The left, including the card-carrying socialists who count themselves among the leftist ranks, have a right to their opinions. As much as I disagree with them and condemn their policies, I believe, without hesitation, in their right to hold opinions antithetical to mine. The Constitution was drafted for all Americans, not just those of us who happen to believe in it. Brave men and women gave their lives to guarantee freedom of speech and expression for all (I believe legal) citizens of the United States. I also believe that it is my job to do all within my power to legally minimize the impact of those who hold views antithetical to mine.
The problem is that the opposition doesn’t see it that way. My late grandmother used to say, “Fairness doesn’t stop being fairness just because you don’t like the truth of it.” Which brings me to my point.
The left is well within their right to attack Rush Limbaugh for what he said about Sandra Fluke. But to feign insult about Rush’s comments, while ignoring and/or laughing at the vulgar and base things said about former President George W. Bush and the unrepentant things said about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Palin and President Reagan upon learning he had Alzheimer’s disease, is pure hypocrisy. Paragons of the women’s rights movement, such as Barbara Walters and Joy Behar, saw no offense when MSNBCs Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham the vilest of pejoratives one can call a woman. To be fair, Schultz later apologized and was suspended by MSNBC.
But the duplicity of the left seems to go unnoticed by the mainstream media, including Fox News, when it comes to doing their jobs fairly. And nowhere is that more evident than with their handling of Obama.
When Anita Hill came forward with testimony during the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, the mainstream media machine went into overdrive trying to corroborate her testimony. They literally left no page unturned in searching for dirt with which to tar Mr. Thomas. For the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the media dredged for information pursuant to what they labeled as the truth of his drug and alcohol usage – even though he was very open and straight forward about his usage and how he had ended same. For eight years the media questioned and sought information on his National Guard service. They refused to accept that it was as he had stated, unlike the way this same media accept the secrecy surrounding Obama with passive silence.
The media have been relentless in investigations of Sarah Palin and her family. They relentlessly probed into former Vice President Dick Cheney’s association with Halliburton. Herman Cain’s presidential bid was destroyed by what many argue was the flimsiest of “she said-he said” accusations.
It can be argued that they were doing their jobs – fair enough. But, and this is a big but – why do they not do their job with those on the left?
If the media declared it their job to find the truth about George Bush, Justice Thomas, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, ad nauseum, why do they not feel the same way about Obama and his wife? Why are they not applying the same effort, and nearly unlimited resources, to once and for all settle Obama’s birth controversy? Why have they not applied the same determination in uncovering the truth surrounding the Obamas’ surrendering their law licenses? Lawyers I have spoken to tell me that lawyers would literally give up their families before surrendering their law licenses, unless there was a legitimate reason.
Sharon Bialek and Ginger White had a long history of impropriety and sordid pasts, but their accusations against Herman Cain were accepted as gospel truth. Anita Hill offered only disgusting allegations, but they were accepted as gospel truth. Do not the allegations of the late Larry Sinclair deserve the same investigative attention from the media that went into looking into President Bush’s past?
The left and the media can hardly argue that their investigations would bring shame upon the office of president, because that wasn’t a consideration with Bush. Is it not the media’s job to demand that Obama give an account pursuant to why he has spent well over a million dollars to conceal his past?
My point is that fair is fair. They cannot attack Rush and hold Barbara Walters as a patron saint. They cannot attack Rush and say nothing about Bill Maher’s vulgar diatribes against Sarah Palin. To deem it journalistic integrity to pursue the past of George W. Bush, but ignore the secretive past of, and allegations against, Obama, undermines their credibility.
The Constitution gives the left the right to voice their opinions; truth and integrity demand they apply the same standards – to themselves and their own – that they do to those with whom they disagree.
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In my view, preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution and at the same time allowing that the first Amendment protects speech aimed at destroying the Constitution is an untenable position and not one any American can reasonably take.
ron: and your suggestion to correct what you view as an untenable position would be what…
I am a newcomer here so just catching up. Kudos! So well said. I wish our local paper would sindicate your writings in place of the mindless liberal dribble that they currently suscribe to…. thanks!
jamie: contact the editorial page editor and ask them to contact me about carrying my work…
Amen, my brother!
memett: thk you…
the left preaches “tolerance” but only by their definition. and the “tolerance” they teach is always a one way street.
branwen: amen to that…
Thanks, Mychal. The free press has been bought. I dare say that threats have been made to any journalist who does not report on bringing the Country down. Soros, as I’ve read, has paid the media to never report on anything the president might do that would be questionable. Various News Medias have been investigated to find that CEO’s are on Soros’ board of directors!! They are getting paid quite handsomely to keep their mouths shut and presses clear about Obama. We will never read or hear anything from the media about the SD-106 Armed Service Committee 7 March 2012, that has Sen. Sessions asking Penetta why he and the president would ever take a purposed war to UN and NATO before ever bringing the war act proposal before Congress and allowing Congress to be a part of that decision making. Unless there is immediate dancger to the United States, the president cannot declare war on any country without first addressing Congress and Congress makes those decisions to have war or not. It is written in the U.S. Constitution. Penetta ignored Sessions and kept repeating the same rhetoric over and over. Penetta said that the president MIGHT include the Congress when he was ready to tell Congress what he was going to do. Sessions mouth dropped open and I’m sure he couldn’t believe what Penetta was saying.Penetta seems to think that UN and NATO have the power to grant war and not the United States Congress. I have never read about this in the news. It has not been on any television channel. This sort of action on the president’s behalf would be reason enough for Impeachment! We are into a government that has little if any respect for each other or The People. Obama’s past is not transparent. We are learning that he is not ‘pristine’ as he would want us to believe. There is an Obama paper trail cover-up to the tune of millions of dollars for a reason. What was one of the first things that Obama did after goofing up the promise to protect the United States and follow the U.S. Constitution? He ushered in thousands of Muslims in late January 2009. Where did they go? Why were they secretly brought in? The next huge change was ObamaCare…to Control The People. The list of bad deeds is enormous. As Saul Alinsky said, “…each crisis is resolved in the direction of greater Socialism.” And, the paid media just keeps right on putting out garbage that makes Socialism appear wonderful. The saying that Money is the Root of all Evil could never be more true than it is in this Big Government.
marilyn: that which you have outlined is why we must take things in our own hands…we can make a difference…we must think for ourselves…vote them out and then vote out whoever we vote in if they forget why they are there…it is up to us to understand we can make a difference…and that means we stop listening to them…beginning w/ them telling us who we should vote for…
Marilyn, Great Points!! I’m not much of a student on Saul Alinsky’s teachings, but if, as you’ve quoted, Obama’s mentor taught to resolve each crisis with greater socialism, perhaps the latest move by the Justice (?) Department fills the bill! My mouth is still agape at the reasoning behind their jumping in and blocking of the new Texas’ Voter ID Law: Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division said. “Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card,” This must be EXACTLY what Saul Alinsky meant! Just when we are questioning one bizarre action by this administration, our heads are spun around to another – even BIGGER bizarre and sometimes illegal, unconstitutional and downright treasonous act, just to deflect attention! (and just for the record, Mr. Perez, the only Hispanics in TX who lack ID are those who are in this country illegally and therefore ineligible to vote. I agree, there are a disproportionate amount of Hispanics in TX who don’t have those documents and they should be sent packing. Any Hispanic who is either a Naturalized American or is lawfully in this country for another reason, has plenty of ID – because they jumped through grueling hoops to get it! They are unafraid and proud to show it!). Just how far are we going to let this administration go in tearing this country down???
snoopsister: hispanics disprortionately lack photo id and licenses because most of them are illegal….
Wow… Just when we were distracted by the flag debacle and the voter ID flimflam… NOW, he rules over all of our resources in wartime and in peace. God help us all.
snoopsister: he never stops grabbing for power…
http://www.nevilleawards.com/liberal_pathology.shtml I hope this link comes through, the pathology of liberalism.
carpenter: thks for forwarding…Joan Swirsky is a friend…
Excellent article. Send it to the New York Times; I’m sure it’ll be printed on the front page. – Love your Grandmother’s quote.
anna zachariah: the ny times hates me…they won’t even print interviews their columnists do w/ me…lol…but they will employ plagiarizers…
Well, if this is true, you must be doing something RIGHT!! ;-)
snoopsister: oh its true…
The old saying ~ ‘If it wasn’t for double standards, the liberals would have no standards at all.’
crikey: its a very true saying…and they prove it over and over…
Great observations, Mychal. And even better questions. It would almost lead one to believe that the people that own and direct the ‘news’ are the same as those that own and direct ‘the left’. Could they be one and the same? When Rockefeller (John D., that bastion of honor and integrity) and J.P. Morgan decided their agenda required owning the ‘news media’ as well as the congress, the language to describe their influence over their holdings became “All the news that fits (their agenda)”. Since the same owners still own the news media, the motto still fits. Reminds me of what Mama used to tell me: “Consider the source”. Shalom, Y’all!
caveman: they are one on the same…cronkite, rather, and their lies about Vietnam…the socialists didn’t go away after the demonstrations of the 60s…they went into academia and began brainwashing the next generation…
Another great article Mychal
Leftists are the consumate spoiled teenager stuck there forever and will lie, cheat, steal to get their way. I really believe being a hard core leftist is a mental disorder.
Don’t you dare say that! Remember … Obamacare is coming. We can ill afford it as it is without having the likes of Alan Colmes, Tamara Holder and Alecia Menendez lined up for medical treatment for their severe “mental disorder”. Speaking of which …
Did you know that calling a woman a “MILF” is a compliment? Tamara Holder told Laura Ingraham that on O’Reilly’s show on Monday night. Hmmmm … maybe the Lefties really are mentally disturbed.
brian: WHAT…YOU’RE KIDDING…I would never refer to a woman like that…any woman that allows herself to believe that is a compliment is lost…she certainly isn’t someone as a single man I would want to be involved w/…
30calgal: being a hardcore leftist is having should your soul to satan…
I agree. Right now these people (journalists AND commentators) make America a McCarthy-era place to live. Why have so many of these sold-their-soul to pursue telling lies? [note: avoiding the telling of "truth" is lying, because it is like watching a man hit by a car bleeding and dying on the road and doing nothing to provide for medical attention.] America is dying and the hands of these leftists are thick with responsibility for its demise! American journalism has become the laughing stock of the world. Nice job by a run-amuck ultra-liberal administration intent on enslaving a country under its brown-shirt heals. November 2012 is coming and the good people of this country will at least be heard; for the last time if good people don’t win! We must stand for TRUTH and the U.S. Constitution. Semper fi
aardvark: mccarthy was spot on in what he was trying to expose…he was then and most time is now wrongly accused…
Mychal: The issue I’m lifting is not the correctness (or error) of McCarthy. This issue is the social “fever” of unwarranted fear of persecution by an authority who willy-nilly accused and condemned average citizens and destroyed their lives. Today they can trump our Constitutional Rights by simply claiming you are a “terrorist” and haul you away never to be heard from again. Ain’t it great to mistrust your own government? The founding Fathers had it right, and we need to get back to a solid Constitutional footing!