Race-Baiting
Cross-posted from The Progressive Pulse.
We have an example this week of the lowest, most dangerous form of race-baiting imaginable. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A large (six foot four!), angry, black man sexually assaults and mutilates a young, white woman. Of course, it was easily shown to be false and the disturbed woman who made the whole thing up has confessed to the crime.
But the more interesting part of the story for me is not the crime itself but the reaction from the bloggers of the John Locke Foundation. Predictably, the most disturbing is from the self-proclaimed journalist and here to read it.
The screaming, blood-colored headline on Drudge right now says:
SHOCK: MCCAIN VOLUNTEER ATTACKED AND MUTILATED IN PITTSBURGH
‘B’ CARVED INTO 20-YEAR OLD WOMAN’S FACE… DEVELOPING…
We don’t have the details yet, but if it should turn out that the “B” was for “Barack” and that the McCain volunteer was indeed attacked because of her political views, will any story mention the phenomenon of “the Angry Left”?
First of all, what kind of “journalist” links to frickin’ Matt Drudge? Let me give some advice to Ham: if Drudge says a story is “Developing” you might want to find a second source for confirmation. Secondly, Ham seems particularly excited with Drudge’s use of a “screaming, blood-colored” headline. Say what? Am I missing something here? I haven’t seen a right wing blogger this excited since Rich “Starbursts” Lowry stood at attention when Sarah Palin winked at him. The disappointment of Ham and his commenters was almost palpable when Ham had to update the story with the actual truth.
Jon Sanders was less excited, but little better, in his handling of the hoax here. Notice that both Jon’s, once they reluctantly accepted that this was not going to be a game-changing Willie Horton moment, treat the story as a political prank…nothing more…and they mainly want to focus on the story as an example of left-wing media bias.
Here is what the Locke bloggers should have said if they felt the need to mention the story at all.
“This was more than a prank or hoax. This was race-baiting…pure and simple. There is no more vile and despicable chapter in our nation’s history than the lynchings that occurred when mobs were incited to riot. All Americans can agree that we should condemn this behavior, and that it has no place in our political conversation.”
As an aside, Josh Marshall says it’s “Time for Answers” for the McCain campaign to come clean regarding the role of its staffers in hyping this story.
Right wing had a pretty bad week
Yes, this story has been mentioned, but your summary was more thorough and you provide some interesting points about how the Right has reacted. I suspect there are multiple examples across the country of the pathetic spin the Lockeans tried here.
Of course, their best bet is just to drop the subject entirely, which is what seems to have happened.
I'm usually quick to accept the idea that a person is mentally ill when a person pull stunts like this, but there does come a point when the term loses meaning. One could reasonably argue that the tactics of so many GOpers qualify its practitioners as "mentally ill," such as those of the group, "College Republicans" that Ashley Todd belonged to shortly before joining the McCain campaign.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke
Now, how about that Angry Right?
Is Jon quick to point out that this woman is obviously a liar and part of the angry right?
"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Of course not, the liberal media is on a mission
heh
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
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I hate posting this sort of thing. In all fairness to McCain, the men in this disturbing story probably aren't even McCain supporters. I'd like to think that they gave up on the political process altogether. But if you believe that words matter and that the things we say can have unintended consequences, you can understand why some arguments are simply irresponsible in our society.