Talk Radio Rhetoric Is Hot Topic

From Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

The caller's name is Avery, and as the call progresses he seems a case study in incendiary talk radio rhetoric.

In a slightly shaky voice, Avery reads from a book by Laura Ingraham, a syndicated conservative radio host whose show is on a couple of hours later on the local right-wing talk station, KQTH 104.1 The Truth.

The passage speaks about the need to emulate the country's founding fathers and fight back against the federal government. Avery says, "We have to say when enough is enough and we take up arms like our forefathers did —"

"You're certainly not justifying what happened Saturday," interjects Jon Justice, the host.

The rare conservative firebrand in a liberal town, the host of "The Jon Justice Show" has been dubbed, by admirers and detractors, Tucson's Rush Limbaugh. He's spent the days since the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords passionately arguing that heated political rhetoric on the airwaves does not cause violence.

Talk radio, which Limbaugh reinvigorated more than 20 years ago, is now part of its own conversation. There is no evidence that Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the shooting of Giffords and the killing of six others, even listened to it. But its daily dose of provocative rhetoric, mostly from conservative hosts, has taken center stage in the national debate over what has happened to civil discourse.

On Saturday, Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik issued his now-famous broadside against "vitriol" contributing to the attack. On Wednesday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took issue with him, saying in a Facebook video that crimes "begin and end with the criminal who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio...."

If an outsider wants to hear how all that is playing in Tucson, one way is to tune in to Justice.

Read more here.