NCJ Number
167827
Date Published
1996
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The criticism of conservative commentators following the Oklahoma City bombing is unfounded; the bombing was inspired not by conservative rhetoric but by the delusions of an isolated individual.
Abstract
Shortly after the Oklahoma Federal building was bombed in 1995, President Clinton, with support from many media commentators, blamed the incendiary rhetoric of politically conservative talk-show hosts for instigating this terrorist act. The media assumed the Oklahoma atrocity could not have been the work of a few madmen, but was part of a large conspiracy of radical right-wingers. The assumption was that Timothy McVeigh was a representative of a conservative mindset held by militias, who were in turn reflective of the beliefs of such conservative talk- show hosts as Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy. Further, conservative politicians such as Newt Gingrich were blamed by the media for inflammatory rhetoric that could fuel violent behavior such as that of McVeigh. However, if McVeigh believed, as he reportedly did, that the Army had planted a computer chip in his buttocks, he was beyond the reach of political rhetoric. He lived with only his delusions and acted alone in the bombing. President Clinton and some media commentators blame the conservative criticism of the Federal action at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco as part of the fuel that lit McVeigh's violent action. Surely such criticism of the Federal assault on the compound is justified. Any attempt to excuse such government action is in itself fuel for terrorist radicals.