Bill Bennett Taken Out of Context

Change font size:  A |  A

Bill Bennett is under heavy fire from liberals for a so-called "racist" remark on his talk show a couple days ago. In a discussion on economics, poverty, and abortion, Bennett made an analogy that he immediately identified as "morally reprehensible." In the full context of the entire discussion, his comment is not the least bit racist, but liberals are taking his comment way out of context and are implementing a strong attack through breathless demands for an apology from Bennett. Meanwhile, a nationally syndicated liberal talk show host compares the evacuation of victims of Hurricane Katrina to the evil round-up of innocents in the Holocaust(!). Let's compare the two recent episodes and the media reaction.

A search at Google news ("Bill Bennett") returns scores of results as the liberal media machine continues to stir up this story. (e.g., A Washington Post story and an ABC News/AP story are just a couple of examples.) NBC's Today showcased Bennett's comments at the top of their show Friday morning.

The Washington Post reported:

The former U.S. education secretary-turned-talk show host said Wednesday that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett quickly added that such an idea would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do." But, he said, "your crime rate would go down."

But Bennett said that he was talking about "bad arguments in regard to abortion." Right after saying, as the Post reported, that the "crime rate would go down," he talked about "these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations."

Meanwhile, as reported on

this September 22, 2005, Newsbusters.org post, Air America's Randi Rhodes, last week on her radio show, made a clear and unapologetic comparison between the treatment of evacuees of Hurricane Katrina to the round-up of citizens onto cattle cars being sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust. And what was the media reaction to that? A search at Google news ("Randi Rhodes" +Holocaust) returns only one item: the very same post we made here at Newsbusters.org! In case you missed it, here is part of what Randi said:

RANDI: So, what are you supposed to do? Just do a "faith-based evacuation"? (Changing voice, as if an evacuee) "I'm sure he wouldn't send me to Auschwitz." CALLER: Yeaaw! But why were these people patted down? There was an assumption of criminality made because they were poor and they were black -- RANDI: Check this out. Let's just -- Think about it this way. People were taken one place. Their children were taken another place. THIS IS SO MUCH LIKE THE HOLOCAUST. I can't even -- You know, it's like, you're not supposed to forget the Holocaust so that it can't happen again. And here you have people being loaded onto transportation vehicles, not being told where they're going, and their children are being taken someplace else ...

And this receives no "outrage" from the media?! Where were the breathless demands for an apology for this? For a fuller transcript of the Randi Rhodes exchange, go to the original Newsbusters.org post. Equal treatment from the media? Not even close.