many radio shows I can’t stand, on several different stations – some local, some national. It’s always been so, always will be. His isn’t at all unique that way.
It doesn’t cause me to assume that an insufficient number of people listen to any of them (too small a pie slice as you put it).
How about that station’s weekend shows about wine and tax prep? I’d never listen to those. Your premise is that means I’d assume those shows don’t have enough listeners to stay on the air? I dislike the music on WKSE and WYRK so I never listen to them. Same for NASCAR shows on 550, lacross and minor league baseball on 1520, or any of the national talk shows on KB 1520 other than Alan Colmes sometimes.
I never listen to any of those, yet I’m not so arrogant as to sense that an overwhelming majority of the pie chart shares my likes and dislikes.
How do local morning shows on 104.1 (Lacy) or 1230 (Donahue) stay on the air for all these years when I dislike them too much to ever listen?
Using your premise, I’d sense that me never listening must mean their audience pie slices are too small to justify them staying on the air. After all, if I don’t listen and neither do my friends, then who possibly could?
That would be an irrational way to look at it.
Bauerle has every right to be on the air. He just belongs someplace like Idaho. It is an affront to the good people of WNY to be subjected to his twisted logic.
Bauerle is a despicable creep who makes his living capitalizing on people’s fear and ignorance. Whether or not he makes a point about official overreaction to a terrorist attack, it is silly to ignore that he was – before we had a Black Democrat elected President – a huge supporter of the Patriot Act, a proponent of racial/religious profiling of Muslims and Middle Easterners, a big Bush supporter, and a big fan of the Iraq war. To call his sudden transformation into a government-hating glibertarian hypocritical would be a colossal understatement. I don’t know whether he’s sincere or just playing a character, but he’s good at tracking political trends, and this anti-government, anti-Obama, anti-Cuomo gun nut bullshit is what sells now.
Agree with your column, but also with Colin’s response. Last night, on Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw said the government will rightly begin attacking civil liberties: “Everyone has to understand tonight that, beginning tomorrow morning early, there are going to be much tougher security considerations all across the country, and however exhausted we may be by that, we’re going to have to learn to live with them, and get along and go forward, and not let them bring us to our knees. You’ll remember last summer, how unhappy we were with the security at the Democratic and Republic conventions. Now I don’t think we can raise those complaints after what happened in Boston.”
How about politician (albeit washed up, can’t get appointed fill-in Senator) Bahney Fwank, wading through the blood of the victims to proclaim that this event provides reason not to cut taxes?
Why do you listen to him then?
I don’t.
Hearing the left and right trying to pin this on extremists from the other side has been pretty sad.
I agree with Colin though to watch out for new policies that are proposed to prevent another one of these. As if the government does not have enough power to surveil and investigate people.
It continues to boggle my mind why people support Bauerle and WBEN. If there are enough people of his ilk around here to justify someone spending their advertising dollar with them, God help us. I hope people just don’t think about and that one day they will start thinking about it and weed these whackos out.
I concur ..We can not speculate but we do have a deep desire to figure this one out.