“Gunny” Bob again attacked Daily Kos and its Democratic supporters, calling them a “demented, putrid segment of our society”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Newsradio 850 KOA host “Gunny” Bob Newman on his August 6 show attacked the blog Daily Kos as a “hate website” that “likely will become a force of hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.” Newman made a similar attack on his August 2 broadcast when, echoing Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, he referred to the Daily Kos' 2007 YearlyKos Convention as “bigger than any KKK, Nazi, or Muslim terrorist gathering.” As Colorado Media Matters has documented, Newman has a history of inflammatory rhetoric and regularly uses terms such as “hate group” and “hatemonger” to describe those with whom he disagrees.

On his August 6 show, Newsradio 850 KOA host “Gunny” Bob Newman again attacked the Daily Kos blog, stating, “If we ignore ... this growing radical segment of our society, they could and likely will become a force of hatred, intolerance, and bigotry that helps one of their supporters seize the White House in 2008. And may God have mercy upon us if that happens.” As Colorado Media Matters noted, Newman on his August 2 show echoed Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's recent attacks on Daily Kos by referring to the 2007 YearlyKos Convention as “bigger than any KKK, Nazi, or Muslim terrorist gathering.” In recent weeks, Media Matters for America repeatedly has documented (here, here, here, here, and here), O'Reilly's comparison of Daily Kos to the Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, white supremacist David Duke, and gangster Al Capone.

Newman added on his August 6 broadcast that "[t]rue American patriots stand up to hate. We stand up to intolerance; we stand up to bigotry. And if we don't, given the in-your-face, screw-you, direct and vehement support of the Daily Kos by such political kingpins as" Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and others, “we will see this, this demented, putrid segment of our society continue to grow and become increasingly powerful on Capitol Hill where some of their foot soldiers occupy seats of great power, as you know.”

As Colorado Media Matters has documented (here, here, here, here, here, and here), Newman frequently labels people and groups with whom he disagrees -- including the American Civil Liberties Union and a Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee -- as hatemongers and hate groups. Colorado Media Matters has further noted Newman's own inflammatory rhetoric, including the following examples:

  • On April 11, Newman claimed that the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling granted a woman the “right to kill her child whenever she wished, so long as it wasn't born yet.” Newman then said that while he found the idea of abortion “obscene,” it “would be OK” to abort “horrible people” such as prominent Democrats, former dictators, an anti-war activist, and a terrorist leader, among others. Among those Newman said it “would be OK” to abort were TV personality Rosie O'Donnell, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
  • Discussing the breakup of an alleged terrorist plot to attack U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix, Newman said on his May 8 show that “every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times,” and that the government should “bug their places of work and their residences” and monitor "[a]ll mosques and community centers." Newman added, “If they don't like the idea, or if they refuse, throw their asses out of this country.”
  • After a caller said on the June 28 broadcast of The Gunny Bob Show that U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) “might have a heart attack ... and just drop dead, hopefully,” Newman replied, “Yeah, but that's a waste of a good coffin.”

From the August 6 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show:

NEWMAN: How do conservatives deal with the growing extremism of liberals as evidenced at the YearlyKos hate and intolerance convention which just finished up in Chicago -- which is an event put on by the Daily Kos hate website? If we ignore these growing, this growing radical segment of our society, they could and likely will become a force of hatred, intolerance, and bigotry that helps one of their supporters seize the White House in 2008. And may God have mercy upon us if that happens. 303-713-8585. I'm “Gunny” Bob, 850 KOA. True American patriots stand up to hate. We stand up to intolerance; we stand up to bigotry. And if we don't, given the in-your-face, screw-you, direct and vehement support of the Daily Kos by such political kingpins as Pelosi and Reid and Obama and Hillary and Dodd and others, we will see this, this demented, putrid segment of our society continue to grow and become increasingly powerful on Capitol Hill where some of their foot soldiers occupy seats of great power, as you know. Make no mistake, gang, the radical left and their new media mad bombers at Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, and so on will seize full control of our government unless American patriots come together to expose and fight them on every square yard of the political and social battlefield. The survival of our nation, the survival of our Constitution depend on it. We have got to start organizing now to use all of our legitimate, law-abiding power to defeat those who would, who would maim, who would destroy the country our Founding Fathers and so many since have risked and sometimes given their lives to defend. If hate groups again become major influences in the White House, as they are now in the Congress, what can we do about it? What do you intend to do about it?