Right-Wing Media Reflexively Politicize Alleged Iranian Terror Plot

Written by Brian Powell

Published

Attorney General Eric Holder hadn't even stepped away from the podium of his press conference about an alleged Iranian terror plot before right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, CNN contributor Dana Loesch, and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin began politicizing the announcement.

Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller took to the microphone this afternoon to deliver details about an alleged terror plot in which, according to a Justice Department press release, two individuals were “directed by elements of the Iranian government to murder the Saudi Ambassador to the United States with explosives while the Ambassador was in the United States.” One of the plotters allegedly attempted to hire what he thought were members of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the murder.

Limbaugh started smearing the event before the conference even began, telling his audience that Holder's announcement was “a great way to sidestep the fact that he's being delivered a subpoena on Fast and Furious,” the failed ATF operation that is currently under DOJ and congressional investigation. Limbaugh added that the announcement was “all about” trying to give Holder “something to distract everybody away from Fast and Furious.”

The press conference ended at 2:29 p.m. EST, but by 2:22 p.m., Loesch, too, was already politicizing Holder's comments on Twitter, trying to tie the alleged terrorists to Fast and Furious.

Malkin joined in as well, on Twitter and her blog, calling the announcement a “diversion” from Fast and Furious and saying she was not “fooled”:

Sadly, this kind of rapid-reaction politicization of grave, apolitical events is well-worn territory for commenters on the right. Right-wing media rushed to attack the Obama administration in 2010 after an attempted New York City car bombing and reports of an attempted shoe bombing on a domestic flight over Denver. And in January 2010, Limbaugh said that President Obama wanted to use the devastating Haiti earthquake to boost credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.”