Bill Bennett Media Attacks Continue

ENOUGH

Pounding Bennett, But Still No Franken, Rhodes, Etc.



After ignoring Al Franken's proven lying on a sleazy network funding scandal and on-air looting tips from Randi Rhodes, will the mainstream media really get away with days of railing against Bill Bennett's obscure morning talk show?

Regardless of how Bennett's comments appear, in or out of context, are conservatives really going to take this lying down? This is no time to withdraw from battle.

After claiming Air America's scandal couldn't be covered because it's supposedly a local New York story, some of the very same media outlets have no such restraint with Bennett. Funny enough, his program isn't even heard in some of these cities.

In their eagerness to tar and feather the entire right via Bennett's transcript, some publications are making remarkable leaps of logic. Leading the list is this oddity from the Seattle Times:


President Bush's mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina ought to be balanced with his record of appointing the first black secretary of state and the first black woman to head the National Security Council.

Then there is former education secretary and radio talk-show host William Bennett, who resorted to a racially hateful hypothetical to point out statistics can be misleading.

"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," Bennett told a national audience.

Such action would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do," Bennett said, but noted it would lower the crime rate.

It matters not a whit that Bennett's remarks were off-the-cuff. They are dangerous and disturbing. Calamities such as natural disasters often bring out the worst in people.

But we have the right to expect better of the people entrusted with a public bully pulpit.


Is the Times really asserting Bush's response level was racist? Where's the evidence? Shouldn't we expect better of the paper, since after all, they're "entrusted with a public bully pulpit" of their own?

Speaking of that, how is a smattering of small radio affilates a "public bully pulpit"? Nobody's forcing morning radio on Bennett's listeners, any more than Seattle's stealth Canadian liberals are compelled to read the Times.

In this Washington Post story, the GOP fires back on hypocrisy grounds, but apparently didn't give examples:


Similarly, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who has been reaching out to African Americans and other minorities, called Bennett's comments "regrettable and inappropriate." But Mehlman also lashed out at liberals whom he accused of engaging in racially divisive rhetoric when it suits their political interests. "What's much worse is the hypocrisy we've seen from the left."


Mr. Mehlman, it's okay to fire your ammo: Franken, Rhodes, Malloy, why hold back? This is war.

Meanwhile, Mike Anderson of STLMedia, a St. Louis-based radio news and discussion site, notes entertainment industry trade coverage has been just as dishonest. Radio & Records has been particularly shameless, he believes.

After brushing off most of Air America's scandal developments, Radio & Records was quick to slam Bennett with this headline: "SRN's Bill Bennett In Hot Water Over Racially Insensitive Comments".

As Anderson puts it, "Shouldn't they have at least made a pretense of being fair on the issue?"

For a superb analysis of what Bennett really meant, see Andrew C McCarthy's "Shameful Attacks" at National Review Online.


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Bennett photo: AP