In the midst of the media circus that has emerged following the shooting in Arizona, Glenn feels that there have only been two journalists that have really gotten the story right: Megyn Kelly and Wolf Blitzer.
Glenn first touched on Megyn Kelly and her interview with Sherriff Dupnik. Before the interview, Sherriff Dupnik said that the suspect was motivated by heated political rhetoric from radio and television. Megyn Kelly asked, “I want to ask you about that because that's something you've mentioned the past couple of days, and I just want to ask you whether there is anything you've uncovered in your investigation so far that suggests this suspected killer was listening to radio or watching television.”
Pat chimed in, “When [Sherriff Dupnik] said that the violent vitriolic rhetoric, the hate speech in this country is what's behind this. So she's asking him, is there any evidence that you have as a sheriff, as a law enforcement officer? Is there a shred of evidence?”
Upon further prodding from Megyn Kelly, Sherriff Dupnik admitted that there was no specific evidence that pointed to any rhetoric on television or radio motivating the suspect’s violent actions.
Glenn said, “So here's a law enforcement official that is playing judge and jury. It is, ‘I have been doing this for 50 years. It is in my expert opinion that this is what's going on. No evidence.”
Stu added, “When you're telling the facts of an ongoing investigation as a law enforcement official, no, that's not where personal opinion makes the world round and round. I'm sorry.”
Glenn then switched gears to Wolf Blitzer who, in his coverage of the story, made sure to say there was no evidence that Jared Lee Loughner was in any way a Sarah Palin fan who would have seen her SarahPac ad.”
“This is after one of the CNN reporters just spent about three minutes going on and on about Sarah Palin and her involvement in this, how she targeted these congressional districts and had them in the crosshairs, you know, and it was all about reelection. And then finally Wolf poses the billion dollar question,” Pat said.
Blitzer asked, “Is there any evidence that the suspected shooter in this particular case was a Sarah Palin fan?” to which his guest had to admit there was not.
Glenn took the opportunity to say why he chose to stay off the air and not comment on the story until his usual radio show on Monday morning. He explained:
“As I was sitting in Spider-Man and I had no details, by the end of Spider-Man, I knew that it was a Democrat that had been shot, I knew others had been shot, I knew that a 9-year-old had been killed, I knew that they had caught the gunman but I knew nothing about it. I immediately text messaged everyone: Not one word until the facts are out. No speculation. That's what responsible people do. Could have tweeted. I've got The Blaze. GlennBeck.com. I could have walked over from the show over to Fox. They would have put me on the air. I had no facts. Thus only an idiot has an opinion.”