Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Chris Wallace Parrots NewBusters' Bullshit About NY Times Kennedy Obit.



Chris Wallace is having quite a week.

Not content with interviewing Dick Cheney, "like a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers", he now sets about attacking the New York Times coverage of Ted Kennedy's death and comparing this with the obituary they gave for Jesse Helms.

He admits, "I'm sure some people will be offended that I am even making the comparison".

And, he's right to suspect this, as it is a terribly offensive comparison.

Kennedy's faults included Chappaquiddick and, whilst no obituary led with a reference to the incident, it was obvious that this was what people were referring to when they spoke of, "a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure."

Jesse Helms was a segregationist. To attempt to detect bias based on any obituaries of the two men, one would have to insist that the NYT ultimately ignored who the two men were.

Ted Kennedy fought for the rights of the underprivileged, Jesse Helms was a homophobic racist. It would be impossible to talk of both men's lives without at some point touching on those truths. That is simply who both men were and what they did.

Here's a couple of Jesse Helms quotes:

"The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint
that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic,
and interfere with other men's rights."

When a caller to CNN's Larry King Live show praised guest

Jesse Helms for "everything you've done to help keep
down the niggers," Helms' response was to salute the camera
and say, "Well, thank you, I think."
The day that Chris Wallace can find similar quotes coming from the mouth of Ted Kennedy is the day that he can demand that the media treat both men the same in their obituaries.

Click title for New York Times Obituary of Jesse Helms.

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