The Fringe Festival

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: 4th Estate Debate

(AP)

A group of conservative bloggers – not to mention folks like Sean Hannity – are upset over some nasty comments that were posted in the comments section of the liberal Huffington Post Web site in the wake of the bombing near Vice President Cheney. A number of commenters expressed their disappointment that Cheney hadn't been killed.

The dustup sheds a light on an unfortunate habit of partisans on both sides, who love to publicize nasty rhetoric in order to illustrate the wrong-headedness of their ideological opponents. You might call it the Ward Churchill strategy. Churchill, as you may know, is a (once) obscure professor who wrote a ridiculous essay comparing the victims of the September 11th attacks to Nazis. As I noted in CJR Daily in 2005, Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly decided that the Churchill affair was a huge story – he covered it an astounding 25 times in a four-month period.

Churchill is the kind of guy who makes liberals look like wackos – just like the commenters who expressed sadness when the vice president wasn't killed. There is a reason partisans might want to think twice before employing the Ward Churchill strategy, however – a reason aside from the inherent intellectual dishonesty of shining a light on unimportant figures in order to push an agenda. There are Ward Churchills on both sides, after all, as a visit to the comments section of a site like Free Republic quickly reveals. And I'm not sure how getting into a your-freaks-are-worse-then-ours tit-for-tat benefits anyone in the long run.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
Follow on Twitter »

8 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by jtdavies3 March 2, 2007 9:39 PM EST: I read "a leader" not "the leader".; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 March 2, 2007 5:12 PM EST: Cheney is the leader of a Party???; Reply to this comment


by ikez78 March 2, 2007 3:03 PM EST: Thats right. One party wishing death upon a leader of the other one and being called out for it is the fault of those calling them out.

Typical liberal BS thats come to be expected from you hacks at CBS; Reply to this comment


by jtdavies3 March 2, 2007 12:59 PM EST: Maybe you should had phrased your statement

"A number of commenters expressed their disappointment that Cheney hadn't been killed"

as

"A large number of commenters on a comment
moderated blog expressed their disappointment that Cheney hadn't been killed".

Since the postings have been removed it's impossible to quantify the number of posters wishing for the Vice President's death.; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 March 1, 2007 3:01 PM EST: The question still begs as to how? And Who? knew that Vice President Cheney was going to be at that location? Afghanistan has been another disastrous campaign, the Taliban are enemies with Iran along with the Sunnis in Iraq.

Wouldn't one think that the enemy of our enemy would be our friend? George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney only continue to want to fight wars against everyone in the Middle East in effort to sustain their Private War Contractor Affirmative Action.; Reply to this comment


by memekiller March 1, 2007 1:42 PM EST: This is exactly what's wrong with "balanced" journalism. Blogs I read rarely, if ever, make a big deal about the comments left on those few right-wing blogs with comments. We go to paid political pundits and elected politicians for that. This kind of trick is not limited to blogs: there is one incidenct of Republicans printing up offensive brochures and attempting to place them in Democratic campaign headquarters, then calling the media. The problem was that as soon as someone saw the brochures, they threw them in the trash (as Gore foiled an attempt to set him up with some videos of Bush's debate preps when he called the police). A set-up that relies on the poor character of Democrats is doomed to failure.

So, the situation is hardly comparable. The reason Hannity, with his multi-million dollar contracts, book deals, radio and TV shows, has to find anonymous comments is because there are no rude liberals given a forum on your "free speech" segments or Sunday morning talk shows, as Limbaugh and Coulter are. During all the many hours of blog reading I've done, I have yet to read a comment by someone that even comes close to approaching the calls for the assassination of Demoratic leaders, as one radio show host did, or the bombing of the NYT's, as your Good Morning fave Coulter does. When you put up a prominent liberal calling for the death of Cheney instead of some dork posting from a public library to stay warm, then you can complain.; Reply to this comment


by ronmwanga February 28, 2007 11:50 PM EST: It just goes to show that our education system is truly lacking. Logic should be taught in all our high schools.; Reply to this comment


by one_american February 28, 2007 8:05 PM EST: Looks like the Democrat Party is beginning to fracture already...and so soon after taking control of Congress. Tsk tsk.; Reply to this comment