One of the liberal media’s greatest hypocrisies is its opposition to rhetorical excess. Journalists claim to favor a civil discourse where everyone acknowledges the decency and humanity of their opponents. But in reality, they think conservatives are the forces of inhumanity, and liberal heroes are “iconic,” even comparable to divinity. CNN weekend host Michael Smerconish became the poster boy for this hypocrisy on Wednesday night, proclaiming the Republicans have “overplayed” their rhetoric against Hillary Clinton “in poor taste” – as he unabashedly compared her plight in Cleveland to the crucifixion of Jesus.
The problem with the GOP that I've seen in the last two nights, both with Mayor Giuliani's presentation and with Governor Christie’s. I call it the Good Friday Speech that he delivered, because it was everything except crucify her that was uttered from the dais. They're running the risk of overplaying their hand. That chant list night, I tell you. On radio, as I solicited calls from across the country today, and not from people decidedly one way or the other, middle America undecided who heard that thought it really was in poor taste and that it went too far." – CNN weekend host Michael Smerconish.
Smerconish should look in a mirror on the overplaying and the poor taste. Several runners-up also displayed an overwhelming intolerance for any coarse criticism of their heroine Hillary:
Brian Williams, convention anchor: And David Maraniss. First of all, good to see you, second, let's do some forensics. You could argue that could you draw a bright line between hatred of the Clintons as a thing, as a duo, certainly to begin with, through the creation of entire news networks. It goes way back.
David Maraniss, Washington Post: You know, it goes back 25 years, a quarter of a century what are the longest spans for any couple or person to be in national politics for that long. So I think that you're all right that it’s facile to say this is just normal blood sport...I think there is something about the sort of undercurrent of violence. Not just violent rhetoric, but something beneath that that makes this such a dangerous period in our political history." – Exchange on MSNBC.
I want to show you a little something that we shot earlier today. I will tell you that, some of our viewers, you’re not going to find this offensive. You may find it uncomfortable. And so, you may not want to look at this stuff. But these are some of the pins that are being sold at the venue, at the RNC venue in Cleveland. And you know, you always, at conventions, you always get sharp-edged stuff, particularly the merchandisers tend to compete with each other to see what they can produce that will one up one another. But from calling Hillary Clinton a bitch, to the KFC special referring to her breasts and thighs and left-wing and all of those other things. That's part of the merchandise of the RNC. We've also seen pre-printed signs saying “Hillary Clinton for prison.” We’ve seen calls from the stage that she ought to be in stripes, that she ought to be locked up. That’s been a chant throughout the convention proceedings thus far. We expect to see more of this tonight.” – MSNBC convention anchor Rachel Maddow.
“You know what’s so amazing is that African-Americans and Latinos should resonate with this Republican Party. Enterprise, you got an incredible entrepreneurial section of the black community, Latino community. Faith, family, all that.The problem is that good tasty gumbo continues to be ruined by the doggie poo of the xenophobia, of the doggie poo of the anti-immigrant strident message that doesn't carefully distinguish between good and the bad of even our undocumented population.” – CNN analyst Van Jones.
Once again, the notion that CNN somehow hews to a "sensible center" -- either in rhetoric or in ideology -- took a beating on Wednesday night.
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