MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell is under fire this week for using the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans to attack the United States Army as a greater threat than those crossing our Southern border. The statement is a vintage example of why many are turning away from legacy or mainstream media, including MSNBC (which has lost nearly half its audience since the election).
O’Donnell has long maintained his show as something of a safe space for the left, including declaring that no Trump supporter would be allowed to speak on his show because they are all “liars,” a label that now applies to a majority of American voters in the last election.
Yet, this statement stands out for many in its unhinged effort to spin the tragedy into a more favorable liberal talking point.
O’Donnell declared:
“The simple fact is, this country has suffered more deadly terrorism at the hands of American-born citizens who are veterans of the United States military than people who have crossed into this country at the southern border. It is very clear from the evidence that if you want to worry about terrorism in this country, the United States Army is a much bigger problem than the southern border.”
There are two curious elements to O’Donnell’s comment. The first is that Army training somehow makes veterans greater threats of terrorism. The military also tends to instill patriotism and public service in its members. Moreover, O’Donnell was referencing the fact that Shamsud-Din Jabbar served in the Army, even though he was largely trained as a human resources and information technology expert. His attack was not a McVeigh-like truck bomb, but the use of the truck itself — an unfortunately common terrorist method that hardly speaks to any Army training.
Second, O’Donnell makes reference to those crossing the Southern Border as opposed to others who have either crossed any border or have entered this country legally. Again, the suggestion is that there is something about military training worthy of special concern. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Zacarias Moussaoui, Richard Colvin Reid, James T. Hodgkinson, Thomas Matthew Crooks, Darrell Edward Brooks Jr., and others may beg to differ.
O’Donnell made specific reference to Timothy McVeigh, the domestic terrorist behind the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995:
“Timothy McVeigh parked a truck outside that building loaded with explosives in an act of homegrown American terrorism. Timothy McVeigh’s hatred of the American government was not tamed in any way by his service in the American military. So, too, with America’s latest terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, with an American military veteran driving a pickup truck through a crowd to murder 14 people.”
Ok, McVeigh and Jabbar became extremists after they served in the military. However, all terrorists make such a turn — often in a sharp departure from their prior history and upbringing. What does that prove? It is the ultimate example of why correlation is not causation. It is a little better than the Latin corollary cum hoc ergo propter hoc (‘with this, therefore because of this’).
This is not to say that military service cannot produce PTSD and other forms of mental illness related to service. Rather, the effort to portray veterans as a greater threat than those crossing our borders illegally is specious. Indeed, the concern over the lax border controls (including but not exclusively at the Southern Border) is that we simply do not know who many of these individuals are. There are obviously many people (and countries) in the world who want to harm the United States. While they would previously attempt to get through airports and other entries, they are now far more likely to do so across an open border. Terrorists can be rational in their means even if they are irrational in their ideology and criminal acts.
Some on the left have picked up on O’Donnell’s spin, often citing a CBS News analysis of the data showing 26% of mass shooters over six decades have had military service or training. That is higher than the less than 10% of the population that has served. However, again, that is correlation not causation. Notably, that is less than a quarter of the mass shooters. What of the remaining? There are other correlations, such as religion or mental illness, that have equal or greater correlations. Any of them are capable of driving a truck into a crowd of people.
Moreover, the point seems to be that the concern over terrorists crossing the borders is overblown. There has been growing alarm over people on the terrorist watch lists who have been apprehended at the border. However, the great concern in Congress is the number of “gotaways,” which may now be in the millions.
The O’Donnell spin is ultimately more telling in terms of the media than it is the military. In the immediate wake of this horrific attack, the effort was to emphasize that the culprit was a veteran and not an undocumented person. It shows a certain mania in the media. We should be looking for patterns in these attacks. However, false causal connections drawn for political purposes will undermine not advance such efforts.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Turley attacks MSNBC for its ridiculous OPINION piece. Meanwhile, his own Fox News, citing anonymous sources publishes a false NEWS piece claiming that the truck used in the attack was driven over the border 2 days prior to the attack, leading our President-elect to falsely claim that Biden’s border policies are somehow responsible for the attack.
Which is worse?
Well, let us see. HMM. I haven’t seen any evidence to refute that the truck was driven over the border, so you suck on that one. And, I am an old white retired Army officer and I have no plans to run over anybody with my truck, so you suck on that one as well.
AND…………..you lost, dude. I sincerely hope that you wake up every morning “triggered” and offended, for the rest of your miserable life.
When did Lawrence O’Donnell turn from being a fairly well-respected journalist to this current version of the man, who is neither a journalist nor well-respected.
O’Donnell not respected
Jonathan: There’s a P.S. to my comment (1/4@4:30pm) about the resignation of cartoonist Ann Telaes from the WP. If Bezos thought cancelling her cartoon would not get attention he was dead wrong. Telaes’s cartoon has gone viral. Elizabeth Warren posted the cartoon on her X account and it is now on the ethernet worldwide. The irony is that had Bezos just allowed the cartoon to be published it would have been viewed by only his shrinking readership. This only shows that a simple little drawing can have more reach than a hundred carefully penned op eds–yours included!
Worldwide Ethernet? Is it 1991 again?
DM – ordinarily I would sort of agree with you. But the FACTs are reported by WaPo are that the Telaes carton was redundant – WaPo hasd just run and satirical story and another cartoon with the same message.
Post is claiming that Telaes cartoon was not published because the paper has to make editorial choices – everything submitted is not published.
And this topic had been addressed repeatedly already.
But lets assume that WaPo is lying – as you have said repeatedly about Twitter before Trump purchased it – Twitter can make its own editorial decisions.
I think it is wise for those like Bezos to allow those working for them to poke fun at them.
But it is not a requirement. Lets presume Bezo personally killed the cartoon because it was unflattering to him.
He is the owner – it is not wise to piss over the owner. Regardless, no one fired Telaes, they just did not publish ONE of her cartoons.
They have published lots of content critical of Trump and lots critical of Bezos.
Teleas was free to remain and do other cartoons – some but not all of which would get published.
Instead she removed herself from WaPo.
I am fine with that.
So Warren put the cartoon on X and it is also many other places.
I am fine with that.
But I would ask you – do you think Telaes has much chance of getting a job as good as working for Wapo ?
Warren published the cartoon for her, and certainly would be willing to publish others.
But she is not going to pay Telaes – atleast not what Wapo pays.
Telaes has likely diminished her own future prospects.
We will see.
Regardless it was her choice.
I am fine with that.
Dennis – LA Times, NYT, Wapo MSNBC, CNN, … the rest of the left wing nut media are all dying.
Their owners are trying to turn things arround.
I suspect it is too late.
Regardless, Bezos etc. are not obligated to flush money down the toilet subsidizing unpopular left wing journalists.
Rather than rant at Bezos and engage in twisted faux gloating that Telaes cartoon was still distributed after she queit,
Maybe you should subscribe to her substack or whatever she tried to do ow that she is no longer employed.
If we use the public stats properly, we can safely say the biggest terror threats in the USA come from the demoncrat controlled big cities in the darker poorer sectors known as the ghetto and those murder death kills stack quickly every weekend and holiday.
It’s the unholy terror that runs 24/7365 thanks to demoncrats and their big city plantation policies.
It’s also the number one gun crime area ALWAYS, and the demoncrats always ignore it, though include numbers in the stats just cover up the fact it is their ghetto plantations of oppression and rampant murder crimes in their dark ghettos of their inner cities.
NONE of the demoncrats in political life on line will walk those areas, they know better, so it’s another gigantic cover up no one names or calls out when the opportunity is always available.
* Face value says unhinged Islam
Jabber is flying an ISIS flag on his truck on New years day at 3 in the morning? There’s bars, booze and prostitutes. Let’s not mention what goes on at Mardi Gras while celebrating the crucifixion of Christ?
It all made him sick. He wrote he wanted to kill. He we
* when did he become moslem? Moslem like Muhammed Ali? Guys a nut job. Nut jobs get into the military , too. Links might be male and unhinged. Maybe O’Donnell is afraid of the military since Biden threatened Americans with–> you’re outgunned?
Hey, O’Donnell, you’re outgunned anyway.
RIP
Yeah, he converted from Christianity to Islam.
Can you imagine what those people were doing at 3 a.m. on bourbon st?
Absolutely shameful. There aren’t enough words of derision in the language for what the modern left have become.
I hope I’m just being paranoid, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the WH attempted a blanket amnesty over the next couple of weeks – it wouldn’t solve the problem, this is about mentality and intent, not legal status; it just so happens that many (not all) who have entered the country illegally have the mentality and intent to commit further crimes. 🤷🏽♂️
MSMBC didnt fire him. They obviously agree with him.
O’Donnell is a cog in the wheel. Keeps PTSD cranking out casualties. Great work O’Donnell. You’re responsible and not Jabberwocky.
What a absurd conclusion to draw, Mr. O’Donnell.
Years ago I read Sunny Schwartz’s book Dreams from the Monster Factory.
In it she asks a group what are the common characteristics of domestic abusers in jail. Anger issues? Abusive childhoods? …. No, actually the most common characteristic was being Male. I will always remember that for the lesson it taught me about what we overlook as we “analyze” searching for causes.
Yeah, men need a good war. Draft them.
* by that logic men are terrorists. Makes sense
O’Donnell could not be a better example of the abject ignorance and unbridled arrogance of the far left, and just how laughable MSNBC really is, in that they call themselves a ‘news network’. Once Musk buys out MSNBC, O’Donnell will out the door and on a street corner somewhere, holding a sign that says ‘will hate Trump and conservatives for food’.
The tragedy of this opinion is the deafness of its author. In the spirit of free speech, he has the right to say it. In the light of our world, it demeans our veterans who have defended his right to express such nonfactual idiocy; while elevating those who knowingly break the laws of our country by entering it illegally. Whatever point this man is attempting to make is over shadowed by his need for attention and his distain for the USA.
And you have the right to turn him off..
I read “MSNBC” and just skipped to the comments. Because biased sources are so reliable to inform Americans about how they are doing
/s
What Trump and Republican Congress mean for healthcare coverage
British Medical Journal. vol. 387 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2801 (Published 30 December 2024)
Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH <===== a Biden apointee
🤡
The incoming US administration has signalled its intent to make large changes to the federal government’s approach to medicine and public health. With Republicans holding control of both houses of Congress and a conservative Supreme Court, the potential for change is high if the administration can address internal disagreements.
Much of that change is likely to centre on health insurance coverage, which for most Americans
is provided through Medicaid (the federal and state programme for people on low incomes), Medicare (for people over 65 and those with disabilities), or private insurance, obtained either through employers or through the public marketplaces (exchanges) created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).detest at the most visceral levelMemo to Republicans: blow up the US Health Care system. It would be a vast improvement for America.
Then let physicians and patients together decide on next steps
Article 1, Section 8, Congress has no power to tax for, regulate, or otherwise interfere with the private enterprise healthcare industry conducted in the free markets of the private sector.
Americans enjoy the freedom to the operate private property free enterprises of the healthcare industry in the free markets of the private sector without interference by government.
Industries must self regulate to avoid debilitating, deleterious, and destructive litigation.
Then let physicians pick onions and the patients lounge in the shade in the next step.
* physicians have higher IQs than patients. What is needed are high IQs with good will. A high IQ is dangerous without good will, Estovir.
I read “O’Donnell” but I keep thinking “ass.”
Jonathan: You are first in line to complain about censorship–allegedly by the Biden administration, liberal and left organizations and publications who you claim censor “conservatives”. Here’s a case of actual censorship by the conservative billionaire owner of the WP, Jeff Bezos.
The WP’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes just resigned from her position at the newspaper after it refused to publish her satirical cartoon depicting Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times, holding up money bags to a statue of DJT–with Mickey Mouse laying prostrate on the ground. The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, tried to defend the cancellation by saying he disagreed with Telnaes’s “interpretation of events”.
In a statement Telnaes said: “To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a gamechanger…and dangerous for a free press”.
The cancellation of Telnaes’s cartoon comes after both the WP and LA Times refused their editorial board’s recommendations to endorse Kamala Harris. Seems the billionaire class, trying to curry favor with DJT, is now acting as a censorship board for the new administration. Will you write a column protesting this kind of blatant censorship? We’re waiting…..
It’s not a good idea to make fun of your boss. The saying is: don’t sh1t where you eat.
Censored!
You win Dennis. Hell is all yours. You won it fair and square.
Dear Dennis SmackInTire,
The Pultizer Prize means less than nothing today, as the writers of the fake stories about the Russian Colllusion have been proved to be hoaxes. Of course, to you and your fellow Dunceocrats, lies are always Pultizer Prize material provided they conform with the Dunceocrat false narratives.
Also, the statement from Presstitute Telnaes, as follows, is totally false: “To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary.”
Articles and cartoons have consistently been rejected if they are considered inflammatory or not in keeping with the tone of the particular publication in question. For example, let’s say that you were the owner of The Washington Post and I showed a political cartoon of you sticking your head deep up your own lubed cloacal zone, you would reject it, even though that would be a completely accurate depiction of what you’re all about.
“You are first in line to complain about censorship–allegedly by the Biden administration, liberal and left organizations and publications”. The fact that you have the audacity to say ‘allegedly’ with regards to censorship by the Biden clown show and left wing organization and publications means you have absolutely zero credibility…soy boy. Another example that, in fact, liberalism is a mental disorder.
–add to that his labeling of Bezos as the “conservative billionaire,” done for effect, not truth. Your “soy boy” just lost the remaining two percent of credibility (from Gigi and George) he had on this site.
2% credibility is not only overly generous, but wrong. Dennis SnmackInTiure’s credibility is negative 29%. In other words, for example, if you ask SmackInTire what 1+1 is, he won’t say 3 as the wrong answer, but 31, being off by 29.
The clown show is a decoy. It’s like a retrovirus. The retro puts out a decoy, encases itself in a shell, invades your cells, uses your DNA producing machinery to replicate itself, attacks your military T cells, becomes a new part of YOUR genome AND THEN kills you. There you have O’Donnell.
You seem to beleive that the efforts of the media to avoid bankruptcy are censorship.
Telaes is free to publish whatever she wants – as you note later Sen. Warren picked up the cartoon.
No one censored her.
What she is not free to do is to demand that WaPo publish her.
I would note that there is no suggesting that Trump sought to kill this cartoon.
WaPo’s statement is that they already covered that topic TWICE – both in a cartoon and in a satirical arctical within the past couple of days – Telaes was providing redundant content.
But lets say that Bezos killed it.
Telaes was attacking Bezos in his own paper – and expected Bezos to pay for it ?
I strongly suspect you are going to see a less hostile relationship between the media and Trump.
Not because Trump is censoring anyone.
But because media hostility to Trump proved a failed financial model.
What always amazes me is the tremendous dishonesty in all conversations concerning such events. What, for example, tends to most “radicalize” the Muslim immigrant? The behavior of our women! Don’t believe me, engage them in dialogue, ask them yourself! Likewise, as relates to military suicides – Las Vegas was first and foremost a suicide -more often, they are related to their love lives.
* finances.
???