In the Crosshairs

Many have ridiculed CNN for apologizing yesterday when a guest used the word “crosshairs.” “We’re trying to get away from that language,” said CNN’s John King. “We won’t always be perfect, so hold us accountable when we don’t meet your standards.” This all relates, of course, to the Tucson shootings and the Left’s effort–which apparently is ongoing–to blame Sarah Palin’s map for Jared Loughlin’s rampage.
So Byron York did some word searching in CNN’s archives, and found that in the month before the Tucson shootings CNN hosts and guests used the term “crosshairs” no less than seven times. Two of those references were to Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. CNN described Palin as “in the crosshairs of big time Hollywood producer, Aaron Sorkin,” while Bachmann was “in the crosshairs of Democrats.”
If someone tries to shoot Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann, will it be CNN’s fault for putting them in the crosshairs? Of course not. But it goes to show how silly the current talk about “rhetoric” is.