Did Rightwing Talk Shows Drive Him to Kill?
The Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church Killings

According to the evidence, the man who walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church during a children’s show and fired three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation, killing two people and wounding six others before he was wrestled to the ground by church members, “hated liberals and gays.”

Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still wrote in his police report that the shooter, Jim David Adkisson, targeted the UU Church "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets." Adkisson's message has been broadcast on countless media outlets over the past few days, just going to show that in the 21st century, committing a sensational multiple murder is a very viable way to get your political “point” across to millions.

Adkisson, an unemployed truck driver and former member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne who recently ran out of food stamps, said that since "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement, that he would then target those that had voted them into office."

The UU's are nothing if not liberal, especially as churches go. Their website states that it has worked for "desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women's rights and gay rights" since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian teens. Sounds like an oasis of sanity in a sea of intolerant religiosity. Apparently, Adkisson targeted his victims for this precise reason. That and the fact that his estranged ex-wife used to be a UU member.

Inside Adkisson’s house, officers found the books "Let Freedom Ring" by right-wing TV talk show host Sean Hannity, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" by far right-wing radio talk show host Michael Savage, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by right-wing loofa lover Bill O'Reilly. There’s a great temptation to blame right-wing blowhards like Savage, Hannity and O'Reilly for Adkisson’s hate-fueled shooting spree, and many of my fellow lefty bloggamists are doing just that.

http://counterpunch.org/block08062008.html