Did CNN's "Crossfire" Really Threaten to Kill Us All?

You've heard "the people who know it all" blame the Tucson rampage on conservatives' words and images. The complain that Sarah Palin's maps, Glenn Beck's words and TEA party opposition to the Obama administration caused the shooter to wake up one morning with murder in his heart and an "assault pistol" in his hand, intent on killing.

Never mind that the shooter is unquestionably unbalanced. Never mind that he apparently was motivated to destroy government rather than improve it. Never mind that he had never heard of Palin, Beck or the TEA party. The people who know it all don't need those facts. They can't be needed, they don't fit the theory.

But wait. If symbology has that effect on people, what are we to think of CNN's apparent decades-long effort to incite the entire country to mayhem and murder?

Crossfire, the very word conjures mental massacres, sweeping vistas of bodies and blood. The show's logo positively drips of stimulating those "right wing militia groups" that one is always hearing about but never see actually doing something.

Is CNN responsible then for the violence of the '80's and '90's, the building wave of political assassinations? Oh, you say, there wasn't any? How can that be?

The theory is correct; they always are. The people who know it all tell us so.

We'll just change the facts to fit the theory.