The UpshotGunman says he watched Beck and read right-wing sites
Before Byron Williams engaged in a shootout with California Highway Patrol officers in July, he watched Fox News' Glenn Beck, listened to conservative radio host Michael Savage, and got news and information from Alex Jones' InfoWars.com and several right-wing fringe websites.
Normally there isn't significant interest in what a convicted felon read and watched before heading to jail. But Williams' media diet is getting attention now because two journalists met separately with the gunman to discuss what drove him to target organizations routinely attacked by conservative talkers: the Tides Foundation, a left-leaning charity, and the ACLU. Both journalists asked Williams specifically about the influence of Beck, a popular television and radio host who recently demonstrated his clout by flooding the National Mall with supporters in August.
On Monday, liberal watchdog Media Matters published its research under the headline "Progressive Hunter" -- a jailhouse confession that it claims shows "how the right-wing media and Glenn Beck's chalkboard drove Byron Williams to plot assassination." The Media Matters interview lands three days after Examiner.com — a crowd-sourced website owned by conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz — published an interview with Williams. The Examiner.com writer, Ed Walsh, similarly looked at Williams' media interests but stopped short of placing blame on the Fox News star. Its headline: "Freeway gunman Byron Williams says Glenn Beck did not incite him to violence."
Walsh doesn't dispute that Williams watched Beck, but he writes that Williams claims to have "felt forced to act out in violence because Beck and others in the right wing media were not fighting hard enough against organizations like the left-leaning Tides Foundation." Williams told Walsh that he already knew about the Tides Foundation before Beck began targeting an organization that got scant attention from the mainstream media.
"I'm actually mad at Fox," Williams told Walsh. "I'm mad at them because they go on to something else. It's like they drop the issue and it lands on a shelf somewhere to collect dust. And that's what's happening to the truth. It's going out and collecting dust. I say you're not going to let these people get away with this stuff. You can't let them get away with it. So this was my action because of Fox's neglect."
Washington Post columnist and Beck chronicler Dana Milbank wrote Sunday that the issue isn't whether Beck directly advocated violence, but that the Fox News host is "giving voice and legitimacy to the violent fringe."
Beck, often at his chalkboard covered in wide-ranging conspiracy theories, includes the Tides Foundation in his rants, which often involve liberal billionaire George Soros or other progressive organizations. Media Matters counted 29 examples of Beck criticizing the Tides Foundation in the year and a half before Williams opened fire.
Williams told John Hamilton of liberal Pacifica Radio -- who conducted the interview and investigation for Media Matters -- that "Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. ... But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need." Williams also said Beck is "like a schoolteacher on TV."
Watch Media Matters' video, including Williams' statements and footage of Beck's criticism, below:
(Photo of Beck, top, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington in February: AP/ Jose Luis Magana. Photo of Williams: Alameda County Sheriff's Department)
