Death to (fill in the blank)
I'm sure you all heard about the suicide bomber that blew himself up outside of Baghram AFB when Vice President Cheney was there. Well the reaction of the left would have been shocking if it were not so typical. What was atypical was this response by a newspaper!
"THE assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney in Afghanistan drew praise from a few members of the antiwar left. Have these people lost their minds?
At the popular Huffington Post Web site, dozens of comments were posted. Right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin captured them and posted them at her Web site. "
The thread was taken down and comments suspended but the "damage" was done. In an attempt to mute the outrage, the proprietoress of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington lamented that "make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers,". That lead to this inquiry from William Kristol.
"Arianna disapproves of those of us who called attention to the comments posted on her site Tuesday morning lamenting the failure of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan Tuesday to kill Vice President Cheney. These commenters "make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers," she now assures us.
How does she know? If the HuffPost commenters are unrepresentative of HuffPost readers, how does she divine the views of her readers?
Enlighten us, Arianna. Poll your readers. Ask them: Are they pleased that the attempt against Vice President Cheney failed? Are they grateful that he is alive and well? Do you hope the U.S. prevails in Afghanistan? In Iraq?
And if the poll turns out the way you hope, perhaps you should arrange to moderate the commenters so they don't convey the impression that your readers are--as you put it--"unhinged" and "fringe."
Both sides have their unhinged fringe. It behooves both sides to reign them in. However, the first thing that needs to be done is to define "unhinged fringe". Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh, while caustic are not the "unhinged fringe". Neither is Oliver Willis or Markos Moulitsis. However, those who wish death, dismemberment and prolonged pain on their political opposits ARE the unhinged fringe and it behooves us all to put a stop to their insanity by speaking out against them and their remarks. Then maybe we can get the debate back on the issues and off of the people.
"THE assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney in Afghanistan drew praise from a few members of the antiwar left. Have these people lost their minds?
At the popular Huffington Post Web site, dozens of comments were posted. Right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin captured them and posted them at her Web site. "
The thread was taken down and comments suspended but the "damage" was done. In an attempt to mute the outrage, the proprietoress of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington lamented that "make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers,". That lead to this inquiry from William Kristol.
"Arianna disapproves of those of us who called attention to the comments posted on her site Tuesday morning lamenting the failure of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan Tuesday to kill Vice President Cheney. These commenters "make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers," she now assures us.
How does she know? If the HuffPost commenters are unrepresentative of HuffPost readers, how does she divine the views of her readers?
Enlighten us, Arianna. Poll your readers. Ask them: Are they pleased that the attempt against Vice President Cheney failed? Are they grateful that he is alive and well? Do you hope the U.S. prevails in Afghanistan? In Iraq?
And if the poll turns out the way you hope, perhaps you should arrange to moderate the commenters so they don't convey the impression that your readers are--as you put it--"unhinged" and "fringe."
Both sides have their unhinged fringe. It behooves both sides to reign them in. However, the first thing that needs to be done is to define "unhinged fringe". Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh, while caustic are not the "unhinged fringe". Neither is Oliver Willis or Markos Moulitsis. However, those who wish death, dismemberment and prolonged pain on their political opposits ARE the unhinged fringe and it behooves us all to put a stop to their insanity by speaking out against them and their remarks. Then maybe we can get the debate back on the issues and off of the people.
Labels: Bloggers and Blogging
posted by The Lady Logician at
6:26 PM
8 Comments:
I'd say Swiftee is the fringe on the right here locally.
It's the oldest trick in the book to try to attribute comments to a blogger.
By
lloydletta, at 8:31 AM
"It's the oldest trick in the book to try to attribute comments to a blogger. "
The thing is Eva - the blog proprietor has the control over his/her own blog and can set the tone for the comments. They have it within their power to make sure that they aren't embarrassed by the comments left on their website. That is why a lot of people moderate the comments on their blogs or have some other means of controling the tenor of discussion.
Arianna's name is on the blog. She allows those kinds of comments to be placed on her blog. That is going to leave a lot of people with the impression, rightly or wrongly, that she condones those thoughts. If she did not, she would have shut the comments down a lot sooner.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 10:57 AM
"I'd say Swiftee is the fringe on the right here locally."
Come on Eva...are you really equating what Swiftee says with the repeated death threats that are daily called down upon the Dixie Chicks, President Bush, abortion doctors and VP Cheney?
If we are going to put Swiftee in that boat, there is room there for you and your blog mates as well.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 11:57 AM
I've always believed as I was taught, that profanity is simply the sign of a poor vocabulary, and an affront to civilized discourse. In other words, it is not only offensive but pointless.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 9:51 AM
William Kristol ought to keep his mouth shut after all the damage he has done to this country by being one of the most vocal advocates of invading Iraq. So far Mr. Kristol, your desire to spread US influence in the Middle East has cost over 3,000 US lives and has made us weaker in the region. But Kristol continues his assaults upon the left, attacking their patriotism. Kristol is a scoundrel.
By
Anonymous, at 11:02 AM
Skipper - how did Mr. Kristol attack Ms. Huffington's (or her commenters) patriotism?
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 7:05 PM
Coming late to the party here... The Huffington posts WERE removed as soon as they were noticed.
Unlike, say, all those posts over at Little Green Footballs calling for the release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed so that he could follow up on his plans to assasinate Former president Jimmy Carter. See Glenn Greenwald here:http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/15/pro_mohammed_sentiment/index.html
Some selected comments:
"Can we furlough him -- just so that he can realize the Carter plot? Please?"
http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/1794/1771/1600/309543/lgf4.jpg
"Mohammed also admitted to planning assassination attempts on former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Even this schmuck had some good ideas."
http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/1794/1771/1600/732326/lgf3.jpg
As Greenwald noticed:
"Not a single LGF commenter in that discussion condemned this support for Al Qaeda's assassination plot, nor has a single right-wing blogger (that I'm aware of) said a single word about any of it. It's irrelevant whether one agrees with the standards used to pump up the HuffPost/Cheney comments story into a major national press "scandal" (as I said at the time, I don't agree with those standards). But those are the standards that have been embraced, and they ought to be applied consistently."
Where's your outrage over these comments, Lady?
By
Anonymous, at 7:42 AM
Better late than never Anonymous, although your timing stinks.
First the Huffington Post did not remove the comments as "immediately" as you think. They were up for a couple of days before they were removed.
Second, speaking of selective outrage (this is where your timing stinks). What was the conservative blogospheres reaction to the announcement of recurrance of Elizabeth Edwards cancer? Compare that to the remarks made on lefty blogs (and by lefty talking heads) about Tony Snow's cancer recurrance - comments like he "deserved" it.....
You could possibly have a point, Anonymous, if your selective outrage weren't so obvious.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 7:10 AM
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