Goldberg's Defense

Is it just me, or has the end of the Bush Administration diminished the yammering about terrorism? US Airways Flight 1549 lands in the Hudson River, and there's no blathering about terrorism. Now, a second plane crash - one with a far less happy ending - and we're hearing what we should from officials: that the crew reported mechanical problems and that the tower lost contact with them, instead of drumming up fear with even a vague 'we don't know if this was terrorist-related' from the media.

So Judd Gregg has withdrawn his name from consideration as Commerce Secretary, after much to-do about having his state's Democratic governor pick a Republican replacement for him, and recusing himself from voting on the stimulus package because he'd been nominated.

Something else that didn't survive the wrangling over the stimulus package: executive pay limits.

So we have lots of finger-waggling, stern looks and admonitions, a few empty apologies - and a bunch of incompetent crooks walking off with $700 Billion of taxpayers' dollars.

Former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show to comment on Bill-O's tasteless remark comparing Helen Thomas to the Wicked Witch of the East (sic), and offered some third-grade self-justification.

"But it's interesting to me that these left-wingers who didn't say a word when their fellow left-wingers called George Bush a moron, when they called Dick Cheney a fascist, when they called Sarah Palin a racist, and when they threw Oreo cookies at Michael Steele because he had the nerve to be a conservative black man -- they didn't say a word about all of that.*

So here's my conservative analysis, and feel free to bleep this: Screw them. Screw them. They are unimportant people, they are unimportant people who shouldn't be taken seriously."

That's it, Bernie? It's okay because someone else called your heroes some bad names?

Let's be clear. Goldberg has been peddling a particular brand of hate, embodied in his last book, '100 People Who Are Screwing Up America,' which was cited in the writings of Jim Adkisson, the gunman who walked into a Unitarian Church and opened fire last July.

So, Mr. Goldberg, if you want to throw rocks for some blogger calling out Bush's lack of intelligence, Cheney's fascination with secrecy, or Sarah Palin's blatant race-baiting - which had supporters yelling death threats as well as calling now-President Obama a terrorist and a Muslim - you need to look at the example you're setting.

(It's been pointed out by David Neiwert over at Crooks and Liars that no one at the level of media prominence (like a Bill O'Reilly) ever called Bush, Cheney, or Palin names, and that the 'throwing Oreos' story has been debunked.)

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