Good Blog Gone Bad
Ed Morrissey, a blogger I have respected, has engaged in far worse behavior than any he criticizes in the mainstream media. He has run a cartoon which equates Michelle Obama with Nazis.
I first wrote this in his comments:
When Ed chose to fudge the issue, I wrote this:
This is gut check time for Morrissey. He's not me. He's a guy who wants to be taken seriously, a guy with some play in the MSM, one of the "grown-up" bloggers. But this isn't grown-up. It's stupidly offensive. The defense that the left says, "Bushitler," so that justifies equating Michelle Obama with a Nazi, is pathetic. Is that the new conservative moral argument: they did it, too!
I first wrote this in his comments:
With that scurrilous, contemptible cartoon running at the top of this page, you are not really in a position to scold anyone in the media. Michelle Obama a Nazi? Really? That's a stand you want to defend?
When Ed chose to fudge the issue, I wrote this:
The defense of this cartoon is uncharacteristically dishonest and frankly stupid.
To equate a statement by a candidate's spouse to the effect that her husband will call on people to work, become involved, become better educated, to commit, to shed apathy, with fascism, is so staggeringly dishonest that it casts doubt on the integrity of this blog. A blog I check three or four times a day and that, until now, I have respected.
This isn't a close call. Shame on Ed Morrissey. Shame on the commenters who have twisted logic to equate a woman who espouses liberal views with people who arranged the mass-slaughter of entire races.
This is disgusting. Shameful. Contemptible. And I suspect Mr. Morrissey knows it, but rather than admit an error, rather than admit that the cartoon is inexcusable, he is choosing loyalty over truth and hiding behind a bland call to let commenters hash it out.
Ed, you are, in effect, a publisher here. You are a small-scale New York Times. If you won't step up and take responsibility, loyalty be damned, you have no further standing to criticize media which, for all their many travesties, have not yet sunk to this level.
This is gut check time for Morrissey. He's not me. He's a guy who wants to be taken seriously, a guy with some play in the MSM, one of the "grown-up" bloggers. But this isn't grown-up. It's stupidly offensive. The defense that the left says, "Bushitler," so that justifies equating Michelle Obama with a Nazi, is pathetic. Is that the new conservative moral argument: they did it, too!
This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on
Thursday, February 21, 2008.
You can leave your response.
3:32 PM
Wow. That's the part of Michelle's message that's actually encouraging, honest, and unifying. But even if I did find those comments off-putting, that cartoon is ridiculously stupid and uncalled for.
The "But what about 'Bushitler'?" response is of course true, but irrelevant. It's frustrating that more Democrats don't condemn the "Chimpy McHitlerburton" crowd, but do we have to sink to that level out of frustration?
Blecch.
4:14 PM
Hey, I'm somewhat critical of Ms. Obama's remarks and the mindset they represent. But just because I think she got it wrong doesn't mean that I think she's an enemy of the state.
1:43 AM
Hey, he took it down. Good for you.
The new meme in the rightosphere is Jonah Goldberg's overblown "Liberal Fascism," so it was probably playing on that.
The extreme Christian right is gearing up to paint Barack, with his silver tongue, internationalism, and ability to make people faint, as the Antichrist. I kid you not.
2:03 AM
Its official now. Captain ed has moved over to the dark side.
http://tinyurl.com/24xroe