While last night's "Daily Show" took a swipe at Congressional "quick fixes" after the shooting in Arizona, "The Colbert Report" focused on the media's "right to rage" in the wake of the tragedy. In the popular "Word" segment, Stephen Colbert defended our right to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of angriness."
The now infamous "crosshairs" map has been used as an example of the kind of angry rhetoric that may have influenced the shooting in Arizona, but according to Colbert, "graphics are not a call to action." Even if they were, Colbert showed a clip where SarahPAC employee Rebecca Mansour said the crosshairs were actually "surveyor's symbols."
"Which explains why this map of surveyor's symbols was immediately taken down from the Palin website," Colbert rationalized. "Because Sarah Palin knows that now is not the time to determine land elevation."
Colbert also used Palin's "blood libel" comment during her "State of my living room address" this week to back up his argument. Agreeing with Palin that angry political rhetoric didn't cause "apolitical" Jared Lee Loughner to attack, Colbert went so far as to say that angry political rhetoric is actually good for us.
"So if there's no evidence that incendiary rhetoric has any connection to this unspeakable horror, it logically follows that it must be good. After all, there's no telling how many lives I've saved by yelling 'fire' in a crowded movie theater."
Watch the rest of the segment to see how Glenn Beck fits into all this.
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