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Can Our Media Ever Denounce a Comment From a Liberal?
Jim Geraghty, "The Hillary Spot," National Review

I try not to rant about media bias or political correctness much, because after a while it feels like you’re banging your head against the wall.

But Kathryn’s latest column – pointing out the comments of John Edwards’ new campaign blogger, Amanda Marcotte about “What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?” [Sorry to lay that on you, readers, but there’s no other way to so effectively illustrate the obnoxious, vulgar, sneering and confrontational bigoted tone of her comments] - illustrates the ridiculousness of the “rules” for public debate in America today.

I like free speech. I like passionate arguments. I like it when opposing views clash with vigor and volume, when John McLaughlin bellows, “WROOOONG, Eleanor!” I like jokes, and I know that sometimes an attempt at humor is going to fall flat.

But sometimes some comment will cross a line of taste, or decency, or just common respect, and in an ideal world, the body politic would say, in a more-or-less unified fashion, “that’s wrong. That’s unfair. That’s out of line. Knock it off.”

Right now, we have a public debate in which one side is stringently patrolled for anything that could be considered rude, uncouth, or indecent, and the other side is given carte blanche. . . .

UPDATE: Maybe I spoke too soon. The New York Times writes of the Catholic League's objections, and I'm stunned to read:

Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

The two women brought to the Edwards campaign long cyber trails in the incendiary language of the blogosphere. Other campaigns are likely to face similar controversies as they try to court voters using the latest techniques of online communication.

Ms. Marcotte wrote in December that the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to the use of contraception forced women “to bear more tithing Catholics.” In another posting last year, she used vulgar language to describe the church doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Kudos to the Times for paying attention, and it appears, so far, that the Edwards campaign might just be taking this seriously.
Posted by: Mike 2007-02-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=179776