Tipsheet

Sigh: Arizona Republic Editorial Cartoonist Visually Demagogues Tucson Shootings

Reason's Nick Gillespie has the full image-by-image color commentary, but two of Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Steve Benson's (no relation) renderings deserve special opprobrium:

First, his dutiful homage to his fellow Leftists' baseless, reactionary "inflammatory (conservative) political rhetoric caused this violence!" narrative:



Second, his vile depiction of Sarah Palin -- which Gillespie aptly labels "dehumanizing:"




To see the final cartoon, in which this artist exploits the memory of 9-year-old Christina Green in order to instruct us to "stop yelling," follow the link, and scroll to the bottom.  Benson and his ilk are desperate to convince the country that fractious political discourse somehow contributed to the murders carried out by an apolitical lunatic.  So far, they've duped roughly a third of the population into believing that Sarah Palin's months old "crosshairs" map is at least partially to blame for the massacre, despite zero evidence to that end.  For what it's worth, self-identified Democrats and people with less education are most likely to believe this toxic myth. 

Thirty-five percent is not a whole lot to show for more than a week's worth of relentless and deeply disingenuous attacks, but it's still demoralizingly high.