Our friends at Breitbart.com caught how liberal Politico writer Glenn Thrush dutifully set about as gaffe goalie for prospective Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, defending her "Medgar Evans" gaffe as a mere "verbal typo." "Gaffe is accidental truth. Verbal typo is [a] brain fart," Thrush helpfully explained via Twitter.
In and of itself, it's no big deal, Breitbart's John Nolte admits, but for the obvious liberal media double standard in what passes for political reporting these days. "[T]oday's mainstream media is merciless at using slips of the tongue to undermine the competency of Republicans. Democrats, however, always get a pass. Even if the gaffe is noted by the media, it is never used to define or undermine the pol," Nolte concluded. Thrush's eagerness to rush to Hillary's rescue illustrates that it's not just bias by omission conservatives have to contend with, but an actual positive attempt by liberal journalists to act as Democratic gaffe goalies. Expect more Glenn Thrushes to come out of the weeds as the campaign season heats up and conservative bloggers and Twitter users make sport of their verbal faux pas.
Now, to be fair to Thrush, "verbal typo" is not some clever term of art original to him. Urban Dictionary describes it as:
...the result of a well meaning person trying to say something coherent but tripping over his or her own mouth in the attempt. Generally, a verbal typo is similar in appearance to the intended word when written down, but when spoken it sounds twisted and often hilarious.
That being said, I don't recall liberal reporters falling over themselves in 2012 to defend Rick Perry's brain farts, for example, nor should they have. A gaffe is a gaffe, and they're fun to play for kicks and giggles. That should be the media's attitude for slip-ups by both Democrats and Republicans.
