Arizona Congresswoman Shot in the Head at Public Event

[tater]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

And yet, my point stands. Show the others to me and I will tell you that they also wrong for doing so. People throught time have used terms in an offensive manner. That use does not, however, excuse continued use.

Alan Dershowitz (not at all conservative) said WRT Palin and the use of the phrase:

The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against the State of Israel by the Goldstone Report. There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim. The fact that two of the victims are Jewish is utterly irrelevant to the propriety of using this widely used term.

A few examples of use that got virtually zero bad press:

Andrew Sullivan, October 10, 2008:

A couple of obvious thoughts. Paladino speaks of “perverts who target our children and seek to destroy their lives.” This is the gay equivalent of the medieval (and Islamist) blood-libel against Jews.

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson:
who said the Pittsburgh hoax was “the blood libel against black men concerning the defilement of the flower of Caucasian womanhood. It’s been with us for hundreds of years and, apparently, is still with us.”

Peter Deutsch on Crossfire (regarding the 2000 recount):
Let me just talk a little bit about the whole, I guess, spin from the Republicans about — which has been to me the absolute most — the worst statements I have ever heard probably in my life about anything. I mean, almost a blood libel by the Republicans towards Al Gore, saying that he was trying to stop men and women in uniform that are serving this country from voting. That is the most absurd thing and absolutely has no basis in fact at all.

Andrew Cohen, CBS News, May 7, 2008:
So-called “judicial activism” occurs, in other words, when it’s your side that lost the case and it is nothing short of a blood libel against judges to accuse them of operating by fiat.

Frank Rich, NYT, October 15, 2006:
The moment Mr. Foley’s e-mails became known, we saw that brand of fearmongering and bigotry at full tilt: Bush administration allies exploited the former Congressman’s predatory history to spread the grotesque canard that homosexuality is a direct path to pedophilia. It’s the kind of blood libel that in another era was spread about Jews.

I should add that I agree with you regarding the use of the phrase. Personally, I think it dilutes the real meaning. I feel the same about the misuse of "gulag" by the left during the Bush administration to refer to Gitmo. That said, if the media wants to attack Palin for the misuse, they need to spend the exact same amount of time attacking everyone else that uses it—even their own reporters (reporters and columnists are, after all, professional wordsmiths, if anything, their use of language should be held to an even higher standard).