The Year of Scary

Progressive columnist and author David Sirota is telling his friends on Facebook that he's received a death threat after appearing on CNN to discuss the "racial undertones" of recent conservative Tea Party protests against health care reform.

"Just received a full-on death threat," the Colorado-based columnist writes, "for my CNN appearance discussing the racial undertones of the tea party protests. Not cool."

Sirota is a well-known journalist, magazine writer, book author and nationally syndicated weekly newspaper columnist. He has appeared have appeared on numerous national cable shows, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and The Colbert Report. He writes a daily blog at openleft.com.

Sirota doesn't divulge much about the specific nature of the threat. A Colorado-based dscriber writer is trying to reach Sirota for comment.

Sirota also writes on Facebook: "Police just came after I reported the death threat. They responded very quickly -- and were helpful. Really appreciated it. These are dark times, but we cannot let a minority of fringe extremists make us back down."

Sirota appeared on CNN on Sept. 12 with anchor Don Lemon and Florida's Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer to discuss whether there is a racist element in the tea party protests on CNN. We've added the clip below.

UPDATE -- This morning Sirota writes at openleft: "Frankly, it's been a scary and depressing few days for me personally, and I'm frankly exhausted from trying to use verifiable facts to reason with far-right activists and Democratic sycophants who are willfully ignorant. But I guess my own negative emotions and fatigue is a predictable ramification of the work I'm engaged in -- and obviously, it's far worse for those with bigger platforms and/or those who are bearing the brunt of racism and the economic class war. For my part, I won't back down. The fights we're fighting are too important to let a small minority of fringe assholes on both sides deter us from seeking the truth -- and achieving progress."