NewsBusters has exhaustively documented the ways in which the liberal media and Dem politicians have sought to exploit the Arizona shootings, seeking to pin blame on a range of Republicans and conservative media figures.
It was thus nothing short of surreal to listen to MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin this morning. Surveying the situation, Halperin praised the media and politicians for their reaction to the shooting . . . while condemning Fox News and conservative pundits for treating the tragedy like "war and fodder for content."
When Joe Scarborough rightly suggested that Halperin had it backwards, the Time man wouldn't back down. View video after the jump.
MARK HALPERIN: I just want to single out one thing. I don't want to over-generalize but I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far. The thing I'm most concerned about now is the anger on the right-wing commenatariat: on Fox, and George Will, and other conservatives are, in some cases justifiably upset at liberals. But they're turning this right now, in the last 24 hours, back into the standard operating procedure of all of this is war and fodder for content, rather than trying to bring the country together.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Wait a second, Mark. I think they would say that you have that backwards. That a shooting was turned into fodder to attack conservatives.
HALPERIN: And I, and I, and I already made that criticism as well. They're right. But rather than seizing on it and turning the other cheek, they are back at their war stations. And that's not going to help us.
