Fox News: Armed White Militia Dudes Not Thugs Because Come On, You Guys

[contextly_sidebar id="CEOuVXX5FPaeh9gjdNKXQRhBv74QRKr3"]If you want a clear explanation of what all the militia hoopla in Burns, Oregon, is about, don't go reading comsymp mommyblogs. Look no further than Fox News, where we learn that the real reason for the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge is Government Gone Wild, with the federal agencies going around flashing their acronyms for cheap strings of beads. And it isn't even Mardi Gras yet!

Fox's Martha MacCallum, noting that "many of the militiamen are white," bravely waded into the muddy racial politics of how the media is covering the militia takeover as compared to the language used to discuss other protests, the kinds where not almost nobody was armed but everyone was a thug. Citing a Washington Post piece on the politics of what to call the militants, MacCallum noted that it's pretty unlikely any media source would refer to armed black people taking over a federal building as "activists" or "occupiers." Fox contributor and Conservative Review correspondent Deneen Borelli was having none of that liberal tripe and political correctness, and wow, did she ever toss up an impressive bowl of word salad:

Well, nothing like the left-wing media using an opportunity to really cloud the instance that’s going on in Oregon, to confuse people, and that's what the left-wing media does ... What people need to understand, what’s going on in Oregon, it is really an overgrowth of government, government gone wild, is outreach of government. You have these individuals who are trying to save their property, save their ranch because the overrun of government is not doing that. Government owns a substantial amount of property in the West. And these individuals were trying to save their property.

If you want to get really technical about it, that doesn't make a single goddamn bit of sense. The people who took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge do not own any property nearby. They're armed insurrectionists from all over the place, notably some Bundy brothers from Nevada, Jon Ritzenheimer from Arizona, and Ryan Payne from Montana. The father and son that the armed gang is supposedly supporting, Dwight and Steve Hammond, have asked them to please not "help" -- they were convicted of arson on federal land adjacent to their property, and are willing to serve their sentences. Finally, this is not about anyone protecting their land: It's about a bunch of armed crazies who insist that the federal government doesn't own the federal government's land. Borelli really seems to have a weird sense of what land ownership means -- no matter how much the militia dudes scream otherwise, there is no threat to take the Hammonds' land from them, and the land being occupied by the militia idiots is not theirs, except insofar as all Americans have access to federal land. Also, the Oregon Audubon Society would prefer that while the Bundy Bunch is playing Revolution, they not disturb the birds, which belong only to themselves.

Guest Jessica Ehrlich, the token Democrat in the discussion, didn't want to get into any race stuff at all, but did note that the determination of whether the Bundy Band would be charged as "terrorists" was up to law enforcement and the courts. She came mighty close to calling them vigilantes, even, what with the whole "taking the law into their own hands" thing that America supposedly frowns on, except in our popular entertainment. MacCallum tried to steer the question back to why black protesters get called "thugs," but armed white bandits get called "constitutional activists" or something. Borelli was ready with some canned, precooked outrage:

What happened in Missouri is really outrageous because you had individuals who were very destructive, they destroyed property, they destroyed their community. We’re looking at Oregon; right now, these individuals are being peaceful, they're outraged about the overgrowth of government. It’s government gone wild. And I tell you, we don’t want to see this happen across the country, but this is an example of something that can happen because of the overgrowth of government. And Americans are tired of government intrusion in their everyday lives. And so, these individuals, right now, are peaceful, they want to rein in government gone wild.

That's pretty impressive: Some people rioted in Ferguson, so all demonstrators -- including the unarmed ones who marched and chanted -- are culpable. Meanwhile, the armed guys who broke into and plan to occupy a government building are peaceful, at least as long as the government doesn't go wild on them anymore and shake its Spotted Owls in their face. Borelli also seemed to find something obscene in the mere fact that the federal government owns a lot of territory in the West:

Why is it that the federal government owns 47% of western states, in our country? In Oregon alone, the federal government owns 53% of the property. So it’s really outrageous how government is creeping into our everyday lives no matter what it is you’re doing. And people just want to be left alone.

Borelli didn't need to explain why that might be outrageous, it simply is. Heaven knows, as an Idahoan, Yr Dok Zoom has to take a broom and beat back the federal government from encroaching on our personal space several times a day. That, or the unwashed dishes piling up in the sink. But it's the principle of the thing, which is why this Government Gone Wild must be told to put on some clothes and stop twerking its big federal booty up against We The People when we don't even want to buy it a drink. Go home, Federal Government, you're drunk.

[ RawStory / Media Matters ]