Snark: to annoy or irritate

"Snark" has been in English language dictionaries since at least 1906, and Lewis Carroll used the word to describe a mythological animal in his poem, The Hunting of the Snark (1874). Most recently, the word has come to characterize snappish, sarcastic, or mean-spirited comments or actions directed at those who annoy or irritate us.

At first, this blog was just going be a place to gripe, but because it's more satisfying to take action than it is to merely complain, now most of the posts/reposts suggest ways to get involved in solving problems.


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Turn Off FOX in Public

If you've ever seen Glenn Beck's show, you know how paranoid, mis-
leading and hateful his rants can be. But it's even worse than that.
The extreme rhetoric espoused by Beck and others on FOX News is 
scary because it's easy to see how this rhetoric could inspire violent 
acts against progressives. Unfortunately, a new report makes clear 
that's exactly what happened in at least one near-tragic case.1
Three months ago, a heavily armed man named Byron Williams 
was on his way to kill people at two non-profit organizations in 
San Francisco when he got into a gun battle with police. Luckily, 
they arrested him before he could carry out his plot. Now, in an 
interview from jail, the "progressive hunter" has revealed that in 
fact Fox News' Glenn Beck was a major inspiration:
"Beck will never say anything about a conspiracy, will never 
advocate violence ... But he'll give you every ounce of 
evidence that you could possibly need."2
Byron Williams is just one example of the very real and growing 
danger of political violence from the far-right — and FOX's 
continued promotion of hatemongers like Glenn Beck only fans 
the flames.
That's why we've partnered with Color of Change to launch a 
campaign to reduce FOX's poisonous, dangerous influence on 
our nation. More than 200,000 people have signed the petition 
asking businesses and public places to stop playing FOX News. 
Will you add your voice?
This story is personal. Byron Williams came frighteningly close to 
killing our friends at the offices of the Tides Foundation and the 
ACLU — which is less than one block from CREDO.
While many Americans are aware of the ACLU, the Tides 
Foundation is an organization that most people had never 
heard of — until Glenn Beck started demonizing and spreading
 false information about them. Since Beck's show premiered, 
he has pushed conspiracy theories involving Tides on nearly 
30 episodes. During the same time period, Tides was never 
mentioned on other news channels.3,4
According to the interview with Williams just released by 
Media Matters, he was driven by a bizarre and false 
conspiracy theory involving the Tides Foundation that 
Glenn Beck pushed multiple times on his television show.5
It's stunningly irresponsible for FOX to continue legitimizing this 
baseless and incendiary nonsense under their "news" banner. 
Will you join us in asking businesses to Turn Off FOX on their 
TVs, and stop promoting this dangerous rhetoric in our 
communities?
Williams is the clearest example we have of someone who 
was motivated by FOX News to engage in political violence
 — but he's part of a consistent pattern of violence from 
far-right extremists that underscores the danger of the hateful 
rhetoric and misinformation that's commonplace on FOX 
News and the right-wing noise machine.6,7
Beck's program in particular is so extreme that 296 organizations 
have asked FOX to pull their advertisements from his show. 
(Beck's show is known as "empty calories" because it draws few 
advertising dollars but substantial ratings.)8 Yet despite this 
significant pressure from advertisers, and clear evidence that 
FOX News broadcasts have lead to real-world violence, FOX 
continues promoting hate and fear, packaged as news.
This rhetoric is amplified every time it's played on a TV in a 
bar, restaurant or other public business. We can send a 
strong message to FOX, and reduce the reach of FOX's 
dangerous messaging, by encouraging businesses near us to 
turn it off.
Thankfully, police were able to stop Byron Williams before he 
committed a massacre. But it can happen again — let's do 
Thanks,
Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

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