Double Standards

Selective Outrage

Media, Civil Rights Movement's Common Thread


Much is being said today about the hard lesson learned in who's still running the media, at least for now: the old, elitist liberal guard.

When Air America Radio's financial scandal news broke last week, Franken & Co. were able to count on mainstream media friends to keep quiet. Now seven days and counting since the first Radio Equalizer and Michelle Malkin stink was raised, the New York Times has still failed to mention it.

As much as bloggers and other media rebels might like to think things have changed, they just haven't. While new media rabble-rousers have found a certain degree of success, there's a long road ahead.

Recently, an excellent media bias blog that found early reader acceptance, simply stopped publishing. Curious, I contacted a key player and was told a sense of frustration had overwhelmed its contributors.

The difficulty of getting the media to note outrageous behavior by some of its own had simply become too difficult.

When Rush Limbaugh was accused of abusing prescription medication via "doctor shopping" and other charges, the media wasn't so understanding, was it? They had a great time calling him a "pill-popper" and a hypocrite, with no hesitation in reporting the story.

For Franken's outfit, a different standard applies.

Today, two top-notch columns on this by Michelle Malkin and Edward Morrissey were published.

As Morrissey (of Captain's Quarters) writes for the Weekly Standard:

One would expect that mainstream journalists would want to take advantage of this opportunity to cover this harmonic convergence: A greedy corporation had taken a half-million dollars of city grant money from two certifiably sympathetic and traditional victim groups in order to pay off its already-wealthy employees.

Surprisingly, only three mainstream outlets did so: the Washington Times, in an editorial calling attention to the blog reports, a New York Post article doing much the same, and a New York Sun article detailing even more extensive malfeasance on the part of the CEO.

After speaking with the president of the charity's executive committee, Jeanette Graves, the Sun's David Lombino discovered that the CEO in question got the loans using rubber-stamp replicas of Ms. Graves's signature on documents never seen by her.

Malkin's syndicated column broadens it beyond mere media bias, calling attention to the lack of concern from so-called civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson:

Where are they? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the supermen of the civil-rights establishment – able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to get in front of a picket line. When victim politics calls, the demagogic duo leap into patented action: March. Boycott. Shakedown. Repeat.

But the raging reverends are nowhere to be found as a scandal involving the liberal radio network Air America and a Bronx, N.Y.-based inner city charity for poor children brews. Why the silence?

It's all about the Benjamins, as they say.

Equally disturbing is what's going on in St. Louis, where radio industry veteran Mike Anderson of STLMedia has been waging a one-man battle for three weeks against two hip-hop DJ's who urged listeners to attack the police, just after a city cop was murdered in cold blood.

This officer's message board comment paints a picture of the environment:

I think that everyone should know what was being said this morning on 100.3's morning show. They were actually discussing how to hurt officers. Callers were calling in and giving "tips" as to how to properly fight the police.

One "tip" that was discussed was that you should always fight for the officer's radio and take it so they are unable to call for help. In fact, according to 100.3, 80% of officers on the street are p$%#$s who will not do anything except talk sh-t.

In light of recent events, I find it very disheartening that a professional (at least they used to be) radio station would do this.

-- PLEASE, contact the station managers at Clear Channel Communications and voice your displeasure for having these radio DJs' giving a lesson in how to hurt/fight police officers.

-- If, for nothing else, do this for MAC. His death has been turned into a circus. Do the right thing. Please stay safe out there!

Yes, the media and "civil rights leaders" don't have a problem with this either, do they?

While the DJ's have been suspended, they haven't faced termination, thanks to selective outrage. But Anderson's stubborn determination to see justice served provides an excellent example for every discouraged Internet maverick.

I'm not sure, however, that these on-air thugs will be fired.

One to watch closely in the next week will be the fate of WMAL/Washington talk show host Michael Graham, who was yanked from the airwaves after a long campaign by the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), seemed to finally bear fruit.

Graham made comments about Islam being a religion of terror, that while bold, aren't terribly atypical.

Rather than admit censorship was the reason behind the removal, Graham's forced holiday was dismissed by many as an old-fashioned radio stunt. That was easier than the unpleasant prospect of defending a conservative talk host on free-speech grounds.

I heard from him yesterday, he tells me he has no idea when, if ever, he might return to WMAL. Currently in Hawaii at a previously-planned conference, Graham said he is at a loss to predict what might happen next.

Where's the outrage over Graham's removal due to nothing more than relatively strong opinions on issues? Isn't that his job? After all, he didn't call for any cops to be murdered.

Which is just the point: the police-bashing St. Louis DJ's have a better chance of keeping their jobs than Graham, in today's political environment.

These are tough lessons about double standards and selective outrage. We really have but one tool to fight back, the same way Mike Anderson has, with a stubborn compulsion to follow through on these issues.

The moment media mavericks (such as Hugh Hewitt, Powerline, Wizbang, Red State, Orbusmax, Instapundit, LaShawn Barber, Red State Rant, Ace Of Spades, Captain's Quarters, Politburo Diktat, Viking Pundit, Radio Blogger and many others) let Franken & Co. off the hook, he will be dancing in Air America's hallways.

Can we let that happen?


Franken/AAR graphic by Darleen Click, City Kid$ graphic by George Adair, MSM Silence by Suzy Rice. "Mourning Over Franken" stolen from Free Republic. Your Amazon orders that originate with clicks here, help to defray the Radio Equalizer's site upgrade costs. Thanks!