While Elizabeth Warren routinely collects applause when citing her gender — and at this minute is using it to accuse Bernie Sanders of sexism — The New York Times stepped to the plate to assail The View’s Meghan McCain.
Ms. McCain, of course, is these days famous for her co-hosting stint on the ABC show created by Barbara Walters. While McCain is a serious Never Trumper, she has also at times displayed a conservative streak that befits her upbringing as the daughter of a longtime Republican Senator.
It is this conservative streak that brought about the wrath of The Times, famous itself these days for its woke lefty approach to just about anything. In this case, the paper published a column by one Shamira Ibrahim, identified as a “culture writer and reporter.” Among other things, the left-leaning Ibrahim said this:
Since Ms. McCain, a conservative, joined as a co-host on “The View” in October of 2017, she has become its most polarizing and predictable figure, the common denominator in the show’s most contentious round tables.
…It has become the norm to watch Ms. McCain, the daughter of Senator John McCain, square off against her co-hosts in a barrage of vehement exchanges — leveraging her political parentage, accusing her co-hosts of supporting infanticide, using her platform to push back against assault weapons bans and progressive immigration policy.
…For some viewers, Ms. McCain is the privileged product of conservative nepotism, capitalism and the American military-industrial complex. That coalescence naturally renders her a villain to progressives, who envision her as the cathartic personification of a punching bag on social media. Conversely, each pile-on reinforces her self-written narrative of the long-suffering victim of censorship.
…Ms. McCain, for her part, reminded everyone that this is to be expected, as she is ‘hyper, hyper conservative.’
…Post-2016, we are presented with a platform that is devoid of the varnish of the genteel, yet is still asking us to take a little time to enjoy the view. The problem is, with Ms. McCain still on the show, there’s not much to enjoy.
Where to begin?
First, I should say that while I have met and been on the radio show of her husband Ben Domenech, a co-founder of The Federalist, I have never met Meghan McCain. And for sure, I would be in total disagreement with McCain on the subject of Donald Trump.
But it must be said here that there is an obvious reason why McCain is a target at The Times. Her self description as a “hyper, hyper conservative” is a serious no-no in the world of the Leftist State Media. The all too obvious truth is that in the world of identity politics, the Left views women — and blacks, Latinos and in today’s world, gays — as property of the liberal plantation. To stray — much less to leave the plantation entirely — and the masters and mistresses of left-wing ideology will come after you for certain.
Recall the election of 2008, in which McCain’s father, Senator John McCain, played a starring role as the Republican presidential nominee. The Democratic primary was a furious fight between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton made no bones about the fact that she wanted to be the first woman president — and was loudly cheered on by the liberal media. “It’s time for a woman on the ticket” went the cry in true identity politics style, until Hillary, the champion of identity politics, got outplayed by Obama - being the first black president his calling card.
But Senator McCain was watching this “time for a woman on the ticket” cry and he obliged. There was an instant problem in the Leftist State Media. The woman he chose, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - was, oh the horror! — a serious conservative. She had left the plantation. And having done so was an immediate target for the LSM’s ridicule and wrath. Four years later in the 2012 election cycle, Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann attracted attention as a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination - she too being targeted by the liberal media.
In today’s world of the Trump era, one woman after another who has joined the Trump train has faced a similar fate. Whether White House press secretaries Sarah Sanders or, now, Stephanie Grisham, or Education Secretary Betsy De Vos, or family members Ivanka Trump and Melania Trump, the negative press and sheer furious scorn directed at them by the LSM is filled with an intense animosity. Meanwhile, over at Fox News, Laura Ingraham is regularly assailed by liberal media groupies.
One of the standard features of the American media culture is the presence of so-called “women’s magazines,” publications that pitch to a mostly if not strictly female audience. In the Obama era First Lady Michele Obama made the covers of these magazines routinely, with a glowing press. Now, with the current First Lady, who by-the-by is in fact the first professional model to live in the White House, Melania Trump is nowhere near the covers of these same magazines. For the abundantly obvious reason that she is Mrs. Trump — a conservative.
As mentioned, this scorn of Meghan McCain is merely the women’s version of the Leftist State Media’s proprietary view. Recall the animosity stirred when the retirement of Justice Thurgood Marshall occurred. The cry went up immediately that since the liberal Mr. Justice Marshall was also the first black on the Court, he must be succeeded by a black. President George H.W. Bush complied - with the black Clarence Thomas. And all un-shirted hell broke loose because, of course, Thomas was not only black - he was a serious conservative.
The LSM makes much of loving Latinos. Yet a serious target of LSM wrath these days is a noted Latino…conservative Texas Senator Rafael “Ted” Cruz.
Not to be forgotten either was this memorable column in The New York Post from a gay journalist named Chadwick Moore. The title of the piece: “I’m a gay New Yorker — and I’m coming out as a conservative.”
In which Moore said this:
When Out magazine assigned me an interview with the Breitbart.com rabble-rouser Milo Yiannopoulos, I knew it would be controversial. In the gay and liberal communities in particular, he is a provocative and loathed figure, and I knew featuring him in such a liberal publication would get negative attention. He has been repeatedly kicked off Twitter for, among other things, reportedly inciting racist, sexist bullying of Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones. Before interviewing Yiannopoulos, I thought he was a nasty attention-whore, but I wanted to do a neutral piece on him that simply put the facts out there.
After the story posted online in the early hours of Sept. 21, I woke up to more than 100 Twitter notifications on my iPhone. Trolls were calling me a Nazi, death threats rolled in and a joke photo that I posed for in a burka served as “proof” that I am an Islamophobe.
Moore said that he had lost friends as well. And why? Because he had announced that he was coming out - as a conservative. He added: “I realized that, for the first time in my adult life, I was outside of the liberal bubble and looking in. What I saw was ugly, lock step, incurious and mean-spirited.”
So let’s circle back to Meghan McCain and that attack in the Times. It was, to borrow from Mr. Moore, “ugly, lock step, incurious and mean-spirited.” And for precisely the same reason.
In the world of the liberal bubble, particularly in the Leftist State Media, by definition to be a woman means that you are also a liberal. And if you dare to stand up and declare otherwise, you will, depend on it, be attacked.
So now it’s Meghan McCain’s turn. And, not unlike her Dad, she is hardly inclined to be told to sit down and shut up. Good for her.
But she need not worry. The very moment some other conservative woman of note wanders into the view of The Times for a newsworthy moment, the negative press attention will shift in a heartbeat.
Imagine that.
