Update: Some commenters have said that the diary demeans genocide by making the comparison. Let me clarify. We are not close and almost certainly will not reach a "Rwanda type" genocide. There are clear differences (e.g., use of government media in Rwanda).
But there are direct parallels between the hate rhetoric of Limbaugh, Savage et al. and the rhetoric of the Rwanda radio stations.
This hate rhetoric has been linked to killings already (in Tenn.) and is linked to the tactics at the town meetings.
I don't think it's hyperbolic to make that connection. I also think that the passivity of the mainstream media is enabling the outrageous rhetoric (as the Greenwald link points out).
And I don't think it "demeans" the Holocaust, or other genocide to point this out.
Limbaugh, Beck, Savage and O'Reilly are the heirs to the radio promoters of genocide in Rwanda.
We saw how that can happen in Jed Lewison's story on the front page now.
Here's how it started in Rwanda:
Authorities used RTLM and Radio Rwanda to spur and direct killings both in those areas most eager to attack Tutsi and members of the Hutu opposition and in areas where the killings initially were resisted. They relied on both radio stations to incite and mobilize, then to give specific directions for carrying out the killings (RTLM transcripts: 13, 29 April; 15, 20 May; 1, 5, 9, 19 June 1994).
(International Development Research Center Report)
And the US Media are complicit in failing to call to account those who promote violence and recklessly and maliciously call Democrats Nazis.
AS Greenwald points out tonight the same groups and media who were foaming at the mouth about one MoveOn ad in 2004 are silent as Limbaugh spews hatred and lies and throws around "Hitler" and "Nazis" as though they were no different than the "Democrat Party."
In March 1992, Radio Rwanda was first used in directly promoting the killing of Tutsi in a place called Bugesera, south of the national capital. On 3 March, the radio repeatedly broadcast a communiqué supposedly sent by a human rights group based in Nairobi warning that Hutu in Bugesera would be attacked by Tutsi. Local officials built on the radio announcement to convince Hutu that they needed to protect themselves by attacking first. Led by soldiers from a nearby military base, Hutu civilians, members of the Interahamwe, a militia attached to the MRND party, and local Hutu civilians attacked and killed hundreds of Tutsi (International Commission 1993: 13–14).
The station owners and sponsors of the hate purveyors, and the "traditional" media that do not call them out bear responsibility for this. Let them know.