Last week, both conservative and traditional media outlets did their best to turn some hateful and inappropriate statements about Vice President Cheney by anonymous commenters at liberal blogs into a broad commentary on the left in general. As Glenn Greenwald predicted, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz devoted his column to the “scandal”.
OK, I’ll admit it; my first thought when I learned that some terrorist nutjob may have tried to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney was to regret that he missed. It’s not like I was alone in that sentiment, either- Bill Maher said the same thing on his HBO show. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wishing that someone would assassinate Cheney, but I wouldn’t be volunteering to be a pallbearer at his funeral, either. If there’s a more publicly joyless, mean-spirited, aggressively partisan public official out there, I’ve yet to see him.
I’m not proud of my initial reaction, but it’s not as if I’m advocating for Cheney’s demise. No reasonable person would be…not that anyone could actually accuse Cheney of being reasonable. After all, this is the same man who predicted that we’d be welcomed in Iraq as liberators. “MIssion Accomplished”, eh??
This reaction was visceral and immediate, and though many of us who felt that way have since repudiated it, too many on the Right have been using this as a hammer to bludgeon Liberals. As if we all march in ideological lockstep….
Of course, as everyone knows, Conservatives ALWAYS follow rules of decorum and treat their ideological opponents with respect and dignity (e.g.: Coulter, Ann). Yeah, right….
During a WashingtonPost.com chat on Thursday, a reader confronted national political reporter Lois Romano about the coverage: “Selectively quoting anonymous posters from any political blog is shoddy ‚Äö√Ñ√≤journalism’ at its worst. What does Mr. Kurtz have to say to defend himself on this?”
Romano had nothing to say about Kurtz. Instead, she bemoaned the “new viciousness in the process often generated by the blogs,” and likened herself and other reporters to Cheney, complaining that “we are not spared” the “nasty, vulgar e-mail” produced by “liberal blogs.”….
While “liberal blogs” are lumped together with a tiny unrepresentative sample of anonymous commenters, the hate speech by leading figures of the conservative movement is ignored: today’s Post coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference makes no mention of Ann Coulter’s inflammatory “faggot” remark.
Why is it that Right-wingers tend to view “Liberal bloggers” as some sort of homogeneous disembodied mass that talks, thinks, and moves in concert? Clearly, these folks have never read Will Rogers’ description of the Democratic Party. When asked if he belonged to an organized political party, Rogers said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” Hell, half the time Democrats can’t agree on what they’re going to have for breakfast. How in the world are we going to agree on a unified message involved the demise of Dick Cheney?
OK. so I’m a Liberal, and I’m a miserable, horrible excuse for a human being. Deal with it…’cuz I don’t imagine things are going to get any better. Gottaproblemwiddat??
