| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Can Our Media Ever Denounce a Comment From a Liberal? |
| 2007-02-07 |
| 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. 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 |
| #10 she's the progressive answer to Ann Coulter And Ann's not vulgar. She's an inflammatory bomb-thrower, but she's not crude. Of course, I can't think of an inflammatory bomb-thrower on the left that isn't vulgar and crude. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-02-07 23:07 |
| #9 Sorry. AOL, which I get for free, doesn't recognize HTML tags. Would it be okay not to tag links, and to leave it up to interested parties to cut-and-paste if they want? Well, it's recogising something. Might I suggest using a word-processor? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-02-07 19:12 |
| #8 Ima ponder ACees thesis... their entire style of rhetoric and even thought itself is built around centralized media. They are accustomed to friendly editors having complete control over access to their past statements Man, that is it. Is there a way to exploit this on a systematic basis? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-07 19:02 |
| #7 she's the progressive answer to Ann Coulter Well... Ann's far more physically attractive than Amanda Whatsernose. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-02-07 16:58 |
| #6 Mods: Re: "Page-busting link fixed. Next time, it goes bye-bye." Sorry. AOL, which I get for free, doesn't recognize HTML tags. Would it be okay not to tag links, and to leave it up to interested parties to cut-and-paste if they want? One Mod complained when I used to do that. |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-02-07 15:12 |
| #5 Little Green Footballs is on the case, including a compendium of Marcotte's wildly intemperate attacks on LGF itself. Pandagon's LGF bashing posts were deleted from the original site but an alert reader dug them up on archive.com. You hit the nail on the head, Steve, the internet never forgets and this fact just does not register on the left. I think this is because their entire style of rhetoric and even thought itself is built around centralized media. They are accustomed to friendly editors having complete control over access to their past statements. It just never became an issue unless someone else on the inside of the media-industrial complex wanted it to be. In contrast, Internet posts are there for all to see, anytime. Just as importantly, the views of opponents and critics had only as much coverage as the dinosaur media wanted them to have, leading to the MSM culture's wanton and compulsive use of strawmen, something that looks ridiculous on the net where the original statements of the opposition are there for all to see. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-02-07 12:32 |
| #4 The internet never forgets. Amanda Marcotte, as it turns out, is a nasty, over-the-top progressive who has no problem being as rude and vulgar as she believes necessary to make her points. She's hyper-partisan; she'll turn a blind eye to anything wrong that a progressive/left politican does and likewise never credit a conservative with anything done right. In other words, she's the progressive answer to Ann Coulter. One might like Ms. Coulter or Ms. Marcotte (not sure it's possible to like 'em both). One can defend their rights to speak as they wish. But the internet never forgets. And the more controversial you are, the more people are going to remember what you've said: they won't remember the specifics, but they won't have to, because they can search it out when the time comes. If a Republican campaign had hired Ann Coulter to some position (any position), you can bet the progressive blogs would be rummaging through everything she's ever written to find the choicest morsels with which to attack her. Welcome to that club, Ms. Marcotte. You're the Edwards campaign designated piñata this month. Enjoy the attention and then, in a week or so, issue some gooey statement about 'divergent interests' and slink back off to Pandagon. Because the internet never forgets. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-02-07 10:44 |
| #3 Mr. EdwardsÂ’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers. Score one for Jeff Goldstein! |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-02-07 09:12 |
| #2 ...It would have taken five - FIVE - minutes for the Edwards campaign to find out what they were hiring. This is just more proof - if any was needed - that the left simply does not understand that the Blogosphere and the Net not only cannot be ben to their will (as the MSM) but it forgets nothing. Interestingly enough, I have NOT heard this about any of the bloggers hired for the Republican campaigns, even though there has been plenty of time to investigate them. Not sure if that means they're less offensive or just better at hiding it, but I think it's a good thing. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-02-07 08:42 |
#1 See how Guiliani halved the murder rate in NYC.
| |
| Posted by: Sneaze 2007-02-07 08:06 |
