Media Double Standards
- 04.16.2008 - 5:22 PMReminders of the mainstream media’s egregious political double standard vis-à-vis liberals and conservatives come on an almost daily basis. The latest is this week’s New York magazine, the cover of which features a head shot of John McCain smack in the middle of a bulls-eye target, accompanied by this charming teaser copy: “Target: Bush-Backing, Surge-Loving, Economically Clueless Geezer.”
Just try to imagine the frenzy of outrage that would ensue if a right-wing journal were to put on its cover Barack Obama’s face in a bulls-eye, along with the words “Target: Jeremiah Wright-Backing, Surrender-Loving, Foreign Policy-Clueless Slickster.”
The liberal blogosphere would suffer a nuclear meltdown and publications like…well, like New York would immediately commission articles on such an incendiary, and potentially tragic, choice of words and imagery and what it says about the scary intolerance–the “bitterness,” if you will–of Red-State America. Meanwhile, the New York Times would torture readers with a numbing slew of front-page news and “news analysis” pieces (think Augusta National Golf Club circa 2002-2003) on American bigotry, Republican sleaziness, and the approaching racial apocalypse.
But what about Obama’s condescending remarks on middle-class, small-town voters and their values? His words are a precise reflection of what liberal elitists have been thinking and saying for decades (with relative impunity in the private sector but at great cost during presidential campaigns). Yet similarly demeaning generalizations about subgroups on liberals’ endangered species list invariably result in orgies of self-righteous denunciation.
There’s something in the liberal mindset that causes otherwise intelligent and rational people to view small towns and their residents with inordinate fear and loathing. It’s why Hollywood, the epicenter of pop-culture liberalism, has long portrayed “townies” in a sinister light and often in need of help provided by their big-city superiors. In his 1979 book The View From Sunset Boulevard, Ben Stein devoted a chapter to “Small Towns on Television.” While a few of the writers and producers Stein interviewed had some positive things to say about small towns, the general attitude was highly negative and derogatory. “There are a lot of dumb, violent people in small towns,” declared the producer Garry Marshall (he of such brainy fare as “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Mork & Mindy,” and “Joanie Loves Chachi”). One unnamed producer told Stein that small towns are “the kinds of places where the Ku Klux Klan could grow today . . . right now.” Asked whether she saw small towns as “frightening,” the late producer Meta Rosenberg “at first said ‘No,’ and then added, ‘Jesus, they did vote for Nixon.’”
Indeed they did. As, in 1972, did the majority of Americans in 49 of 50 states. Twelve years later, Ronald Reagan, another Republican reviled by the Left, scored another 49-to-1 knockout (with Minnesota taking Massachusetts’s place as the lone entry in the losing column.) But in the eyes of liberal elitists, unless we pull the Democratic lever, we’re all bitter small-town Americans.
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April 16th, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Strange bedfellows. Commentary, home of the author of Making It and now his Dauphin, defending small-town America against the city slickers. Why not move the editorial offices to Johnston, Pa.? Rents are no dobut cheaper and the huntin’s probably a damn-sight better.
Here’s a snippet by a West Coast songwriter, presumably liberal but mostly a satirist:
April 16th, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Johnstown.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:27 PM
It all started with ” Easy Rider”.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
I don’t think you can really say New York Magazine = the mainstream media.
what’s the conservative equivelent of New York magazine: rush limbaugh? whatever it is i’m sure they would have something equally smart aleecky about the dems.
and yes, neocons posturing as populists is a little much. Bill kristol is no “yahoo”
April 16th, 2008 at 7:17 PM
Its not just small town people they look down upon it is all republicans. They cannot fathom even a single issue where someone might be attracted to a Republican candidate.
They have this construct that we are all stupid and evil, which is strange dissonance to reconscile, but they have no problem thinking that we have tricked everyone into believing us, even though we are so stupid.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:05 PM
Such a uniter, that Obama. I haven’t seen Americans erupting in such a paroxysm of mutual admiration and common purpose since… since… oh, fugeddaboudit.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:20 AM
Do you ever read a little rag called The National Review? The cover this week is an extremely unflattering picture of Michelle Obama with the headline, “Ms. Grievience”.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Just try to imagine the frenzy of outrage that would ensue if a right-wing journal were to put on its cover Barack Obama’s face in a bulls-eye, along with the words “Target: Jeremiah Wright-Backing, Surrender-Loving, Foreign Policy-Clueless Slickster.”
Yeah, I think the Secret Service might have an issue with that.
Really, did you think before you wrote that? Or is there a perfectly innocent reason why you think it would be OK to put a bulls-eye on a picture of a black man?
To me, a person born and raised in a town of 350 people in the middle of flyover country, the bulls-eye represents a target that one shoots at. What does it mean to you, city boy? Something to shoot suction-cup tipped darts at?
April 17th, 2008 at 11:41 AM
This is hilarious!
April 17th, 2008 at 2:39 PM
The simple difference between these two statements:
“John McCain : “Target: Bush-Backing, Surge-Loving, Economically Clueless Geezer.” and
“Obama : Jeremiah Wright-Backing, Surrender-Loving, Foreign Policy-Clueless Slickster.”
is that the McCain statement is based on verified facts and the Obama statement is based on false GOP propoganda. McCain does back Bush, he clearly loves the surge, and he admits that he is economically clueless. You dislike liberals so much because they see reality based on the facts while you prefer to to let people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh define your reality.
Do your research on John McCain. Visit http://www.therealmccain.com or http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14763.html for his ever expanding list of Flip-Flops.