If someone already covered this here — or if mentioning Olbermann on these pages has been prohibited in my absence — my apologies. But, this Very Special Comment about the 9/11 tribute at the RNC raised my blood pressure enough to motivate me to write.
OLBERMANN: Years ago, responsible television networks, to the applause of this nation and the relief of its mental health authorities, voluntarily stopped showing the most graphic of the images of the World Trade Center, except with the strongest of warnings. And yet the Republicans, at their convention, having virtually seized control of the cable news operations showed the worst of it.
[…]
[The portrayal] was terrifying. After all, its object was, to terrify. Not to commemorate, not to call for unity, not to remember the dead, but to terrify. To open again the horrible wounds. To brand the skin of this nation with the message as hateful as the terrorists own, that you must vote Republican or this will happen again and you will die.
Well, he got the message, but missed the point. Of course it was terrifying — 9/11 was terrifying. But showing images of terrorism doesn’t a terrorist make. And hiding images of terrorism doesn’t make it go away. I guess small children will continue to cover their eyes thinking the world has disappeared.