By Brad Friedman on 12/11/2009, 3:05am PT  

Those "conservative" Fox "News" fans sure do use a lot of F-words in their death threats.

We're used to various death threats by now, of course, even from Drudge's poodle, Andy "Big Government" Breitbart, but those socially "conservative," American "values"-lovin', Fox "News" viewers have really outdone themselves this time.

On Monday night, FoxNews.com featured a story on the latest announcement from VR's StopTheChamber.com campaign, concerning the offer of a $200,000 reward for insider information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tom Donohue, the CEO of the right-wing corporatist lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. [Disclosure: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us]

Apart from his work at the Chamber, Donohue has run a number of major corporations into the ground, as his tenure as CEO at each was generally plagued by improprieties, plunging stock values (coupled with soaring executive pay), scandal, various forms of illegal behavior, and SEC investigations. He was found by the FEC to have made millions of dollars in illegal corporate campaign contributions in 2004 and is now facing a criminal investigation by the DoJ about that, even while he runs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in many ways, as nothing short of a criminal racket.

Unlike many similar campaigns VR has run in the past, offering such rewards for whistleblower information about wrong-doers over the years, this one caught the attention of the folks at Fox for some reason, and they decided to splash it on the front page of their website this week with a bold graphic shouting: "HUNTED BY THE LEFT: Bounty Put on Head of Chamber Boss." For good measure, in the story itself, they used the word "Liberal" a total of four times before they even finished the second graf. (An email to the story's author, Judson Berger, explaining that VR is a non-partisan group and works with folks of many different political bents, including Republicans, led them to change their headline from the wholly misleading "Liberal Group Puts Bounty on Head of Chamber of Commerce CEO" to the slightly-less misleading "Activist Group Puts Bounty on Head..." etc.)

Anyway, while there is no bounty on anybody's "head," and no one is being "HUNTED," the StopTheChamber.com campaign does feature a reward for information leading to Donohue's arrest and conviction. Roll Call also covered [$-only] VR's announcement on Monday, though much more responsibly (in a far less inflammatory way) than Fox did.

But this story is not about that, it's about the unbelievable amount of email that was sent from, presumably, those "socially conservative" Fox "News" fans in which a good 98% of those notes contained one or more of the following:

  • Threats of death or violence;
  • The F-Word (or similar);
  • Accusations of Nazism and/or Communism (never mind that it's difficult to be both) or Marxism or Socialism;
  • Racist slurs against Obama;
  • Accusations that VR is working with or for the White House or the Democrats (which is somewhat amusing if you know anything about VR).

And, of course, many of them offer the cruelest cut of them all; they wish VR a "Merry Christmas." Ouch, that one hurts!

So here are just a few samples from some of those friendly emails from those good "conservatives" of Fox "News" willing to send out death threats, we'll guess, in support of the millionaire corporate lobbyists and billionaire corporations of the U.S. Chamber who've spent more money buying Congressmembers than anybody else in the country. These, apparently, are the Fox "News" "conservatives" --- Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly's "patriots" and Sean Hannity's "great Americans" --- as almost all of them came in at the same time that Fox's story on VR's reward offer was posted on the front page of FoxNews.com.

Out of an abundance of generosity, we're not posting the emailers names here (each bullet-point quote below comes from a different note) but the ones which include threats of violence have been given to the FBI [PDF] in D.C., along with a request for an investigation to find out if the Chamber itself might be behind the hit campaign.

As many of these are not safe for work, we'll post them below the fold...

* * *

  • "Leave the US Chamber of Commerce alone. This is the only warning you will receive."
  • "You WILL be confronted and stopped ... I am quite probably a member of the fasting [sic] growing group that is your direct enemy..."
  • "Your [sic] all on borrowed time. The real revolution will come to those soon"
  • "You peices [sic] of shit should all be fucking burned at the stake"
  • "I dont make threats. Only promises. You better back the hell off"
  • "interesting site but this will be no velvet revolution people. Quite the contraire [sic] as you give the moniker a bad name. ... Now, if you want a revolution which it sounds as though you do, it most certainly wont be velvet."
  • "Be careful what you ask for..."
  • "Keep this $200,000 'tip' business going for the CEO of the Chamber and you will find yourself as the target.... You will only receive a limited number of warning --- this may be the only one --- before your punishment is delivered."
  • "Bounty on your head. Beware"
  • "All I can say is 'Go Fuck your Mother'....What a pathetic left wing org this is......run by...wait for it.......Mother Fuckers......."
  • "FUCK YOU COMMUNIST MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!! GET READY. CIVIL WAR II IS COMING, AND IT WILL BE THE RIGHT VS. THE LEFT THIS TIME. THE RIGHT WILL WIN. FUCK YOU ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!"
  • "your low life president Barry Boy along with Reid and Pelosi should all be arrested and tried for treason."
  • "Please let the world know who is behind this bounty offer so that they can be 'recognized' for their decision."
  • "I will inform friends and family of your thoughts and movements"
  • "Your group is a fascist front group. Why don't you and your band of traitors come to Texas and hold a big protest. We will 'welcome' you here."
  • "Try yourselves for treason againsst [sic] the U.S. and then we can hang you for your crimes against this country."
  • "Here is a tip --- eat shit you fucking liberal pussy faggots. if you nigger loving hippies ever succeed in anything to ruin this country, you will find me banging down your door to take it back. i cannot believe how far this country has fallen when fucks like you are allowed to roam free - go back to your ghettos and hide behind the food stamp, hand out line with all your other crack whore mothers"
  • "If you haven't already figured this out, you work for a very corrupt organization that is sponsored by the anti-Christ--even Satan himself."
  • (Subject: "Ingorance?" [sic]): "What is wrong with you slimy idiots? Just because someone or some group has more brains that [sic] your half white, half black, half assed, 100% bull shit leader you have to try and slander them? Must be part of the ACORN (A Conglomeration Of Racial Nuts (or whatever starts with N)."
  • "your boys numbers are plummeting ... your boy goes even more lame than he will be after he doesn't get healthcare, and gets destroyed in 2012."
  • "I am joining the Chamber just because of asshats like y'all and that Big-Eared Boy from Chicago. ... A Proud Texan"
  • "bend over and spread em and I'll give you more than the tip"
  • "I think he gave your mama a big tip up her ass, and the piece of shit that fell out was you!
  • "FUCKING LOSERS!"
  • "Douche Canoes! YOU SUCK! You liberal fucken [sic] asswipes."
  • FUCK YOU DOUCHE BAGS
  • "2 cents for the arrest and indictment of NAZI traitors who belong to this Leftard Fascist ANTI-AMERICAN bunch of pissant girlieboys. How's Hitler...you should know. You and your Islamic Nazi allies."
  • "Where is your next get together in Miami, Fl...I'd like to go down to the rally and kick all your ass' for being a bunch of piece of crap communist !!! Let me know... You bunch of pigs"
  • "Fuck off and die you leftist pricks. America is not a socialist country and never will be if I have to kick every one of your body odor smelling asses out of my country. So again FUCK OFF!!!!"
  • "Any truth to the rumors that Obama likes men? Or, that he's a closet Muslim?"
  • "Send Velvet Revolution NAZIs to Gitmo they should endure a dose of the so-called 'torture' they're crying like the queer girlieboys that they really are. ... The more torture of Islamohitlerite babykilling Fascist pigs, the better. You should be with them."
  • May the islamic terrorists if they strike the U.S. again, aim at the White House West Wing and residence, the Congressional Office Buildings and Democratic lobbyists on K st. Maybe then we can get a government of the people.

And no, that's not all of them. Just a sampling from the good "conservatives" in America who watch Fox "News" and read their website "religiously."

If you'd like to "push back" against the thuggery, you can sign on in support of VR's "Stop The Chamber" campaign here.

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