Double standards in the establishment press's treatment of Republican and Democrat politicians is an unfortunate reality. Evidence that it's getting worse — to the point of begging the question, "At long last, have you no shame?" — can be seen in the disparate treatment of Florida's two major-party March 11 congressional special election candidates, Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alex Sink.
At the Associated Press, it is headline-making national news, via reporter Tamara Lush, that Jolly "was not charged and not at fault in a 1989 car crash in which he fatally struck a pedestrian, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report." Again: "NOT at fault." Meanwhile, it is not news at AP's national site that less than 30 hours ago, Sink, in a televised debate, resorted to offensive stereotyping in advocating changes in immigration law when she asked, "Where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping?" Excerpts from Townhall.com's story, plus a video containing Sink's statement, follow the jump.
Townhall's Guy Benson has the story on Sink's stinker, and points to journalists' hypocrisy (links are in original; bolds are mine, except within Sink's quote):
Florida Democrat: Without Immigration Reform, Who Will Do Our Landscaping?
... Alex Sink came very close to winning Florida's gubernatorial election in 2010, and is currently locked in a very tight special election battle over Florida's 13th Congressional District. She is a Democrat. At a recent election forum, she offered the following analysis of the urgent need for immigration reform:
“Immigration reform is important in our country. We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping? We don’t need to put those employers in a position of hiring undocumented and illegal workers.”
Well then. Sink's defenders will say that she was merely acknowledging economic and demographic realities in her district, and that her comments contained no slight -- intended or otherwise -- against Latinos. Although she does appear to pigeonhole certain groups of people and make some racial assumptions here, I would generally be inclined to mostly give her a pass for inelegant phrasing. The problem is that Sink's defenders are precisely the sort of people who would reflexively and immediately crucify her for uttering those exact same sentences if she had an 'R' next to her name. What's more, every Republican in America would be linked to the comment, then badgered by the media to weigh in on it.
... In defense of Alex Sink, lefties are busy little bees, parsing her every word, evaluating the proper context, and smugly concluding that there's nothing to see here. Again, I would tend to agree with that conclusion, but it's tough to get past their screaming hypocrisy. Thus, as a tribute to the Left's intellectual honesty and frequently-demonstrated capacity for generosity, I ask: Why does Alex Sink hate brown people?
Here's the video:
Establishment press coverage of Sink's stinker has been predictably sparse.
And the AP wants the nation to believe that the race's most relevant story is a very unfortunate fatal but "not at fault" accident 25 years ago.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
