I have proof.
I'm out at Mom and Dad's house, andd their taste still runs to PBS Newshour in the evening. Last night's show had David Brooks (not my favorite "conservative" collumnist) roundly condemning this meme as despicable. Jim Lehrer challenged Mark Shields, Brooks' liberal counterpart, to address Brooks' statement.
Shields agreed completely. So did Lehrer. On PBS, the usual suspects all lined up behind what the sane side of the blogosphere is saying - there's no connection, the shooter is a lone crazy, the claim that Palin's "targets" caused this is pathetic, the whole nine yards. They were all contemptuous and dismissive of the whole thing. All of them.
Color me surprised, but PBS rose to the occasion, and did so in magnificent form. Stick a fork in it, this meme is done. If even PBS isn't buying it, it's over.
I guess you're never too old to learn something at your parents' house.
UPDATE 11 January 2011 11:02: Brooks has a simply outstanding column in today's New York Times, The Politicized Mind. Regular readers will know that I'm not a big Brooks fan, but this hits all the right notes: the rush to judgment, the media blindness caused by a left-wing tilt, reporter's ignorance of mental health issues. It's a sober j'accuse on the Time's Op-Ed page that will hopefully help tone down some of the silliness. Well done, Mr. Brooks.
Huh. I still don't like funding them, but I'll take them off the Hate list for today.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see more of there commentators attempt to argue their insular and narrow-minded views in the court of open opinion - like going on Fox news as Juan Williams did - but I expect that would require an entire re-staffing and new management before PBS became that capable.
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