Herman Cain and the ‘Liberal Media’
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
NYT
I’ve always been impressed, well alarmed really, at how quickly the right wing jumps on an issue almost in unison. This week, it was the news that Herman Cain, one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, was sued on claims of sexual harassment when he was running the National Restaurant Association.
I barely had time to read the articles, and try to figure out whether there was any solid information about what exactly happened, when folks like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh had long made up their minds. They were already denouncing what they imagined to be an organized attack by the “liberal media.” I didn’t see any signs of a left-wing conspiracy, vast or otherwise, but it’s true I missed the morning conference call with Barbra Streisand (apologies to Marc Maron, who used to tell that joke on his Air American radio program).
Ms. Coulter and Mr. Limbaugh, and others on the right, also claimed the hubbub about the lawsuit was racist. Mr. Limbaugh said the left was smearing Mr. Cain with “the ugliest racial stereotypes” and Ms. Coulter said liberals “are terrified of strong, conservative, black men.”
That’s ludicrous, unless you think the simple reporting of a legal action against an African-American man is an act of racism. This line is especially hard to take since it was the Republicans who perfected the art of injecting racial fears into modern-day politics (remember Willie Horton in 1988?) and have conducted an unrelenting personal attack on President Obama that sometimes has not-so-subtle racial overtones.
(More here.)
NYT
I’ve always been impressed, well alarmed really, at how quickly the right wing jumps on an issue almost in unison. This week, it was the news that Herman Cain, one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, was sued on claims of sexual harassment when he was running the National Restaurant Association.
I barely had time to read the articles, and try to figure out whether there was any solid information about what exactly happened, when folks like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh had long made up their minds. They were already denouncing what they imagined to be an organized attack by the “liberal media.” I didn’t see any signs of a left-wing conspiracy, vast or otherwise, but it’s true I missed the morning conference call with Barbra Streisand (apologies to Marc Maron, who used to tell that joke on his Air American radio program).
Ms. Coulter and Mr. Limbaugh, and others on the right, also claimed the hubbub about the lawsuit was racist. Mr. Limbaugh said the left was smearing Mr. Cain with “the ugliest racial stereotypes” and Ms. Coulter said liberals “are terrified of strong, conservative, black men.”
That’s ludicrous, unless you think the simple reporting of a legal action against an African-American man is an act of racism. This line is especially hard to take since it was the Republicans who perfected the art of injecting racial fears into modern-day politics (remember Willie Horton in 1988?) and have conducted an unrelenting personal attack on President Obama that sometimes has not-so-subtle racial overtones.
(More here.)
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