Thursday’s March for Life protest in Washington D.C. had a media-bias angle when Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo, ripped into MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann from the podium for suggesting his sister’s death (after removal of her feeding tube) was "legally and morally correct." In other words, Keith was the March for Life’s honorary "Worst Person in the World."
Olbermann rehashed the "far right" end of the Terri Schiavo controversy on the January 6 edition of Countdown, awarding the bronze (or "Worse" person in the world) to the Dobsonian theocrats:
The bronze tonight to Tom McCluskey, vice president of James Dobson‘s lobbying outfit Family Research Council, protesting the nomination of Thomas Perrelli by the president-elect to become the number three man at the Justice Department. Why? Because Perrelli was one of the lawyers who represented Michael Schiavo as he tried to end the Gothic nightmare induced by the far right, as he struggled to have a court order enforced to remove the breathing tube from his wife, Terri, whose brain function has ceased.
The careers of Senate Majority Bill Frist and his House counter-part Tom Delay crashed in large part because they took this private tragedy into Congress and exploited it politically, even as 70 percent of this country told them to stop their cynical manipulation of this beleaguered family. Now these Dobsonian theocrats are protesting an appointment at the Justice Department because the man was on the morally and legally correct side of the debate.
In an earlier e-mail to Lifenews.com, Schindler suggested: "News media bias promoting the killing of the severely disabled like Terri is well known, but it's not often that a media commentator so openly displays his vicious hatred of those who simply love life as Keith Olbermann did."
A sizeable number of members of Congress also addressed the crowd, included Republican enators David Vitter of Louisiana and Sam Brownback of Kansas. Representatives included Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Gregg Harper ( R-Miss.), Henry Brown (R-S.C.), Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Mary Fallin (R-Okla.), Phil Roe (.-Tenn.), Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), Jack Kingston ( R-Ga.), Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), Pete Olson (R-Texas), Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.). I’d say Pence and Franks were the best.
Jennifer Harper of The Washington Times previewed the inevitable media skipping past this massive protest, and she interviewed me for Thursday's paper:
"Anyone climbing on a bus from somewhere else, thinking they're going to wave into a network news camera, is going to be very disappointed. In the last 20 years, despite large annual crowds, the liberal manufacturers of TV have simply never found the March for Life to be the slightest bit newsworthy," said Tim Graham of the Media Research Center, drawing a comparison to a liberal antiwar activist.
"Everyone knows that a single Cindy Sheehan in the summer seems to be worth more than 20,000 pro-lifers in January."
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
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You're done, Keith.
January 22, 2009 - 22:33 ET by Mike BrattonOverdone, as a matter of fact.
"Morally and legally correct" to kill a woman who could respond to you?
While legality can be endlessly debated, morality cannot. Apparently, Keith, you wouldn't recognize immorality if it walked up to you in your hospital bed and yanked out your feeding tube.
--Mike
www.thebrattonreport...
Worst Person in the World
January 22, 2009 - 22:33 ET by SRPwrdWorst Person in the World always seems corny and a moufful(shout out to my girl DiFi!) to me... meh.
"two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century" - PEBO
Both SIdes Are Wrong On This Issue...
January 22, 2009 - 22:54 ET by The7SticksNormally, I could care less about what Keith Olbermann says because he usually distorts the facts and misstates the actual group's names (Everybody knows that James Dobson is head of Focus On The Family. The Family Research Council is headed by Tony Perkins. Keep that in mind before you speak diarrhea of the mouth, Mr. Olbermann.)
That's not to say however that I think the other side was right about it. I thought the way Rep. Delay and Sen. Frist made political theater out of the Terri Schivo incident was one of the most disgraceful displays of cavalier politics I had seen in the five years I have been paying attention to politics (the only other one that comes to my mind is the "General Betray Us" ad.) I have a hard time believing the pro-life movement will gain any sympathy out of the circus act they made out of this poor family's lives. This was their personal fight, and I'm inclined to believe, in the immortal words of the late President Reagan, that government isn't the solution to this problem. Rather it was the interference of government that was the problem. I won't even give my two cents about how I felt about the issue just to be fair.
So I believe both sides of the punditry screwed up big time on that issue, and that has set both sides back a bit in civility. One of these days, there has to be some common ground on a volatile issue like assisted suicide.
The7Sticks
January 22, 2009 - 23:53 ET by easygoerWell said.
With respect, I disagree
January 23, 2009 - 00:12 ET by KC MulvilleMoral questions inevitably boil down to conflicts of basic values. The Schiavo case was conflict between the government's duty to protect life against the rights of families to make medical decisions. Under normal circumstances, the duty to protect life should always outweigh a family's discretion, but these were not normal circumstances. (Was Schiavo "meaningfully" alive in the first place? The husband was already living with another woman; no one believed that he was doing this for Terri. Etc.) We disagree over whether this is a private matter. I take it from your comment that you think the government has no say in these decisions. I argue that government's highest duty is to protect life.
It's a myth that the families have some absolute authority to make life decisions. If the child was a healthy teenager, no one would argue that "it's the mother's decision" whether to kill her son. If Terri was a healthy housewife, no one would argue that her husband could declare her life "meaningless" and then kill her. These decisions are always relative to the government's duty to defend life. Under no circumstances does anyone have an absolute authority about these questions. In fact, not even Roe v. Wade argues that the government has no say ... Blackmun's whole trimester scheme was a (pitiable) way to forestall the government's interest for as long as possible, but even he recognized that government does indeed have a say. No life decision can ever be "private."
One of these days, there
January 23, 2009 - 06:45 ET by motherbeltOne of these days, there has to be some common ground on a volatile issue like assisted suicide.
How is there a common ground between good and evil, preserving life and snuffing it out?
Correct me if I'm wrong,
January 23, 2009 - 09:05 ET by HypocriteHaterCorrect me if I'm wrong, since this happened awhile ago, but didn't Terri's family (parents, brother) ask Congress to help them in this situation because the judge in Florida was intent on allowing her husband to kill her?
And by the way to Keith O, it wasn't a breathing tube that was being removed, it was a feeding tube. She had no problem breathing on her own, but she could not eat through normal channels. After working in the medical supply field, I encountered numerous patients whose only nurishment was obtained through a feeding tube. Does that mean their lives are no longer worth living?
By the way, this whole case stunk to high heaven. Here we had a guy, who first went to court to obtain settlement money for Terri's condition. Then he meets another woman and has kids with her. Now all of a sudden he remembers one conversation where Terri alledgedly said she wouldn't want to live a life connected to life support. So he decides now's the time to kill her by allowing her to starve to death over a matter of weeks. And guess who inherits Terri's settlement money?
And to top it all off, her parents begged the husband to let them take care of her because if anyone saw any videos of her, there was some life to her and they loved her with all their heart.
It just wasn't a pretty perfect life that people like Olberman consider worth living. We'll I'd be first in line to disconnect any feeding tubes keeping Keith alive should that day ever come.
Olbermann
January 22, 2009 - 23:28 ET by well99Is waste of air.All he does is spout a bunch of rhetoric of the left.
Redeye took a shot at him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHuIiYssnrM&eurl=http://www.olbermannwatch.com/archives/2009/01/red_eye_reams_o.php
BARRKY "THE PRINCE OF ABORTION" is in the White House ...
January 23, 2009 - 07:24 ET by Jayke... and with the upcoming National HEALTHY Care only the healthy will get care. The weak and the sick will be encouraged to PLEASE DIE and save us all some MONEY. I predict the establishment of LUXURY DEATH CAMPS where sick people can go and DIE HAPPY.
The quote by Harper
January 23, 2009 - 07:05 ET by BobAnthonyProves why I prefer the Washington Times over the NY SLIMES!
Oh and to BLOWBERMAN, THE NOTION THAT A MAN WHO CAN BE THAT MENTALLY DISTURBED COMING FROM THE WOMB OF A WOMAN IS BEYOND ME! DIE BLOWBERMAN YOU JACKASS DIE! I HATE YOU!
Want the PLAIN truth and no spin? Listen to The Plains Radio Network online. It's like nothing you've ever heard.
www.plainsradio.com
Throttle back, Bob.
January 23, 2009 - 09:22 ET by Mike BrattonWishing death on someone with whom you disagree politically is terroristic, and has no place here--or any other place where measured discourse is (or should be) the norm.
Disagree with ideas all you like, but bile like you're spewing isn't conservative. It isn't even rational.
--Mike
www.thebrattonreport...
Wow...another Trojan Horse?
January 23, 2009 - 10:51 ET byBobby Tony,
Are you really a conservative or just like to dress up like one?
If you're really a conservative, thank goodness you're on the Right side.
Odd Job
Olbermann is either an idiot...
January 23, 2009 - 10:49 ET by JannyMae...or he is revising history.
He states it was a breathing tube that Michael Schiavo fought to have removed and that Terri's brain had ceased to function. Both are incorrect. It was a feeding tube, and she was breathing on her own, so her brain had not ceased to function.
Actually, scratch the "or" from my statement. I suspect he's both an idiot AND revising history. He can't possibly be ignorant of the fact that Terri was STARVED TO DEATH by having her feeding tube removed.
Feeding tubes, brain death, and morality
January 23, 2009 - 12:58 ET by moderncommentaries83A very dear, beloved relative of mine was recently diagnosed with an incurable, progressive, fatal disease. She had to have a feeding tube put into her stomach because she cannot swallow.
According to many on the pro-death left, this means she is no longer a human being and that her life no longer is of worth to anyone. The Nazis had a term for people who were too diabled, infirm, or elderly to work - "useless eaters" - and they dispatched them accordingly.
Terri Schiavo was, indeed, severely disabled. However, her brain was able to function enough to keep her breathing and her basic bodily functions working. She couldn't eat because she couldn't swallow normally.
So her husband - who often asked the nursing staff when "that bitch" was going to die - sought to withhold food and water from her. If I withheld food and water from my son, and he died, I'd go to jail and most people would be disgusted that I allowed him to die in such a painful, drawn-out manner.
But, apparently, Terri's "husband" - who, no doubt, vowed to love her in sickness and health but shacked up with a woman and had kids while still married to his disabled wife - was a noble, loving man for killing her. In my opinion, marriage vows constitute a contract and Mr. Schiavo violated the terms of the agreement when he had an affair. In most states, that would be sufficient grounds for divorce, but Terri had no voice.
So she died. And, what's worse, her "husband" denied her access to the Sacraments before her death, too. Then he had the balls to go and get married in a Catholic Church again. Shame on him and the priest that allowed it.
The day after the 36th "anniversary" of Roe v. Wade, this is what our culture has come to. Liberals like to lament the notion that a "slippery slope" is just right-wing, theocratic hysterics, but less than 4 decades after we said it was okay to murder an unborn child because he's unwanted or inconvenient or expensive (the most common motives for abortion), we've progressed into saying it's okay to off our fellow human beings when they become incapacitated, too expensive, or otherwise burdensome to us.
We've taken the notion that morality is a fixed, unchanging set of principles and behaviors and chucked it in favor of relativism. Whatever "popular opinion" defines as right/wrong is what we have to use as the standard.
We have a moral obligation to defend the defensless - the unborn, the disabled, the elderly - from unjust attacks and dehumanization. We've failed. And we will pay for it.
It is a shame.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam