Mark Halperin of Time magazine is nostalgic for the days of 1930…or1963…or1973…or 1995, when his fellow liberals could just invent a narrative, get it into the media, and not have to bother with much pushback, Mary Katharine Ham writes:
“I just want to single out one thing. I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far. I’m worried about the anger of the right-wing commentariat,” Halperin said. “Fox and George Will and other conservatives are in some cases justifiably upset at liberals, but they’re turning this back into the standard operating procedure of ‘all this is war and fodder for content’ rather than trying to bring the country together.”
“Wait a second,” Scarborough responded. “I think they would say that you have that backwards, that a shooting was turned into fodder to attack conservatives.”
Halperin: “And, I already made that criticism, as well. They’re right, but rather than seizing on it and turning the other cheek, they’re back at their war stations. [War stations? Shouldn’t liberals eschew such violent language?–Ed] that’s not going to help us.”
Turn the other cheek? Nuts to that, Drew of Ace of Spades responds:
Look, I can’t prove this but someone who writes for a rival of Time magazine, where Halperin works, says there’s a chance Halperin might have killed even more dogs than Michael Vick and more people than Ted Bundy. Now should these blatant falsehoods start to spread, I’d really hate it if Halperin defended himself against these baseless charges. If he did, it might turn people against Vick as he enters contract negotiations and it might bring up some bad memories for the families of Bundy’s victims. So I’m sure Mark will just sit back while his good name is besmirched by liars trying to sell more copies of his competitor’s product. He’s just that kind of guy.
Can you imagine for a moment anyone in the press saying, “Hey Dems, sure the conservatives are lying about you and trying to paint you as monsters but take one for the team…lie back and think of England!”?*
Just when you think liberals can not get any more shameless with this story a new one comes along. Of course, we won’t have full stupidity closure until we hear from hysterical Frank Rich.
I’m really hoping Rich calls us all Stalinists again as he did in October of 2009. Because really, MSNBC has the lock on Nazi comparisons these days.
Or to save the MSM countless typing, forests of paper and expensive manhours of television production:
Conservatives? Just shut up, already:
[youtube lWHgUE9AD4s]
Glenn Reynolds adds:
BAD ADVICE: Mark Halperin, last seen musing that what Obama needed was a “horrendous act of violence” that would save his Presidency, is now advising people on the right that they should turn the other cheek when falsely accused of murder after the hoped-for “horrendous act of violence” occurred. To avoid “escalation,” don’t y’know.
Bah. As the man Halperin is struggling to save says, punch back twice as hard. But you can taste the desperation here. When the lefty talking-point assault hasn’t even convinced Barbara Walters and The Economist is calling it “toxic,” it’s a pretty major fail. So now it’s time for Plan B. It probably sounded good on some JournoList: Try baffling ‘em with a bible reference — those Christianist tea partiers fall for that every time, right?
As I said, major fail.
The biggest worry after the November elections was that a lot of people on the right would declare victory and go home. The shameless attempt to politicize the Tucson shootings and scapegoat people on the right has generated a huge amount of anger. Tea Party folks being who they are, I suspect this will mostly manifest itself as grunt-level political work in preparation for 2012 — precisely the opposite of what the scapegoaters were hoping for: Don’t get mad, get even, by making 2012 an even bigger shellacking than 2010.
Indeed, to coin a phrase.
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