Mark Kelly: Gabby was "troubled" by Palin's crosshairs map. On the other side of common decency Fox News claims Diane Sawyer committed "journalistic malpractice" by including reference to Palin and crosshairs map in 20/20 segment.

Courtesy of The Hill:

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was "troubled" by a crosshairs chart that appeared on Sarah Palin's Facebook page, showing the congresswoman a target. 

"She was troubled that her district was one of twenty targeted on Sarah Palin's Facebook page and website," Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, writes in their book "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope." 

Kelly recounts that Giffords' told him that "Palin's rhetoric had no place in political discourse." "It sends the wrong messages," he recalls Giffords saying. "It's a dangerous thing to do." 

After Giffords' was injured in the Jan. 8th shooting in Tucson, Ariz., Kelly writes that Palin's "rhetoric came quickly into my head." He notes that when President Obama called to express his condolences, "I told him Gabby and I had found Palin's website troubling." He admits he "vented" to Obama about his frustrations and that the president listened to his complaints without "commenting on them directly." 

Kelly admits "I don't know if the shooter in Tucson even looked at Sarah Palin's website" but he notes politicians "need to tone it down, speak more respectfully." 

He writes that Palin, who was contemplating a presidential bid at the time, never called although he was told by Palin adviser John Coale that "Sarah and her husband, Todd, were 'devastated' by the tragedy." 

Palin, at the time, posted a note on her Facebook page: "My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice," she wrote. 

But Kelly writes: "I thought Sarah Palin might call to say she wished Gabby well and that she was praying for her and the other victims. We heard from many Republicans offering heart-felt messages. Given that a lot of the discussion in the wake of the shooting had singled out Palin, I expected she might also want to clear the air." 

He even imagined what he would say to Palin, writing he planned to "graciously accept her words of consolation" and then add his own thoughts: "'You are not responsible,' I planned to tell Sarah Palin, 'But you are irresponsible.'" 

But "she never called," he notes.

Obviously considering how upset Giffords had been about the map, the idea of her husband immediately thinking of it after she was shot makes perfect sense.  And his expectation that Palin would have reached out to his devastatingly injured wife would have been completely appropriate under the circumstances. (Because of course he did not know Palin like we do.)

Therefore having it included in this segment also makes perfect sense. In fact if it had been left out it would have seemed cowardly of Sawyer and the producers of 60 Minutes, and indicated that they had gone out of their way to avoid upsetting the Palin-bots and Teabaggers.

But that is certainly NOT the way that Fox News sees it:

The documentary, which also contained the first public interview with Giffords since the shooting, was ruined by a gratuitous attack on tea party opponents of health care reform and on Sarah Palin toward the end of the one-hour special. A short segment showed Giffords confronting an angry crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting. Palin was shown briefly, as was the infamous cross hairs map. 

The segment was shown without context or detail. As Giffords is deservedly a national heroine because of how far she has recovered, the segment gave the clear impression of tea partiers as an angry mob and Sarah Palin as the cause of the shooting. 

ABC News and Sawyer committed journalistic malpractice by dredging up the old accusations without also showing evidence that debunked them. Palin and her map had nothing to do with Giffords' shooting, as was implied in the segment. Jared Loughner, Giffords' assailant, was an insane man who likely never heard of Palin and certainly was unaware of the cross hairs map. Yet ABC chose not to mention this. 

Really? So illustrating the out of control political rage, and the rhetoric that fanned the flames of that rage which was so pervasive around the time Giffords was shot in the head, is NOT good journalism?  Considering that it was this incident which inspired the President of the United States to call on Americans to " help usher in more civility in our public discourse," how could 20/20 have left it out?

So what do you think, did 20/20 take a cheap shot at Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers or are the folks at Fox just angry that bringing up the rhetoric and Palin's crosshairs map reflects badly on their pathetic brand of  yellow "journalism?"