Freeway Shooter Byron Williams Inspired By Glenn Beck, Fox News

by NowPublic Staff | October 13, 2010 at 08:47 am

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California I-580 Freeway Shooter Byron Williams Inspired By Glenn Beck And Alex Jones: Progressive group Color of Change Launches Turn Off Fox News Campaign

Does Glenn Beck on Fox News inspire people to hate and commit violence? Are Alex Jones and Infowars provoking people to take the law into their own hands. That is the question making the rounds of some Liberal and Progressive media outlets.

The question has been ignited after jail house interviews given by Byron Williams from Santa Rita prison outside Oakland.

Byron Williams apparently tried shoot at California Highway Police on I-580 in July during an intense gun battle. Police shot Williams and he ended up in hospital facing attempted murder charges. He allegedly wanted to kill members of the progressive Tides Foundation - a frequent target of Glenn Beck.

Byron Williams,45, happens to be a big a fan of Glenn Beck and Fox News. And big fan of Alex Jones and his websites Infowars and PrisonPlanet.

Byron Williams is now speaking out. There's an interview to Examiner.com and an audio tape obtained by the progressive Media Matters.

Williams says he planned to kill 11 people at Tides, a San Francisco-based foundation that supports progressive causes, to avenge the lives of the 11 men who were killed when the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf in April.

“I was going to kill 11 people at the Tides Foundation,” Williams said. “Why not?”

Williams blames the Obama administration and Billionaire George Soros for orchestrating the Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill.

In the audio tape obtained by Media Matter, Williams said that...

I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind.

Beck "would never advocate violence ... but he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need"

Glenn Beck of course rejects any notion that his Fox News program incites people to violence.

And in the Examiner.com interview Byron Williams says Fox News did not do enough to expose the lies of the Obama administration.

Williams said that it was because Fox News didn’t do enough to pursue the political left that he became frustrated and felt like violence was the only answer. “I’m actually mad at Fox. 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.

Byron Williams also relied on other sources besides Glenn Beck and Fox News.

He cited Alex Jones’ InfoWars.com and PrisonPlanet.com, the conspiracy Web site, AboveTopSecret.com, DavidIcke.com, JerimiahProject.com, ModernHistoryProject.org, DiscoverTheNetworks.org, as well as Glenn Beck’s Web site.

The Tides Foundation released this statement concerning Byron Williams and Glenn Beck on Fox.

This incident serves to remind us that it should be the obligation of every American, especially those whose voices are amplified by the media, to foster civil discourse and dialogue among those who may disagree about public matters. One does not win an argument by inciting unbalanced people to violence. As Americans, we know we are best at solving problems when we reach broadly across boundaries for the best of ideas. Intolerance that closes our eyes defeats our aspirations.

Meanwhile, the incident has sparked an online petition by another progressive group Color of Change which is calling on people to Turn Off Fox News

"I won't play Fox News in my home, and I'm calling on businesses and other public establishments to stop playing Fox. I don't want Fox spreading hate, lies, and division in my community, and I want to support businesses that are Fox-free"

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Grace H

at 15:51 on October 13th, 2010

Hate speech incites only hate and violence. The aggression therein is markedly irrational and requires some sort of trigger per se. There is no violence in that manner—where also the aggressor is not a sociopath—where something external did not provide motivation.

1onionpeeler

at 09:01 on October 14th, 2010

Congratulations, Glen. The fruit we will know you by is ripening.

Karen Hatter

at 10:02 on October 14th, 2010

The shooter alleges he 'read between the sentences' as a guide in determining what it was he needed to do.

Given Glenn Beck's history and his continually STATED references to violence in response to manufactured crises and created scenarios, the need for 'interpretation' would seem redundant.

Quoting Jefferson, Beck warns about "rivers of blood." On his Fox News show, Beck quoted a letter by Thomas Jefferson warning that " 'if they lose freedom' -- he's speaking of us, future generations -- 'if they lose freedom, there will be rivers of blood.' " Beck continued in his own words, "Boy, I hope that's not true, but I can tell you there will be rivers of blood if we don't have values and principles." [Glenn Beck, 5/14/10]

Ranting that gov't under Nixon "wasn't as corrupt as it is now," Beck suggests Obama admin might kill "10 percent" of population. Beck warned that "anarchists, Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, Maoists" have to "eliminate 10 percent of the U.S. population" in order to "gain control." They couldn't achieve such a goal when Richard Nixon was president, Beck stated, because "the family was together" and the government under Nixon "wasn't as corrupt as it is now." Beck added: "Now they can. Now they can." Beck later played a clip of an FBI agent who infiltrated the Weather Underground and warned about extremists who want to kill people. Beck responded to the clip by stating: "These are the same people that are everywhere in our government and our education system. Please, please. Learn from history. Please." [Glenn Beck, 6/10/10]

Beck on progressives: When the "soft revolution" fails, they "just start shooting people." Beck claimed that progressives are engaging in a "soft revolution" designed to silence voices like his. He added: "If somebody starts to turn on them, or they can't get everyone to silence, that's when the arrests come, or that's when they start a hard revolution. That's when they start just shooting people. I hope we don't get to that point. I pray that we don't get to that point, but I never thought this country would get to the point where we are today." [The Glenn Beck Program, 5/27/10]

Beck: "God will wash this nation with blood if he has to, but he doesn't have to." Referencing Lincoln's second inaugural address, Beck said that "God will wash this nation with blood if he has to, but he doesn't have to." Beck added that "we are passing all of the exits. Gang, there is one exit left. There is one exit left, and it is God. Everything that is coming our way is too big to handle on our own. If we do not put God at the center of our own personal lives and the center of our country, we will not survive. The country will be washed with blood and then someone will have to start over, and God only knows how long that takes." [The Glenn Beck Program, 8/25/10]

Beck: "The army ... of the extreme left is gathering" and they are saying "cops are bad, kill the cops." On his radio show, Beck discussed riots in Oakland, stating: "The army, if you will, of the extreme left is gathering, and they are coming to the conclusion of cops are bad, kill the cops, they're the oppressors. It's all the 1960s, you know, pig stuff. It's the same stuff." [The Glenn Beck Program, 7/12/10]

Beck's advice to Liberty grads: "Shoot to kill." During his May 15 commencement speech at Liberty University, Beck told graduates that they "have a responsibility" to speak out, or "blood ... will be on our hands." His advice for graduates (as well as his daughter) included "shoot to kill."

Mark G (not verified)

at 19:43 on October 14th, 2010

Wow - I just came upon nowpublic.com for the first time when I saw a link to another story appeared in a google search for news about a separate topic.... Now that I found this article, I see that this site is totally unbalanced. Your article quotes the shooter himself saying "[Glenn] Beck would never advocate violence .." Yet you blame beck for this wacko's violent actions? By your logic, we need to silence AlGore, since one of his disciples recently shot up the Discovery channel's HQ b/c he decided their programming wasn't green enough. While I disagree with many things AlGore has said, I am not aware that he has ever called for such violence, therefore he cannot be blamed when some wacko who shares his concerns decides independently that violence is the solution. Glenn Beck holds up Ghandi and MLK daily as how to solve our country's problems - he has repeatedly stated that violence is self defeating. For you to blame him (I am not familiar with the other supposed influences you cite) for this wacko's attack is intellectually dishonest.Why don't those of you who disagree with Glenn Beck et. al. address his arguments with your ideas and try to win the political/cultural debate with your logic, and facts that you think support it, sometimes instead of holding everyone you disagree with responsible for the actions of the crazies, misquoting them and taking their words out of context, etc..?

Karen Hatter

at 08:37 on October 15th, 2010

The shooter himself stated he was influenced by what he BELIEVED Glenn Beck meant as he listened to what was unsaid between the sentences.

As Glenn Beck often displays what could be characterized as an inability to self regulate his more inflammatory violent speech, seemingly, he assuredly will profess, un-beknownst to him, are those like this disturbed individual, who may struggle with an inability to discern between rhetorical flourish and literal interpretation.

In this individual's case, the conspiracy theories and the apocalyptic musings, with thinly veiled suggestions for how to handle the 'take back of America' is potent stuff for the unhinged.

All segments of the Right Wing, including the Religious Right, the majority found to identify most strongly with conservatives and the Republican Party, have been ranting and simultaneously wringing their hands in anticipation of the loss of THEIR VIEW of what reality SHOULD be in America.

The Right Wing has done its best to dismiss any responsibility for any of the crazies, including those who say it was their rhetoric that guided them on the path of their wholly personal, warped 'mission'.

From Letter from 2012 in Obama's America, offered by Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family's lobbying group, the Family Research Center, is headed by Tony Perkins, considered the most influential religious conservative in America.

Remember, this is presented as a farcical, although heavily implied, perceivable inevitability offered by the most powerful umbrella group of conservative Christians, whose ministries influence the U.S. and the world.

What is noteworthy of the gloom and doom offered in this fantasy document is that nearly all of the 'disastrous events' predicted in this 'letter' are all used by all segments of the Right Wing, not just the Religious Right, INCLUDING FOX News and Glenn Beck.

This has been going on and feeding the unhinged since the advent of then SENATOR Barack Obama's campaign in 2007.

From the Focus on the Family letter, authored by Dr. Reverend James Dobson:

Where is the opposition?

Has America completely lost God’s favor and protection as a nation? If it has, is this
surprising? How can God continue to bless a nation whose official policies promote blatant violation of God’s commands regarding the protection of human life, and sexual morality?

Why should God bless any nation that elects officials who remove people’s freedom of religion and freedom of speech and freedom even to raise their own children? His Word says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

Many brave Christian men and women tried to resist these laws, and some Christian legal agencies tried to defend them, but they couldn’t resist the power of a 6-3 liberal majority on the Supreme Court. It seems many of the bravest ones went to jail or were driven to bankruptcy. And many of their reputations have been destroyed by a relentless press and the endless repetition of false accusations.

The same question written in “The Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key in 1814 rings in the air:

O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Now in October 2012, after seeing what has happened in the last four years, the answer to that question is “No.”

Our freedoms have been systematically taken away. Many of “the brave” are in
jail. We are no longer “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

When posting this letter Focus in the Family prefaced this letter by stating this was not what would definitely happen but, it is intriguing that all of the talking points listed in the letter have survived and are currently used today by the Right Wing, with different segments using what they choose to make their entreaty to reclaim their nation, including the political offspring of the Republican Party, the TEA Party.

Also at NowPublic:

The 'Right Wing' Conspiracy

Karen Hatter

at 10:32 on October 16th, 2010

Tides calls for advertisers to boycott Fox over Beck's dangerous discourse

Progressive Hunter: CA cop shooter said Beck "exposed" things that "blew my mind." Alleged California highway shooter Byron Williams reportedly told investigators that "his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU." Beck, like Williams, has repeatedly obsessed over George Soros and the Tides Foundation.

As John Hamilton reported, Williams described Beck as "a schoolteacher" and said that "it was the things [Beck] exposed that blew my mind." Williams repeatedly cited specific Beck broadcasts when discussing a conspiracy theory involving Soros, President Obama, and a Brazilian oil company -- a theory that Williams said informed his alleged plot. Williams said that "Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. He'll never do anything ... of this nature. But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need."

Just hours before Beck's show, Tides CEO and founder called for Fox News ad boycott. Earlier on October 15, Tides CEO and founder Drummond Pike released a letter in which he noted that Williams relied heavily on conspiracy theories advanced on Beck's show and called on advertisers to stop supporting Fox News. Pike noted that "businesses that pay to broadcast commercials on Fox News are subsidizing Glenn Beck's television show by continuing to pump money into the network," adding, "It has become clear that the only way to stop supporting Beck is to stop supporting Fox News."

Beck repeatedly attacks Tides and Soros on October 15
"Let There Be ... Stuff?" curriculum guides teens to "explore the relationship between their consumption, their health, and the faith of the planet." Beck dedicated the October 15 edition of his Fox News program to attacking a project sponsored by the Tides Foundation and GreenFaith. The "Let There Be ... Stuff?" curriculum has been available since April for churches and other houses of worship to download at no cost and is designed to lead teenagers to "explore the relationship between their consumption, their faith, and the health of the planet." Beck previewed the October 15 episode on October 14 by stating:

BECK: Tomorrow night, oh, we're going to expose manipulation of the word of God by radical green movement and "Let There Be Stuff" and provide ways for you and your kids to respond to this propaganda.

Do not miss tomorrow, a full episode you must have on DVD. Tomorrow night.

Tomorrow, a very special episode. Boy, that's usually when I bring in the little neighbor kid. A very special episode -- indoctrination for your kids. Don't miss it. This time the indoctrination is happening in your churches and synagogues.

During his October 15 broadcast, Beck acknowledged the Tides curriculum contains "some truth," but continued to attack it with outrageous rhetoric.

Beck: Tides curriculum smells like "sulfur." Beck said of the Tides-sponsored curriculum: "They are going right into our churches and our synagogues. It's for the planet, you know. They want you to join a group. That's the best thing our teens can do is join a group." Beck then linked Tides to the devil by holding up the curriculum and stating, "Is that sulfur I smell? Yes, I think so."

Beck: Tides is "coming for your church and your faith." During the show, Beck stated that the Tides Foundation is now "coming for your church and your faith":

rick the vet (not verified)

at 06:49 on October 20th, 2010

republicans hate!!!!!

Del Tyler (not verified)

at 06:36 on October 22nd, 2010

This is what you socialists don't understand -- you claim TEA party supporters are racist nuts, etc., etc. The reason you are losing and will continue to lose is that, we who support the TEA party, Beck, Fox, and so on, are actually not what you and the left claim. We are simply Americans who see our country being sold off by TWO parties who seem to be deaf. Both parties say they are against deficits, yet they both run them up leaving us responsible individuals to pay the bill. We, the ones who pay the bills ARE the TEA party. Beck is just a cheerleader for us. It could be anyone who understands that we do not want government running us -- rather, per the Constitution, we should be runnign the government. I hope you keep up this nonsense -- you will just cause more people to wise up and join the TEA movement....... and to watch Beck.

Karen Hatter

at 06:49 on October 22nd, 2010

Actually, Del Tyler (not verified), the opposite effect will be the result as more Americans are made aware of the extremist, isolationist, xenophobic tendencies OF the TEA Party.

The 'cheer leading' only serves to rile the base, not encourage recruits.

Smoke and Mirrors: The Role of the TEA Party in American Politics

'thirty-aught-six" (not verified)

at 07:37 on October 22nd, 2010

The "progressive" always has a victim and a victimizer. In their world responsibility is always someone else's . That's why they are working night and day, filling the airwaves with their propaganda, to delete the individual, their rights and their responsibilities from the social mindset and the expression of law. Fascism piggy-backed on socialist idealism. The centrist majority must always play the determining role between left and right. Both hold their extremist.

Karen Hatter

at 08:23 on October 22nd, 2010

In the REAL world, there are causal effects for actions, thirty aught six (not verified).

Make no mistake: Glenn Beck has been inciting acts of terrorist violence, and the Byron Williams case clearly establishes it -- even though it is far from the first such case.

It in fact was preceded by several similar cases in which the dehumanizing rhetoric, scapegoating and conspiracist smears promoted by Fox clearly played a powerful role in the violence that ensued:

-- Jim David Adkisson's shooting attack on a Knoxville Unitarian church. Adkisson left behind a manifesto that repeated numerous right-wing talking points generated by Fox commentators and specifically cited a Bernard Goldberg book. His library at home was stocked with books by Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.

-- Richard Poplawski's shooting of three Pittsburgh police officers, because he believed a conspiracy theory that President Obama intended to take Americans' guns away from them, and he reportedly believed the cops had arrived to carry it out. Poplawski, a white supremacist, liked to post Beck videos about FEMA concentration camps to the Stormfront comments board.

-- Scott Roeder's assassination of Dr. George Tiller. Roeder was heavily involved in Operation Rescue and avidly read its newsletters -- which featured weekly pieces from Bill O'Reilly, including several attacking Tiller as a "baby killer" -- and its website, which liked to feature O'Reilly videos attacking Dr. Tiller. Indeed, O'Reilly had indulged a high-profile and unusually obsessive (not to mention vicious) jihad against Tiller, resulting in 42 such attacks on Tiller, 24 of which referred to him generically as a "baby killer."

The Byron Williams case was functionally a shot across Fox News' bow: a warning that it is playing with extreme fire by allowing Beck to recklessly demonize specific targets and to inflame his audience against them by imputing the most extreme and nefarious motives to them. In the case of Tides, Beck has been claiming all along that they are trying to "brainwash your children" -- a charge that always raises extremely visceral reactions.

aloc (not verified)

at 14:42 on October 28th, 2010

That's kind of ridiculous... Glen beck didn't cause that. That guy is just loony. Loony people need an excuse, not a reason. Shall I note the left-wing man who bit off the finger of a tea party supporter? This goes both ways. There are bad apples in every bunch, and I'm not talking about Glen. I would like to note the hopefully obvious bias this shows. "Distortions" is repeated so many times I laughed. You also took a lot of his metaphors way out of context, as if it was literal. You should try arguing with facts, instead of using ad hominem abuse. Is glen beck a bit biased towards the right-wing? I would definitely say so. Does he promote violence? Absolutely not. I don't expect you to publish this, but know not everyone is stupid, this article is a ridiculous propaganda attempt to promote left-wing ideals. As an independent, I don't think Glen Beck is promoting violence of any kind.