Why does the ABC so want to believe the lie?

More ABC staff leap on the blame-Palin-and-the-Right bandwagon, ignoring all the evidence that the loner who shot Gabrielle Giffords was some a madman - of the Left, if anything - who never mentioned Palin and had met and hated Giffords before Palin became famous.

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On ABC News Breakfast yesterday the co-presenters Mary Gearin and Waleed Aly made it clear early in the program that they saw the hostility to Barack Obama's program - as exemplified in the Tea Party and Palin - as providing a spark which could ignite a murderous rage against the likes of Giffords.

This became evident in the segment reviewing the morning newspapers shortly before the 7am news bulletin. The guest commentator was the academic and Herald Sun columnist Jill Singer. It was one of those ABC discussions where everyone essentially agrees with everyone else.

Eventually Gearin put the leading question: "Can we blame Sarah Palin?" Singer had a bit each way and concluded: "I don't know."

The proper answer was - wait for the evidence.

Soon after the co-presenters read from the program's message board. Gearin cited the view of "Purple Tomcat" that it was Palin's fault. And Aly referred to the position of "Mark", who commented: "I notice Republicans are saying 'let's not politicise this' and then it's always Democrats that end up getting shot or killed." Aly acknowledged that perhaps the comment was "generalised". You can say that again. The targets of the previous two political assassinations in the US were Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. Later in the program both Gearin and Aly acknowledged that all theories about Loughner's motives were speculative.

On ABC metropolitan radio Philip Clark expressed concern about the "extreme opinion" in the US political debate by what he termed the extreme right-wing. He mentioned Fox's Glenn Beck. And a listener phoned in criticising, you've guessed it, Israel.

Tim Blair rounds up more of the guilty.

(No comments during my break.)