#24 ricki: 21. wws
23. Stephen
Yes, that’s exactly how I read it.

Same here. The guy was in Dupont Circle – and if you’ve been there, you know who lives in Dupont Circle: upscale, white, liberals. People who agree with the NYT, and would never dream of applying the MSM-coded slur “predominantly white” to themselves, even though it’s literally true. Yet it was among these people that Crook found the hateful malice that the MSM rule insists can only be found among the “Restore Honor” people. I think that including the AP opening paragraph was meant to show that it’s not enough anymore just to say a crowd is “predominantly white” and expect the readers to draw the appropriate (liberal) conclusions: i.e., racist, stupid, hostile, violent.

“Perhaps he was insincere; even so, an odd thing to say if you are addressing a quarter of a million bigots.” I can see how this could be misread, but I think he’s pointing out that even if you accept the arguments of the left about Beck, his praise of MLK is rather inexplicable – the guy is a success because he knows his audience. If they really are bigots, then they’re the strangest bigots ever seen. I think Crook should have put the word “bigots” in scare quotes, and there wouldn’t be this confusion. He doesn’t sound sarcastic or condescending elsewhere in the piece, even when he admits he’s an outsider to this movement, so I don’t think he’s suddenly introducing a charge of bigotry in this line; it just doesn’t fit.