As we've noted at NewsBusters before, it's perfectly sporting to liberal reporters to scoff at conservative activism by college-aged Republicans. Just the same, the left-wing activists of kids not old enough to drive is enough to make journalists warm and gushy inside.
Take Linda Ellerbee, formerly of NBC and CNN, who has a new Nick News special on kids engaging in political activism, and yes, it's heavy on left-wing action items from protesting alleged "torture" sanctioned by the Bush administration, to decrying standardized testing in Seattle, Washington, as racist, to aiding PETA in protesting the use of circus animals. (h/t Blackfive)
The 22-minute Ellerbee report, "Rebels with a Cause," can be found at the Nickelodeon Web site.
Here's the condescending patter with which Ellerbee opened her program:
You wouldn't believe the number of grown-ups who seem to think kids today are apathetic. "You're not the rebels we were back then," they say. "You're lazy, self-centered, you don't care." However, our experience in Nick News tells us that to be young is to be a natural rebel. And that many of you are rebels with a cause. Committed to challenging that which you believe needs challenging. Therefore, this show is about kids today who aren't afraid to rock the boat.
Of course, rocking the boat isn't always a left-wing exercise -- just ask any young conservative student in a sea of liberalism in academia -- but child activists pressing conservative issues were not featured. No pro-life students who march in the annual March for Life, for example, were profiled.
Ellerbee closed her program with a thinly-veiled call for liberal activism:
Margaret Mead, a woman who spent her life studying human behavior would have approved of them. After all, it was she who said, "Never doubt that a handful of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
And, I point out, Ms. Mead did not say, "Wait until you're grown to start." I'm Linda Ellerbee. Goodbye, for Nick News.
