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Posted on YouTube: January 13, 2011
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Posted on DU: January 13, 2011
By DU Member: ThirdChoice
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Conservative Media Attack Native American Blessing At AZ Memorial Service
Following the memorial service for the victims of the tragic shooting in Tucson, several in the right-wing media attacked and mocked the inclusion of a Native American blessing as part of the invocation.
Speaker Carlos Gonzales Delivers Native American Blessing At AZ Memorial Service
During the January 12 memorial service held at the University of Arizona for the victims of the tragic Tucson shooting, Carlos Gonzales, who is an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, delivered a traditional Native American blessing.
Right-Wing Media Attack "Rambling" Prayer As "Most Peculiar"
Hume: "While I'm Sure Has An Honorable Tradition With People, It Was Most Peculiar." After Fox News aired the Tucson memorial live on January 12, several Fox News anchors commented on the service. Brit Hume said he thought the "sobriety you might have expected was not to be found" at the service and attributed this "tone and atmosphere," in part, to the "opening blessing" by Gonzales, which he called "most peculiar."
HUME: I just wanted to add, I think that the president prepared this speech in the expectation this would be indeed a memorial service. I think it ended up being nothing of the kind. This was much more of a pep rally, and perhaps that is precisely what the people of Tucson and the people of this region needed.
BRET BAIER, HOST: And wanted.
HUME: And wanted. And it was really the case that the audience was really in control of the tone of this event. That the audience's reaction to the president and to the earlier speakers -- and may I say to some of the earlier speakers as well, set the tone for an event. The president had prepared his speech, I think, to have a certain kind of tone. I think he would have liked it not to go on for 36 minutes or whatever it did, but it was interrupted so repeatedly by applause, but he really couldn't help that. It was still longer than, as Chris pointed out, too, several of the other speeches on similar occasions that we remembered.
BAIER: It is on a college campus. It is in a stadium. But you covered President Clinton as he delivered that address in Oklahoma City.
HUME: It was a similar hall. It was just -- the whole tone and atmosphere was different. And I kept thinking this week, you know, that he was going out on Wednesday -- Wednesday, it's just a few, just a couple of days and yet it seems somehow longer to me. It almost seems as if this event is a little late. Certainly the mood in that auditorium suggested that the sense of mournfulness that you might have expected and sobriety you might have expected was not to be found tonight. And of course, I think, the whole thing is attributable in part to the remarkable opening blessing that was delivered by, what was his name, Carlos Gonzales, who by the time it was over with, he had blessed the reptiles of the sea, and he had prayed to the four doors of the building, and while I'm sure that all has an honorable tradition with his people, with it was most peculiar.
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http://mediamatters.org/research/201101130011