Why does a drunken blog post bring the SS to the door, but Beck can yell "pitchforks and torches" ?

[HopeHoops]

Seriously.

Some guy makes a drunken blog post about wanting to hurt the president and the SS raids his house and takes all of his computers while he's sitting on the john with the beer shits.

Beck incites mobs to riot and gives them the fucking addresses and times at which to do it! We've got documented cases of guns being brought to these things - and the bomb sniffing dogs hit on a pickup at Obama's venue in Portsmouth, NH. Oh, but "don't do anything violent (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)."

Why isn't the SS all over HIS ass? He has a national audience of angry ignorant morons with nothing better to do than scream about that which they do not comprehend. I don't know about you, but I think that's a far greater threat than an hungover guy in Toledo who doesn't even remember being on the computer the night before.

[lurky]

1. I bet every word is parsed by Fox lawyers

before he says it. They want to go as close to the legal line without actually crossing it.

[MineralMan]

2. It's a fine, but precisely drawn line.

General threats against the government don't cross the line. Beck and his cronies know exactly how far they can push their 1st Amendment rights on the air. The drunk blogger doesn't. He threatens the President directly. That is a violation of a federal law that is very specific.

Beck and the other blabbers are smart enough to make their threats vague enough to be explained away if the SS shows up. Advocating taking pitchforks and torches to Washington is not a "credible thread" against the President. It's just more bloviation.