Bozell Column: Ludicrous Lionel

At what point, exactly, did we come to hate humans for having the arrogance to assume they are wiser than beasts?

The "we" in that equation belongs squarely to the camp of the loony radical left, which now broadcasts that hatred for humans on the Air America radio network. How low can this disgraceful failure of a radio venture go? One of their newest hosts goes by the radio name "Lionel." (His real name is Michael LeBron.) "Lionel" unfurled a rather unique take on the tragic incident at the San Francisco Zoo, where a tiger mauled a teenager to death.

He cheered for the tiger.

Then he cheered the death of Steve Irwin, the beloved "Crocodile Hunter" of TV fame.

I’m not kidding. Here’s the quote: "Call me wacky, but hurray for the tiger that killed the kid who was...taunting him. Now, I know this is not right...but let's hear it for the wild...I loathe zoos. I'm still cheering the fact that some stingray whacked that Aussie pain-in-the-ass Steve Irwin."

Some might call him wacky. Others would just call him sick.

Let’s note that there is no definitive media account yet that shows that 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. was taunting the tiger when he was killed. But if he did? He deserved death?

When the quote was circulated on blogs like NewsBusters and the Radio Equalizer, "Lionel" didn’t defend his statements. Instead he did what liberals so often do: he protested that he was only joking. He denounced conservative bloggers as the kind who say "I'm either going to expose myself to children at a park, or stay home and blog." Some bloggers "apparently bored, may have commented on a comment that I had regarding...Steve Irwin and the barb that shook the world." He claimed they were "obviously sardonic comments." His swaggering tone during that segment did suggest he was going to say something shocking, but his own Air America blog stated unequivocally, without any attempt at humor: "If you shoot a tiger with a sling-shot, you deserve to get mauled. That’s just how it works."

Cro-Magnons would agree with this man.

Liberals would have us believe that liberalism is all about seeking the highest peak of happiness and compassion for humanity. But when that humanity clashes with the animal kingdom, left-wing crazies throw compassion out the window, suggesting a different motto: "Screw the Human." Comedian Bill Maher also mocked Irwin’s death in September 2006 by attending numerous Halloween parties a month later dressed as the Crocodile Hunter, complete with a bloody stingray barb attached to his khaki shirt.

Why aren’t the media elites scandalized by hateful statements like these? When liberals get called on the carpet for saying crazy things, they are always only joking. When conservatives are joking, the media see their humor as scandalous, even dangerous. Leftists like Bill Maher can argue on television that the world would be a better place if Vice President Cheney was killed by terrorists and liberal elites will yawn because, he was kidding, see. But when Rush Limbaugh’s show runs a song parody of Al Sharpton lamenting Obama’s popularity called "Barack the Magic Negro," the same people suddenly are outraged.

NBC put on leftists who denounced Limbaugh for having a racist show, and "the radio equivalent of a blackface minstrel show." The reporter complained that there’s no "hue and cry" because his "niche audience" expects this kind of joke. The on-screen graphic screamed: "Is Limbaugh Getting a Free Pass?"

It’s a question you’ll never see posed by NBC about Maher or "Lionel."

When Limbaugh laughs about "feminazis," liberals are apoplectic in their fury. When the Air America types angrily label President Bush a Nazi, they’re nowhere to be found.

The other night, Maher was a guest on Conan O’Brien’s show. Speaking of Mitt Romney, he said, "You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work…and on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith… That makes you schizophrenic." O’Brien then asked if anyone who is religious is a schizophrenic. Maher replied: "Well, yes, sort of, because they have walled off a part of their mind."

Never mind that Maher just insulted about 91 percent of the American people as irrational, even mentally ill. The reaction from the media elites was, predictably, total silence.

Liberals in the Old Media who constantly decry talk radio as a haven for right-wing haters ought to have the honesty and integrity to cover both sides of the street before they present themselves as the nation’s guardians of public civility and decorum.