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roachboy · 01-15-2011, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Arizona Shooting Victim Criticizes Palin, Beck and Fox News

January 14, 2011 5:47 pm ET by Joe Strupp

One of the victims of the Arizona shooting today criticized the violent rhetoric employed by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Fox News.

Eric Fuller, a 63-year-old Navy veteran who was shot in the knee and received fragments in the back last Saturday, said the rhetoric of Sarah Palin and others can impact "demented" people like suspect Jared Loughner.

Fuller, who said he has been interviewed by several national news outlets, added he would not appear on Fox News if they sought him, predicting it "might develop into a screaming session." He added: "I don't like what they're selling."

In a phone interview from his Tucson home Friday, Fuller spoke about the shooting, saying he had appeared at the event as a supporter of Giffords and had worked for her campaign last year.

Fuller went on to harshly criticize Palin:

"Sarah Palin doesn't bother to learn the spelling of repudiate and tosses out 'blood libel' like it was a jar of peanut butter, but does she know anything? Probably about as much as (former Giffords opponent) Jesse Kelly."

Asked if he thought Palin or other media commentators had an impact on the shooting, he said:

"Definitely. Let's say through some fluke Jared Loughner never ever heard of Sarah Palin or [Glenn] Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity and the rest of the crime syndicate, and dreamed it all up on his own, that he'd go over there and wack her.

"There are still plenty of demented people that are in need of a good spanking who are out there and plenty of access with the gun shops to assault weapons thanks to the son of privilege letting that expire. There is the matter of the media attention to it. It is going to make this even more desirable yet.

"If you are going to scream hatred and preach hatred, you're going to sow it after a while if you've got a soap box like they've got. We've got a surplus of demented dingbats, wackos."

Fuller went on to criticize national media outlets that allow violent rhetoric on the air: "I would put Sarah Palin in first place there. I think, really, she should be incarcerated for treason for advocating assassinating public officials. That map I saw that she published on the Internet had crosshairs on it and one of them was meant for Gabrielle Giffords.

"This woman is a spotless, purest, sweetest lamb in the world, gunned down ... The only word I could think of is outraged."

Fuller, who said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, is a disabled U.S. Navy veteran.

He said he drove himself to the hospital after the shooting and has been visited by numerous reporters and news outlets at his home:

"I've gone through at least a dozen video sessions. I've got ABC, CBS and NBC and The New York Times and the New York Post." He also spoke with Democracy Now.

Asked if he had been approached by Fox News, he said, "No, I haven't, come to think of it."

Fuller said he would likely decline to appear on Fox:

"I am afraid that might develop into a screaming session because I think they promote the war, I think I ought to pass on that, talking to Fox, I don't like what they're selling.

"I would stand up and just scream 'whores' at them, with my leg bleeding, and shock and with the congress lady laying on the pavement after having a slug pass through her head.

"I know they're just going to attack, they would probably attack me. They'll distort. Particularly Miss Blood Libel herself. The spoiled princess party. I am willing to take them on. I want to call them out and see if they have a peep to say."

Arizona Shooting Victim Criticizes Palin, Beck and Fox News | Media Matters for America