It’s not often that a respected publication runs an article title such as “To Hell with You People.” But that’s what’s happened at National Review. Jonah Goldberg has had it with the absolute hypocrisy of the left-wing, progressive-liberal media, which is nearly the entirety of the mainstream media. As Goldberg says in the very first sentence (and with which I agree), he is more than exhausted from talking about liberal media bias. But some of this bias is so brazen, so breathtaking in its mendacity, that it simply cannot be allowed to pass without comment.
You may have heard, over and over and over this past week or two, how Republicans, especially the zany and dangerous Tea Partiers, were endangering America and life as we know it because, well, because they have had the temerity to insist that even governments have to live within their means. Here were some of the Democrat talking points conveniently echoed throughout the mainstream media as told by Mr. Goldberg:
Tom Friedman—who knows a bit about Hezbollah—calls the tea partiers the “Hezbollah faction” of the GOP bent on taking the country on a “suicide mission.” All over the place, conservative Republicans are “hostage takers” and “terrorists,” “terrorists” and “traitors.” They want to “end life as we know it on this planet,” says Nancy Pelosi. They are betraying the Founders, too. Chris Matthews all but signs up for the “Make an Ass of Yourself” contest at the State Fair. Joe Nocera writes today that “the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests.” Lord knows what Krugman and Olbermann have said.
Then last night, on the very day Gabby Giffords heroically returns to cast her first vote since that tragic attack seven months ago, the vice president of the United States calls the Republican Party a bunch of terrorists.
And of course from a media elite dominated by liberals, this gets a collective yawn. In fact, all this violent rhetoric aimed toward conservatives wasn’t even worthy of comment at all in the mainstream media. But what set off Goldberg and sent his piece viral (as you can see, it has received more than 600 comments at NRO) was the juxtaposition of this rhetoric with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ surprise appearance in the Capitol to vote on the debt ceiling bill.
You may remember that when she was shot this past winter the media chorus blamed right-wing rhetoric for the shooting; even though politics had nothing to do with the shooter’s motivations, and even though the mainstream media’s and progressive left’s claims of a preponderance of violent right-wing rhetoric were absurdly overblown. But as long as we have a media dominated in overwhelming numbers by elitist statists, complaining about this sort of unfairness amounts to spitting into the wind. Once in a great while we may get the media to question whether it is in fact perfectly objective, but for most who work in the media the only bias that exists is at Fox news.
Having an alternative media for conservatives, such as Fox News and talk radio, is fine as far as it goes, but it will never compare with the sheer enormity of access to average Americans enjoyed by the liberal mainstream media. The only way to challenge this bias is to have more right-of-center individuals go into journalism and other media professions. Until then, we may find ourselves increasingly feeling the same rage as Goldberg, who ends his essay as follows:
Well, go to Hell. All of you.