Best of the Web Today - April 13, 2007
By JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Tube Tonight: Watch James Taranto on "Lou Dobbs Tonight." CNN, 6-7 p.m. EST tonight, with a repeat showing at 4 a.m. EST Saturday.
Imus and Obama's Daughters
This column has no brief for Don Imus, the liberal radio shock-jock who lost his gig yesterday after calling members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." CBS (and NBC, which simulcast the Imus show on one of its little-watched cable channels) were perfectly within their rights to defenestrate Imus for his gross remark. But by waiting a week to do so, they showed themselves to be craven rather than prudent, and they did more to promote bigotry than to combat it.
It's clear that the networks fired Imus not because what he said was unacceptable but because the controversy it stirred up was not going to go away. This means that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson--two men whose bigotry has done a thousandfold more harm than Imus's--are able to declare victory and pose as moral arbiters.
Oh well, at least we can have the audacity to hope Barack Obama will be a new kind of "black leader." Or can we? From yesterday's New York Times:
Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who is running for president, called on MSNBC and CBS Radio to disassociate themselves from Mr. Imus, and said that he would never go on the show again. He said he had appeared once, more than two years ago.
"He didn't just cross the line," Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America."
So according to Obama, the problem with what Imus said wasn't that it was shocking but that it was so ordinary. Imus gave voice to stereotypes so prevalent that Obama's daughters "are having to deal with [them] today in America."
In what segment of American culture would one be most likely to encounter such stereotypes? We'd venture to say the answer is rap music, also known as hip hop. There's one rap band that actually calls itself Nappy Roots. And of course references to women as "hos" are commonplace in rap lyrics, such as this one by Christopher Bridges, who uses the stage name "Ludacris":
Ho (Ho)
You'z a Ho, (Ho)
You'z a Ho, I said that you'z a Ho (Ho)
You'z a Ho, (Ho)
You'z a Ho, (Ho)
You'z a Ho, I said that you'z a Ho (Ho)
You doing Ho activities
With Ho tendencies
Hos are your friends,
Hos are your enemies
At this point it gets too vulgar for this columnist to feel comfortable quoting.
Anyway, let's salute Barack Obama for taking a stand for decency, for protecting his two young daughters from invidiously racist and misogynistic stereotypes.
On second thought, let's not. It turns out that Obama's outrage with Imus is highly selective (dare we say opportunistic?). Blogger Joshua Claybourn notes a Sept. 15, 2006 Associated Press dispatch from Louisville, Ky.:
Obama made a pitch for Democrats running for local government and for Congress at a rally that drew a few thousand party faithful to a minor league baseball stadium in downtown Louisville. . . .
Before Obama's speech, the crowd was warmed up by a performance by Nappy Roots, a popular hip-hop group.
All right, maybe this is nothing. It's not as if Obama himself invited Nappy Roots to play at the rally, and anyway "hos" is a lot more obnoxious than "nappy." But here's another Associated Press dispatch, from Nov. 30, 2006:
The stars were aligned in Chicago Wednesday, and they were there to talk about lighting the way for the nation's youth.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, contemplating a run for president, met privately with rapper Ludacris to talk about young people.
"We talked about empowering the youth," said the artist, whose real name is Chris Bridges. . . .
The gathering at Obama's downtown Chicago office was a meeting of two star powers: Obama, who enjoys rock star-like status on the political scene, and Ludacris, who has garnered acclaim for his music and acting. . . .
Bridges said meeting Obama, known for his warm personal style, was like meeting with a relative.
If Obama's two young daughters are having to deal with Imus-like invidious stereotypes, then, it would seem a major reason is their father's friends.
The problem the Obama girls face in America today isn't just prejudice. It's cynicism.
Metaphor Alert
From today's New York Times:
For a few days, it seemed as if Don Imus would somehow pull out of the death spiral. After all, once he came under fire, Mr. Imus said he was sorry. . . .
But . . . the drumbeat was not going to stop. The controversy metastasized and by Monday, the media began to lock and load. Mr. Imus, who had shrugged off the initial criticism last week, was fighting for survival. . . .
The toxicity of Mr. Imus's remark, the innocence of his targets, and his refusal to put down the shovel--he dug himself deeper just about every time he opened his mouth--made last night's decision by CBS to end his show seem almost inevitable. . . .
Time heals, time forgets, but Mr. Imus was seeking to shore up his career immediately. Mr. Imus never caught a breath because he was in the middle of a 24-hour news cycle that kept him in the cross hairs. It is the kind of media ceremony that generally ends in a human sacrifice.
Those Times guys can really write.
What Would We Do Without Experts?
"Imus Firing Should Not End U.S. Race Debate: Experts"--headline, Reuters, April 13
Whoops!
Imus's sacking coincided with the dismissal of all charges against three Duke University lacrosse players in what appears to have been a politically motivated prosecution. As the Baltimore Sun reports with some understatement, "the news media might not be off the hook" for rushing to conclusions:
Ever since it emerged in March last year that a stripper had accused three Duke students of raping her at a party, some reporters and columnists have come under attack for making points that seemed at odds with the few facts that were known.
The Duke story had all the elements of a dramatic tale--a black woman alleging that she had been attacked by a handful of supposedly drunk, privileged white athletes at a top private college in a North Carolina town with a long history of racial tensions. The news media had a field day.
A particularly egregious comment came from Selena Roberts, a New York Times sports columnist (link requires TimesSelect), who, on March 31, 2006, actually dehumanized the Duke Lacrosse players:
At the intersection of entitlement and enablement, there is Duke University, virtuous on the outside, debauched on the inside. This is the home of Coach K's white-glove morality and the Cameron Crazies' celebrated vulgarity.
The season is over, but the paradox lives on in Duke's lacrosse team, a group of privileged players of fine pedigree entangled in a night that threatens to belie their social standing as human beings.
Even after the Duke players' vindication, ABC News's Terry Moran piles on them:
Let us also remember a few other things:
They were part of a team that collected $800 to purchase the time of two strippers.
Their team specifically requested at least one white stripper.
During the incident, racial epithets were hurled at the strippers.
Colin Finnerty was charged with assault in Washington, DC, in 2005.
The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists.
As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives. There is a very large cushion under them--the one that softens the blows of life for most of those who go to Duke or similar places, and have connections through family, friends and school to all kinds of prospects for success. They are very differently situated in life from, say, the young women of the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
That last point is indisputably true. One reason they are differently situated is that the Rutgers women were merely insulted, not put through a yearlong legal ordeal. Moran continues:
And, MOST IMPORTANT, there are many, many cases of prosecutorial misconduct across our country every year. The media covers few, if any, of these cases. Most of the victims in these cases are poor or minority Americans--or both.
If the media don't cover these cases, it's not clear how Moran--who is, after all, part of the media--knows that there are many of them, let alone how he has data on their wealth and ethnicity.
The news media, supposedly vigilant against racial stereotypes, actually are relentless in promoting politically correct ones: privileged whites, victimized blacks. As with all stereotypes, these have a degree of truth--but as the Duke case shows, stereotypes also can obscure the truth, sometimes with unjust results.
Pelosi: Hell No, I Won't Go
Greg Sargent, a blogger at Josh Marshall's TalkingPointsMemo.com, has a report headlined "Memo to Winger Media: Pelosi Isn't Going to Iran." Winger, short for right-winger, is a derogatory term for conservatives. Sargent says "a lot of winger bloggers and commentators are raising a big fuss" about the possibility of a Pelosi trip to Tehran. He contacted Pelosi's office and received a denial that she intended to go. "This is going to prove terribly disappointing to winger bloggers and commentators," Sargent opines.
What's funny about this is that, as we noted Wednesday, the idea of a Pelosi Iran jaunt was floated by Rep. Tom Lantos, a fellow Democrat who accompanied the speaker to Damascus. Does Sargent consider Lantos a "winger"?
Good Thing They Didn't Get Rich
A suicide bomber hit the Iraqi Parliament, inside the Green Zone, yesterday, and our friend Rich Miniter was on the scene. He reports for Pajamas Media:
Even though the blast was less than 15 feet away through a wall, it sounded like a dull thud followed a small tremor.
I was in the shower at 2:30 PM--my first in days--when the bomb inside the nearby convention center went off. The center is used by the Iraqi parliament.
There was no shouting or sounds of panic in the first few moments. More like quiet astonishment. The Green Zone is supposed to be an island of safety.
As I hustled into my clothes, one marine called to another in the bivouac: "Was that another mortar?"
"That was no mortar," the other said. . . .
I roamed widely, taking in the scene and talking to eyewitnesses. . . .
Witnesses told me that it was definitely a suicide-bomber attack. One Iraqi said that the bomber had removed the armored plates from a standard body armor vest and replaced them with explosives. Other witnesses, in somewhat broken English, would not confirm that account. . . .
U.S. military personnel filled in additional details. The American soldiers asked not to be cited by name, because they are not authorized to give statements to the press. Two suicide vests were discovered inside the Green Zone on April 1, setting off a massive search for additional bombs, I was told. It is possible, a corporal said, that the vests were smuggled in weeks earlier and the bomber was told where to find the hidden cache.
No one here has any confidence in Iraqi security, which is responsible for maintaining security around the convention center.
What can we say, but: Get back safely, old friend.
¿Por Qué Nos Odian?
"The emergence of a new al-Qaeda-linked organization in Northern Africa is alarming Spain, which is concerned about Islamists' calls for the reconquest of the country they regard as a lost part of the Muslim world," the German press agency DPA reports from Madrid:
"We will not be in peace until we set our foot again in our beloved al-Andalus," al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on claiming responsibility for an attack which killed at least 24 people in Algiers on Wednesday.
Al-Andalus is the Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for about eight centuries until the last Moorish bastion, Granada, succumbed to the Christian Reconquest in 1492.
The terrorists will undoubtedly attempt to extend their offensive from Northern Africa to European soil, anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon warned, cautioning that Spain was at a "very high risk" of suffering an Islamist attack.
Weren't the Spanish supposed to have solved this problem by pulling out of Iraq?
Ain't No Doubt About It, We Were Doubly Blessed
The Middle East Media Research Institute's Steven Stalinsky reports on the latest Hamas efforts to incite violence against Jews:
The father of suicide bomber Tareq Hamid was ecstatic as he praised his son's martyrdom operation to the [Hamas TV] channel on March 6. He told the interviewer that when his son was about to perform the terrorist attack, he called his friends and told them, "I swear by Allah that I saw the black-eyed virgins of paradise on the hood of my car."
Sounds like the kid was a Meat Loaf fan.
Wipers, Seat Belts and Bumpers Too
"GM Puts Brakes on New Rear-Wheel Drive Vehicles"--headline, Detroit News, April 12
Heck, Who Is?
"CDC: Fluoroquinolones Not for Gonorrhea"--headline, United Press International, April 12
The Human Cannonball
"Armed Man Shot Across Street From CNN Center"--headline, CNN.com, April 12
Even We're Good at That Game
"Winfield Says Game He Loves Is 'Dropping the Ball' "--headline, Arizona Republic, April 12
Hollywood vs. Canada
"Stars Out for Revenge Against Canucks"--headline, CBC.ca, April 13
Bottom Stories of the Day
o "Accident Kills Chickens"--headline, Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald, April 10
o "Travolta Won't Do 'Today' for 'Hairspray' "--headline, FoxNews.com, April 12
o "Investigations Rule Out Maltese Potato Fraud"--headline, MaltaMedia.com, April 12
o "Boat Takes On Water After Drainage Plug Is Left Out"--headline, KATU-TV Web site (Portland, Ore.), April 12
o "Teen Says Sorry to Parents After House Trashed During Party"--headline, Agence France-Presse, April 13
o "Local Cow Giving Milk Regularly for Six Years"--headline, Rising Nepal (Katmandu), April 13
Goodbye, Larry?
First it was Imus. Now another talk-show host is under attack for insensitivity, United Press International reports:
A spokesman for Alzheimer's patients said U.S. TV talk show host Larry King may owe an apology for his recent remarks about the disease.
Patrick Moffett, author of an Alzheimer's book, in a news release called on King to apologize for insensitive remarks about Alzheimer's disease he made during a recent interview with The New York Times. At one point [King] said he would retire "(if), God forbid, I had an onset of dementia or Alzheimer's. That would be it."
"I'm still a Larry King fan," Moffett said. "I just think he should be a little more sensitive about Alzheimer's for the sake of all of us that are dealing with this dreadful disease."
But King probably won't suffer Imus's fate. Alzheimer's patients generally are willing to forgive and forget.
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