Friday, July 31st, 2009
“You’re so full of hate,” said the hater.
Life just isn’t fair to the Andrei Zhdanov of the Right, Brent Bozell. I mean, the very notion that at any given time someone in the media can disagree with him and still be gainfully employed afterward must really stick in his craw. It’s no wonder then, that he spent last Wednesday riding to the defense of the king of personal attacks, Rush Limbaugh. In his attempt to shield Limbaugh from any criticism whatsoever, he pointed to acerbic comments about Limbaugh from Ed Schultz, Ron Reagan, Jr., Jon Stewart and Mike Malloy as examples of how… wait for it… The LEFT™®© are solely responsible for the coarsening of our public discourse and that only The LEFT™®© could be so hateful.
Right. Sure, Brent. We on the Left are the hate-filled ones, while our moral superiors on the Right are always perfect angels. Tell me then, which prominent liberal said this about 9/11 Truthers:
We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them. Really. You take them out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them. You have a problem with that? Deal with it. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that’s what they are, and you shoot them dead. I’ll pay for the bullets.
The liberal in question also said this about Muslims who were named for the leader of Hezbollah:
You know what I’d get ‘em for a first birthday? I’d put a grenade up their butts and light it. Happy birthday, baby. Bye bye.
Oh, wait. That would be Michael Reagan, CONSERVATIVE.
Or maybe you’d like to tell me about the liberal who published the contact information of college anti-war protesters and sicced her deranged followers on them and, when told they were getting death threats, gleefully reposted their contact information and told them to “Grow up and take responsibility.”
Oh, wait. That would be Michelle Malkin, CONSERVATIVE — whose Number One Fan™ went on a hoax anthrax mailing spree against prominent media liberals.
Or maybe you’d like to tell me about the leader of that liberal Catholic organization who demanded that gays apologize for the crime of being alive and threatened an obscure sculptor with beheading.
Oh, wait. That would be professional outrage maven Bill Donohue, CONSERVATIVE — whose exploits also include getting bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan fired from the Edwards campaign for the crime of being openly feminist and attempting to get P. Z. Myers fired from the University of Minnesota for the crime of defending UCF student Webster Cook from being executed for blasphemy by the Catholic League (complete with commensurate death threats from Donohue’s camp followers in both cases).
Or perhaps you’d like to tell me about the liberal who said that people who voted for the opposing candidate in 2004 were just as dangerous to America as Al-Qaeda and characterized the post-Katrina diaspora of poor black people as “just a glorified episode of putting out the garbage.”
Oh, wait. That would be Neal Boortz, Libertarian CONSERVATIVE — who also joked about feeding illegal immigrants polonium tacos and having them “self-deport” out of an aircraft mid-flight… SANS PARACHUTE!
Or maybe you’d like to tell us about the liberal who called upon Al-Qaeda to attack Colorado Springs.
Oh, wait. That was Bill O’Reilly, Independent CONSERVATIVE, and his target of choice was San Francisco, not Colorado Springs. This would be the same Bill O’Reilly who, according to a University of Indiana study, calls one of his ideological opponents a derogatory name every 6.8 seconds. This would be the same Bill O’Reilly who called for Air America hosts to be arrested on spurious charges of treason. This would be the same Bill O’Reilly who fantasized about strangling Media Matters employees (when he wasn’t calling for their deportation). And this would be the same Bill O’Reilly whose frequent attacks on Dr. George Tiller influenced Scott Roeder’s murderous rampage.
And finally — this is important, Brent, so pay attention — let’s not forget that liberal who threatened to publish all the personal information he could find about the employees of a media watchdog group that recorded every outrageous thing he said so people would know what sort of person he was. Oh, wait. That was Michael Savage, CONSERVATIVE FAR-RIGHT WACKADOODLE.
And while we’re at it, Brent, let’s talk about your buddy Ann Coulter. In your column, you huff that “unfunny fake-anchorman Jon Stewart” made a remark about Limbaugh’s sale of his NYC residence that you didn’t like, yet you were perfectly fine with Ann Coulter using a homophobic slur against former Senator John Edwards. If anything, judging from the way you tried to explain why it was so damn funny, you must have thought it the height of comedy. Perhaps you’d care to explain to the class what was funny about her remark to the UK Independent that “the best way to talk to [a liberal] is to hit them in the head with a baseball bat.” Or perhaps you’d care to explain the humor value of declaring that the only debate rational people should’ve had about the Lewinsky Affair was whether to “impeach or assassinate” President Clinton. Or for that matter, explain what was so funny about any of the other numerous eliminationist fantasies Coulter has given voice to over the years.
And as far as your examples of conservative restraint and politeness go… Really? Limbaugh, Hannity and Ingraham are the best you can come up with? REALLY? In addition to calling then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton “the White House Dog” and other exploits, Limbaugh has suggested that it’s okay to kill liberals, so long as you leave a few alive as living museum pieces and fantasized about the possibility of riots at last year’s Democratic National Convention. In off-camera remarks during the Terri Schiavo debacle, Hannity famously called Congressman Jim Moran an “asshole”, declared his hatred of liberals, and couldn’t “give a shit” if Moran was angered by his comments. Speaking of Terri Schiavo, Hannity was key to rehabilitating domestic terrorist Randall Terry during the sick theater surrounding her death. And Ingraham? Lookist attacks on her ideological opponents as a surrogate for substantive policy debate is her stock-in-trade. It is quite literally all she does. Both Limbaugh and Hannity have played a substantial role in legitimizing the “Birther” movement. As for that paragon of civility, Laura Ingraham, when she was last seen filling in for O’Reilly, she had a segment about yet another spurious investigation of Planned Parenthood on trumped up charges for the purpose of intimidation, complete with a graphic featuring Planned Parenthood’s logo in the crosshairs of a high-powered rifle. Just the sort of rational, logical, fact-filled debate you’d want to have in the wake of yet another murdered abortion provider. 
So Brent, next time, take the redwood log out of your eye before straining for the nanoparticle of dust in ours.
