News Flash: Democrats denounce hate speech, unless it’s theirs
By Brian Kirwin | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | Catch-AllIt’s truly funny. Now that Democrats have the White House, the House and the Senate, suddenly any criticism of Democrats is called hateful, angry, extreme and evil.
Give me a break! For eight years, I’ve heard the most hateful attacks on George W. Bush and the Republicans from “Bush wasn’t elected, he was selected” to “Bush lied, kids died” to the published attack on Gen. David Petraeus.
From DailyKos to MoveOn.org to hateful Democratic Bloggers calling Republicans racist, homophobes, anti-Semites, liars, cheaters, thieves, warmongers, and thugs, for the Democrats and the mainstream media to suddenly decide that there is some hateful rhetoric out there makes me think the media is like a reverse Van Gogh.
Only their left ear remains.
I guess gone are the days when Hillary Clinton screams and cackles about how she has “a right to disagree with any administration”. That was then, this is now.
No one can question the left. After all, hope and change meant taking over banks and car companies while blowing a huge hole in the budget and moving ahead with socialized health care and a “stimulus bill” that was promised to keep unemployment under 8% (it’s well past 9 and rising) and it’s clear that the only thing stimulated under this administration is government spending.
Criticize it, and expect to be a part of the next ABC-NBC-CBS-New York Times-Washington Post-LA Times story about how “toxic” the atmosphere is on the right and how hate is in the air.
They must’ve been holding their noses while they were doing the hating.
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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17 Responses to "News Flash: Democrats denounce hate speech, unless it’s theirs"
Amen.
Do you really think “Bush wasn’t elected, he was selected,” constitutes hate speech?
That’s what you want to debate?
Well, I have no argument with your central point. Hate speech is wrong whether from the left or the right. The issue really is distinguishing hate speech from legitimate, if tough and even unfair criticism.
So if you truly think “Bush wasn’t elected, he was selected” constitutes even a mild form of hate speech, there really isn’t much to talk about. For me, there would be no rational basis to discuss the issue.
Maybe next time you can say “Brian, I agree with your point. I don’t completely agree with every example you cite, but you make a fair point about hate from the left being as wrong as hate from the right, and the media hasn’t treated them as such.”
Or, you could continue to dwell on 6 words of a post.
Not sure I agree with the characterization of how the media treats them, but then again, I’ve never bought into the shibboleth of a “liberal media.”
Some media are liberal, some are conservative, most are neither — they are simply inept.
Most are neither? Love to see your data on that. I work with media every day (newspapers, tv, film, magazines). 95% leftie I guarantee.
Data, shmata. I suspect that much of what you would interpret as liberal bias I would see as a result of laziness, group think and the culture of risk-adversness that dominates reporting. I have seen it myself in my own career as a journalist in the financial press.
That said, I’ve no doubt that you could provide me with many examples of liberal bias and I would agree with you. I have a feeling that if I pointed out something that I thought was Conservative bias, you say, No, Those are facts. They report, you decide.”
That’s not personal to you, but based on the arguments I’ve had many times with my Conservative friends.
Sarah Palin and her children will be greatly relieved now that “Hate Speech” is frowned upon.
Actually, I’ve long held the belief that there is no such thing as “non-bias.”
I had this argument with the Editor-in-Chief of our local paper. Even if a story is written and scrubbed free of any bias whatsoever, there’s bias in the fact that someone chose that story to run. There’s bias in choosing that story rather than another that doesn’t get printed. There’s bias in what gets front page, and what gets put on page 5.
And today, of course, there’s bias in Jeff Shapiro calling Larry Sabato “an independent analyst.” Nevermind the years he spent working to elect Democrats as a career, Sabato spent 2006 on MSNBC bashing George Allen.
Independent analyst, my eye.
Sure, where there is judgment exercised, there is bias. Perhaps where we would differ would be in the motivation behind the judgment.
But along those lines, I have always found the position of WaPo executive editor Len Downie truly absurd, in that he famously would not vote, as if this somehow cleansed him of bias. To me, that was like concluding that if you didn;t eat, you wouldn’t be hungry.
I’ve had many reporters, especially in this part of Virginia, proudly proclaim the same thing. No voting, as if that proves something.
Motivation – here’s the rub. They have no idea they’re being biased. They think they are writing the truth. They believe what they write is reality, not personal opinion. Even on editorial boards.
I don’t think most biased writers slant their stories with the intention of doing so. But as they say, just because someone didn’t mean to kill someone doesn’t make the victim any less dead.
Don’t mess with BK!
” just because someone didn’t mean to kill someone doesn’t make the victim any less dead.”
Very true.
But it has great bearing on the crime with which we charge the killer.
Aznew, how would you handle the reporter that was only “playing dumb” while claiming not to be aware of being biased, as opposed to one that truly was incompetent?
Since intent is used in sentencing a murderer, should there be a device to measure intent on the part of a reporter?
Britt – I’m not sure what you mean by “handle,” but your question is, IMHO, too hypothetical to provide a meaningful answer. I’m not tying to evade an answer, but in any particular situation more facts would be needed.
Take Dan Rather, a reporter Conservatives seemed to loathe. I would admit he is left-Center on the political spectrum, but I would argue that his intent as a reporter was NOT to push his political agenda, but to get a good story.
Brian would argue, and I would agree, that his bias would affect his perception of what made a good story. He might be quicker to see the hypocrisy of a Conservative politician, for example, than a Progressive one.
But that is different, in my view, than pushing a specific agenda.
I don’t see it as different. These media types are whacked, for the most part.
They’ll write a story about how Republicans hurt middle class families, and say “It’s balanced, I have a quote on the subject from both sides.”
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