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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (29677)	8/17/2000 5:47:48 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

No one said it was normal for blacks. All that was said was that it was more prevalent in the black community than among whites generally. You are a smart fellow, why is that hard to grasp?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (29677)	8/17/2000 7:00:58 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Kilborn's `joke' gets free pass from media August 16, 2000 BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Imagine if a right-wing pundit such as Rush Limbaugh went on network television and delivered a tasteless visual joke about Al Gore--something that would cross anybody's boundary of fair play. Something like showing a photo of Gore at the podium at the Democratic National Convention along with a flashing graphic proclaiming, "SNIPERS WANTED." Gee, you think ol' Rush would take some heavy heat for that? You think the liberal pundits (like me) would be typing so vigorously on their keyboards they'd be in danger of erasing their own fingerprints? Molly Ivins would sprain her sense of humor. Al Franken would fracture his funnybone. Maureen Dowd would try to figure out a way to make a reference to "Big Brother" or Harry Potter. In the meantime, Democratic officials would be calling press conferences to demand Limbaugh's resignation, and special-interest groups would be organizing boycotts of his sponsors and protests outside his broadcast facility. Some politician would even be asking the Secret Service and the FBI to investigate whether Limbaugh could be brought up on charges for encouraging the assassination of a presidential candidate. And you know what? At least some of that reaction would be justified. Any would-be comedian who would broadcast such a "joke" in our assassination-saturated times is the kind of intellectual who would have to take night courses just to upgrade himself to idiot status. Let's leave that hornet's nest unattended for a moment. In hypothetical scenario No. 2, we'll envision Dr. Laura Schlessinger as the one making an incendiary comment. Picture Dr. Laura going on the radio or her upcoming TV show and making a juvenile joke about Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, e.g., "Apparently she loves Bush." How long would it take gay-rights groups to pounce on that? The anti-Schlessinger Web sites would be pulsating and the press releases would be mass-faxed within hours, if not minutes, of such an incident. Finally, imagine if a broadcaster with conservative stripes--say, Ann Coulter--did a late-night TV appearance and offered her take on the selection of Joseph Lieberman as Gore's running mate with this monologue: "This Gore-Lieberman ticket is working because Bush, you know . . . he had a 19-point lead the other day. It is now down to 2 [percent]. Wow. Whatever. But this is the first time in history a Jew has knocked 80 percent off." Whoa. Coulter would be ripped for a crack like that, wouldn't she? And rightfully so, it's a rotten joke. I think we can all agree that Limbaugh, Schlessinger and Coulter, had they made the comments outlined above, would have been creamed by the media and by liberal-leaning politicos. Subjected to day after day of sharp and stinging rebukes. Ripped like John Rocker was ripped. But let's make it perfectly clear that Limbaugh didn't do the assassination joke, and Schlessinger didn't go for the cheap laugh at Cheney's daughter's expense, and Coulter did not utter the anti-Semitic remarks. It was Craig Kilborn who did the "SNIPERS WANTED" gag--only it was George Bush who was the subject of the ill-advised attempt at humor, not Al Gore. And it was Bill Maher who did the jokes about Cheney and Lieberman, on "Politically Incorrect." So where's the outrage? Where are the scathing columns and the calls for suspensions? Could it be that many of the liberal commentators and politicians whom we'd expect to be so offended by such comments are offended only when it serves their agendas? Look, I'm often the first to chortle at tasteless, mean, even sick humor--so I'm not about to say these guys should be banished from the airwaves over their admittedly regrettable stabs at humor. (Although Kilborn's pathetic gag probably should result in a weeklong suspension--something that would be considered a favor by any viewer who isn't into smarmy narcissism anyway.) Their comments didn't shock me, nor did they rattle my own value system. I'm content to call Kilborn a clueless jerk and say the normally witty Maher should have known better, and leave it at that--but what intrigues me is the near-total silence from the media and the activists and the elected officials about these two incidents. Usually I snort at conservatives who write and call to complain about the hypocrisy of liberals and moderates--who say we're much quicker to jump on someone's remarks if that person happens to be a conservative. This time I'd say they're right. suntimes.com