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Sarah Palin’s Twitter Feed Undercuts SarahPAC Aide’s Defense of ‘Crosshair’ Imagery

by Tommy Christopher | 1:00 pm, January 9th, 2011

» 35 comments

Amid a growing backlash spurred by yesterday’s mass shooting, SarahPAC official Rebecca Mansour appeared on The Tammy Bruce Show to push back against suggestions that Palin’s much-derided “crosshair” map is somehow connected to the tragedy. In the process, though, she claimed that the symbols on the graphic were never intended to evoke gunsights, but rather, “surveyors symbols.”

Regardless of the graphic’s relevance to yesterday’s shooting, Mansour’s claim is belied by a November tweet from Palin, which read “Remember months ago “bullseye” icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin’ incumbent seats? We won 18 out of 20 (90% success rate;T’aint bad)” (h/t Teresa Kopec & Lucian Dixon)

From Politico:

An aide to Sarah Palin said images of cross-hairs were never meant to evoke violence, in the Palin camp’s first extended comment on yesterday’s attack.

” We have nothing whatsoever to do with this,” Palin aide. Rebecca Mansour told the talk radio host Tammy Bruce in an interview. ”We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights. It was simply cross-hairs like you’d see on maps,” she said, suggesting that it is a “surveyor’s symbol.”

There is “nothing irresponsible about our graphic,” she said.

She called attempts to link Palin to the violence “obscene” and “appalling,” and said she was “disgusted” with the politicization.

“We can’t ban the words ‘targeted swing districts’ from the English language,” she said. “We did nothing wrong here.”

To be clear, the host of the show, Tammy Bruce, volunteered the “surveyor’s symbol” term, and Mansour concurred.

Mansour is correct to say that the map isn’t to blame for the shooting, and that attempts to score political points even as the tragedy unfolded were reprehensible.

However, the notion that these symbols were “crosshairs, like you’d see on a map” is ridiculous on it’s face. There may be a map somewhere that uses crosshairs in lieu of flags, pushpins, or even bullseyes, but Palin’s is the only one I’ve ever seen. Further complicating the claim, though, is Palin’s own acknowledgement of the imagery in that tweet.

Even if bloggers on the left had not pushed the blame on Palin in the early hours of this story, the media was bound to have this conversation anyway, by virtue of Gabrielle Giffords’ own indictment of the map on MSNBC in March.

As Laura Martin points out, though, Palin offered her own eerily prescient argument in March. In a Facebook post, she illustrated the degree to which violent imagery pervades popular speech with a rant about the NCAA’s Final Four. The merits of her argument are debatable, but it’s certainly more honest than Mansour’s “surveyor’s symbol” explanation.

I happen to agree with Palin’s overall point, that you can’t simply police speech using a “violence=bad” equation. Where we part ways, though, is in whether her map crossed the line into irresponsibility. The use of “targeting” terminology is commonplace in political talk, as Chuck Todd pointed out to Giffords in March, and many conservatives also point to the use of bullseyes in Democratic maps to defend Palin. While this tragedy has people reevaluating their use, Palin’s “crosshair” map is a degree or two worse.

A bullseye is commonly associated with target practice, and as such, the bullseye itself is the inert, nonliving target. Crosshairs, on the other hand, represent the mechanism by which a target is acquired and killed. It is also an image that resonates in popular culture through countless repetitions, in films and television shows, of the assassin’s POV shot. That the intent was to evoke something like a bullseye (only way tougher), and not the spectre of assassination, is an obvious, yet moot, point. Once that reasonable objection was raised, the image should have been abandoned. The fact that such a move would have done nothing to sate Palin’s critics, and likely would have amplified the din, might have been a factor in Palin’s decision not to, but it would have been the right thing to do.

That she didn’t, and that this refusal has come back to haunt Palin, doesn’t mean that she’s in any way to blame for yesterday’s tragedy. However, Geraldo Rivera is probably correct when he says that Palin will pay a price for this, politically. The coincidence has amplified a poor decision, and this even poorer attempt at evasion only exacerbates that.

You can listen to Tammy Bruce’s full interview with Rebecca Mansour here.

Arizona shooting, Fox News Channel, Gabrielle Giffords, Geraldo Rivera, Jared Loughner, Laura Martin, Rebecca Mansour, Sarah Palin, Tammy Bruce, The Tammy Bruce Show

http://www.facebook.com/people/Maliheh-Banoo/100001527498988 Maliheh

If this was a Muslim org with ‘cross hairs’ on map for gop candidates,they’d be called cross hairs,these rules dont apply to sarah palin
http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

This woman is a complete and utter fraud. Her followers are simpletons with IQ’s of insects.
http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

Maliheh said:
If this was a Muslim org with ‘cross hairs’ on map for gop candidates,they’d be called cross hairs,these rules dont apply to sarah palin

They’d be called Muslim Death Threats and places where they plan to elect victory mosques.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Greg-Palmer/100000481076398 Greg Palmer

The Daily Kos also had her as a target. DailyKos is therefor responsible for this violence.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Greg-Palmer/100000481076398 Greg Palmer

Maliheh said:

Such loving care, you must be a Lib.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-White/1479114225 Robert White

Hey Publius, why the “screw you” rhetoric defaming those who disagree with you. Doesn’t sound very much like your namesake. It certainly would not persuade those who admire Sarah Palin to change their minds. Is your intention to persuade or just to vent your spleen?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-White/1479114225 Robert White

Did Sarah Palin’s crosshair image influence the nutcase who did the shooting? Well, let’s ask him if he ever saw them before concluding that they were significant. He may be nuts, but I’ll bet he can remember whether he was inspired by Sarah Palin. Why speculate?

Based on his youtube video, I’d say he was a member in good standing of the Crazy Party.

It looks like he was an atheist. Atheists comprise about 0.2% of the US prison population. Maybe we should not paint with a very broad brush on this one.

He’s like the nutcase who read Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” and took hostages at the Discovery Channel. Does anybody think he was a legitimate environmentalist?

This shooter has more in common with the dozens of shooter who have gone over the edge and set out to kill innocent bystanders. We should not pay too much attention to the scene which happened to be a political event — unless the shooter specifically says otherwise.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Maliheh-Banoo/100001527498988 Maliheh

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=375184908434 – “The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons — your Big Guns — to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears …to win,” — Sarah Palin
argyle

Publius219 said:
They’d be called Muslim Death Threats and places where they plan to elect victory mosques.

We appreciate your use of insane rhetoric.
Thelonious Funk

Wrongo. They would be called crescent hairs.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek

Why isn’t Mediaite or the left interested in Democrat ads that use crosshairs and bullseyes? Why are you pretending that Palin did something unusual or different than we have seen many times in the past?

http://dronetek.net/dronetek/why-media-ignoring-democrat-ads-use-cross-hairs

For exmaple: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8217/dlctargetingmap.gif
TfT

Dronetek:

You are asking for too much- mediaite will NEVER be honest in its discussion of this topic, or any other for that matter. They are left wing and will do whatever it is that is required of all left wing places – trash Palin and conservatives, despite facts and truth.

Tommy is guilty beyond words of over-the-top rhetoric on this topic, along with everyone else at mediaite and in the lamestream media.

It’s like the absurdity of Candy Crawley today relying on Dick Durban for political commentary that is above the fray. This is the man who equated our troops to Nazi’s in the well of the Senate, and he has the audacity to claim that Palin needs to tone it down, and Candy Crawley is just fine with that.

It is bizzarro world in which we live, where the President can call for a fight witha gun, and his words are meaningless, but whenPalin does or says anything, she is responsible for all things.

The hatred for conservatives by left wingers has made them untenable, and theircommentary over the top stupid, as is evidenced by the numerous columns today about this incident, the politico’s and jorno’s blaming all of this in Palin and not the shooter.

They are sick puppies – which proves yet again, Palin was correct.
The Tea Weasel

I am curious….was the tragedy yesterday the outcome of a “Second Amendment Remedy”?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek

The Tea Weasel said:
I am curious….was the tragedy yesterday the outcome of a “Second Amendment Remedy”?

No, it was probably just someone ‘punishing their enemies’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnnwJ1rgCnM
philipjames

Personally, I blame Barack Obama for inciting this wack job to shoot Giffords. I recall him saying that “if they bring knives, then we bring guns” and laughing about how Philadelphia fans were so tough.
It is therefore up to Barack Obama to apologize for pushing this wack job over the line…. he said “guns”.
benqq

Easy and journalistically deplorable to make a causative connection between Palin and the shooter.

http://www.memphispixnews.com

“Independent conservatives, put on your b***s*** helmets and hunker down ’cause the Dems have been handed a polemical baseball bat that’s just too irresistible to pass up.”
bealzebubba

Here we go again with the politicizing of this….let’s just keep fueling the fire…feeding the beast.

We’re NEVER going to be a united country if we continue to allow these petty ideas mixed with cynicism of the opposition’s opinion on the idea take control.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kim-Barker/693546751 A Kim Bo

benqq said:
“Independent conservatives, put on your b***s*** helmets and hunker down ’cause the Dems have been handed a polemical baseball bat that’s just too irresistible to pass up.”

Maybe if the shooter had access to better health care then…
Dem4Ever

Maybe the gunman watched a James Bond movie. They all begin with cross hairs and even gun play.
Post American

The U.S. Secret Service blamed Palin’s unstable Rhetoric on a surge in death threats against the POTUS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/sarah-palin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html

It is very strange to see the entire Right Wing Spin Machine in a full tilt boogie today defending Palin!
lane

Unless the store Target” is a hub of violence rather than a mega-store, then this entire bulls-eye argument is ridiculous. Target uses the logo not to incite violence but to evoke the ‘target theme. You know, like their name. Palin used it to target the districts not to imply violence. It’s idiotic of the ‘opinion media’ to keep saying this.

Obama also calls political opponents enemies and republicans ‘hostage-takers”. Yes, it’s all hyperbolic, but it’s ridiculous to think it causes nut-jobs to be violent. They do it because they’re nut-jobs.

And yes, all sides should tone the ‘enemy’ rhetoric for the sake of greater civility.
holygoat

With absolutely no evidence that this guy ever saw Palin’s innocuous map, people are ready to pin the blame on her anyway. This crosshairs-are-different-than-bullseyes argument is rather tortured to say the least, and comes off as desperate and pathetic. Do you guys actually read the stuff you write?

I think a lot of people are going to be really embarrassed once the facts come out about just how disturbed this guy really was. Hopefully Mr. Christopher is among them.
lane

Tommy, all the liberal opinion media should immediately stop buying from the store ‘Target’, you know with the bullseye logo just like the sarah ads had. Clearly, while us consumers think we’re there to target buying stuff the liberals have now made us realize we’ve been supporting violent imagery and rhetoric all this time.

Who knew?

These stories are exactly why Fox News is gaining the moderate viewers. The MSM just seems to follow the same storyline, like lap dogs.
lane

Greg Palmer said:
The Daily Kos also had her as a target. DailyKos is therefor responsible for this violence.

I’ve played darts many times, which as we know is just a target board too. Maybe I am also to blame.
lane

The Tea Weasel said:
I am curious….was the tragedy yesterday the outcome of a “Second Amendment Remedy”?

Interestingly, one of the heroes left the store he was in to go to the Safeway to help out. While not a law enforcement or military guy, he carries a gun for personal protection so he felt he could help out.

Nothing is simple.
VoiceofReason

I wonder how Tommy and his lickspittles here responded to this horrificly violent imagery…..

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/wheres-the-outrage-at-dem-targeting
VoiceofReason

Post American said:
The U.S. Secret Service blamed Palin’s unstable Rhetoric on a surge in death threats against the POTUShttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/sarah-palin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html It is very strange to see the entire Right Wing Spin Machine in a full tilt boogie today defending Palin!

Interesting……

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/wheres-the-outrage-at-dem-targeting
John OLeary

Publius219: I have to object to your indiscriminate metaphor in your Palin critique. It’s insulting to insects everywhere.
http:.//www.seriouslypissed.blogspot.com Throckmorton

Dem4Ever said:
Maybe the gunman watched a James Bond movie. They all begin with cross hairs and even gun play.

or porn, which all begin with short hairs and even foreplay….
gedgeler

I hadn’t thought of it – not owning a gun or scope why would I – but this blog post makes a pretty good point:
http://nominister.blogspot.com/2011/01/not-as-dum-as-they-thought.html

The symbols, while clearly intending to be viewed as crosshairs, and as a gun/targetting metaphor, just aren’t crosshairs. The cross in a crosshairs stops at the circle (which is the outside of the scope). The cross in these symbols extends beyond the circle, which just couldn’t work in a scope.
CAconservative

I truly believe S.Palin could be our next president. Maybe it’s time for her to back-up and reaload…oops…mataphor…sorry.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

CAconservative says:
“I truly believe S.Palin could be our next president.”

She does very well at exciting her base, the reactionary, tea party crowd. With a 20% support BEFORE the disgraceful “blood libel” phrase, you can be pretty certain that she is, as Frum suggests, a melting iceberg.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

From Thom Hartmann:
“When you listen to people like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and the rest of the gang – it’s easy to see – these men and women are guilty of something called stochastic terrorism. That is – the use of mass communication like radio or television to encourage individuals to commit random lone acts of violence. It’s what Glenn Beck was guilty of when he encouraged Byron Williams to attempt to massacre members of the Tides foundation and ACLU. It’s what Bill O’ Reilly was guilty of when he shouted “Tiller the baby killer” a dozen times on his show – and then someone killed Dr. George Tiller. And it could be what all these talking heads are guilty of when Jared Lee Loughner took his semi-automatic pistol to a local Safeway grocery store in Tucson on Saturday and attacked his hated “big government” by trying to assassinate a Congresswoman. We are living in a volatile and violent nation today – and if we want to emerge from it – we need to recognize the damage certain people on the Right are doing. They are profiting off their own unique form of terrorism.”
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

From Kevin Drum:
“And having listened to Beck now and again, I’d say that if you’re really looking for someone to censure on the rhetoric front, he’s a way better target than Sarah Palin. A campaign poster like Palin’s that uses a bunch of bullseyes to represent “targeted” candidates is pretty unlikely to send some mentally unbalanced nutcase over the edge, but frankly, I’m surprised Beck hasn’t already inspired a couple of Jonestown-like mass homicide waves.”
holygoat

“A bullseye is commonly associated with target practice, and as such, the bullseye itself is the inert, nonliving target. Crosshairs, on the other hand, represent the mechanism by which a target is acquired and killed. ”

That’s the best you got? Seriously? That’s some tortured reasoning, my friend.

And BTW, from Quinnipiac: “American voters say 52 – 41 percent that “heated political rhetoric drives unstable people to commit violence,” the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Liberals rather than conservatives are more responsible for such rhetoric, voters say 36 – 32 percent.”
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1548