The left media’s double standards never fail to amaze.
As 2023 closed, the New York Times headlined this about GOP presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley:
Haley, Asked About the Cause of the Civil War, Avoids Mentioning Slavery
A pointed question, at a town hall in New Hampshire, raises a complicated topic for Nikki Haley, who as governor of South Carolina wrestled with issues stemming from the Confederacy.
The Jazmine Ulloa report, without a second’s worth of irony, reports this, quoting Haley directly:
“Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate and former governor of South Carolina who for years has wrestled with how to approach issues of race, slavery and the Confederacy, found herself again confronted with those subjects at a town hall event on Wednesday in New Hampshire, hundreds of miles north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Her answer to a simple yet loaded question by an audience member in the city of Berlin — “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” — showed just how much she continues to struggle with such topics.
“I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” she said eventually, arguing that government should not tell people how to live their lives or “what you can and can’t do.”
“I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people,” she said. “It was never meant to be all things to all people.”
Then, without a trace of self-awareness, the Times huffed:
‘Notably missing from her answer was slavery, which most mainstream historians agree was at the root of the United States’ bloodiest conflict — specifically the economics and political control behind slavery. Democrats were quick to jump on her answer, with President Biden’s re-election campaign team and others spreading video of the exchange on social media.”
Stop. Full stop.
Catch that line about ‘Notably missing from her answer was slavery, which most mainstream historians agree was at the root of the United States’ bloodiest conflict, specifically the economics and political control behind slavery."
And this line? “Democrats were quick to jump on her answer.”
So what’s missing in this reporting? The Times notes that Haley was silent about “the political control behind slavery.” Laughably, so was The Times.
When it comes to that “political control behind slavery” as I have noted in the past:
“…. the number of Democratic Party platforms supporting slavery? There were 6 from 1840-1860.”
In other words, the Times is after Haley - she a woman of color who is running for the nomination of the one political party that was specifically created in opposition to slavery. And without a trace of self-awareness or irony, the paper goes on to accuse Haley and Republicans of “downplaying the nation’s sordid racial history.”
Seriously?
There is zero mention in the entire article that the “nation’s sordid racial history” was a direct result of the Democratic Party that was founded by slave owners. Nor was there a solitary word from The Times that the Democrats’ first six platforms supported slavery outright. Or that its members of Congress unsuccessfully opposed passage of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th which gave blacks due process, and the 15th which gave the freed slaves the right to vote.
Neither is there mention by The Times that post-Civil War Democrats, from 1868 to 1948, wrote 20 platforms supporting segregation. Much less is there any reference that historians such as Columbia University’s Eric Foner have noted that the Ku Klux Klan was used as “a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party.” And oh yes, there was all that sordid business about the party’s refusal to apologize for its Klan support (at the 1924 Democratic Convention), or that Democratic President Woodrow Wilson -- a “progressive" -- segregated the federal government. Nor did the Times mention the Democrats supplied a full three-fourths of the opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in the U.S. House.
All of which is to say, there is the New York Times castigating Nikki Haley because ‘Notably missing from her answer was slavery, which most mainstream historians agree was at the root of the United States’ bloodiest conflict …”.
And yet The Times itself is completely silent as to which party had a long and deep history supporting…. slavery. Which is to say, The New York Times, in this hit piece on Haley and race, was itself silent on who was responsible for what “most mainstream historians agree was at the root of the United States’ bloodiest conflict …”. That would be slavery.
The Times silence on just which party was staunchly pro-slavery is well in tune with President Joe Biden’s silence when it comes to issuing a formal apology from the Democratic Party to black Americans for his party’s long, decidedly on the record, support of both slavery and segregation, not to mention the Klan.
You could easily say that The Times, to borrow from its criticism of Haley in this article, is itself guilty to the max of “downplaying the nation’s sordid racial history.”
Ya can’t make it up. In this case, The Times just goes silent about the proverbial elephant in the room, and hopes no one will notice.
Not here. Notice taken.
