Violence on a Fox affiliate, and the absurdity of the Trump-era blame game

It would be absurd to blame either Todd or De Blasio for the attack, but it would be fitting if we played by the rules of other major media following other recent attacks.

Michael Chadwick Fry, 34, was not “incited” by Mayor de Blasio’s harsh anti-Fox rhetoric. Nor was Fry inspired by a recent Atlantic op-ed wherein Todd correctly identified Fox’s many professional failings (though, glass houses and all that).

If you’re looking to cast blame in situations pertaining to acts of violence against media, look no further than the people who commit the acts. They are responsible. No one else.

On Wednesday, Fry, 34, “repeatedly rammed his Dodge Ram pickup into a side wall of the building,” Fox 4 reported.

The man then exited his vehicle and started ranting about “treason.”

“You could see the man’s pickup truck, the front of it clearly smashed,” said FOX 4 reporter Brandon Todd, who watched the entire incident from an office window. “When we went into the office we saw him and he was in the bed of his truck and he was throwing boxes into the street and then just grabbing handfuls of paper and throwing handfuls of paper into the street as well.”

He added, “Originally when he was in the bed of the truck he was yelling out ‘High treason! High treason!’”

Just two days before the attack, the Atlantic published an op-ed by Todd, titled “It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining — And to Start Fighting Back.”

Its subhead reads, “A nearly 50-year campaign of vilification, inspired by Fox News’s Roger Ailes, has left many Americans distrustful of media outlets. Now, journalists need to speak up for their work.”

Todd writes, “If journalists are going to defend the integrity of their work, and the role it plays in sustaining democracy, we’re going to need to start fighting back. The idea that our work will speak for itself is hopelessly naive. Fox, [Rush] Limbaugh, and the rest of the Trump echo chamber have proved that.”

Earlier, on Aug. 7, de Blasio said the U.S. would be far better off if News Corp. never existed.

“If you could remove News Corp. from the last 25 years of American history, we would be in an entirely different place,” he told the Guardian, referring to the company that owns Fox, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and dozens of newspapers.

Without News Corp., the mayor added, “we would be a more unified country. We would not be suffering a lot of the negativity and divisiveness we’re going through right now. I can’t ignore that.”

Now, if we were to apply the Trump-era blame game rules, we would say de Blasio’s anti-News Corp. rhetoric can’t be separated from the violence in Dallas. We would say de Blasio and Todd bear some responsibility for the incendiary anti-Fox rhetoric that has raised the heat — and the stakes — for Fox News journalists just doing their jobs (even though law enforcement officials said they don’t believe Fry intentionally targeted the press). We would even maintain that there’s a connection between the Fox criticisms and the Dallas incident, while also maintaining the Fox criticisms didn’t cause the Dallas incident (good luck figuring that one out).

Obviously, it would be absurd to push these scurrilous positions.

Likewise, it’s just as absurd to accuse President Trump of being responsible for all acts of violence against media because he loves attacking the press. Pinning incidents like the Capital Gazette shooting on Trump is just as insane as pinning the Dallas attack on de Blasio or Todd. It’s lazy and wrongheaded.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: People are responsible for the things they do. Don’t blame their actions on the things public officials or celebrities say.

Don’t let bad actors off the hook by taking away their agency. Don’t let them off the hook by suggesting the real danger is something said by a third party. Don’t free the criminal from the crime.