I'd Rather Not

Dan Rather is, literally, old news. The strong temptation then, is to let this story go without comment, much as the rest of the media will do without so much as reporting it. But the Double Standard is at work again, and I've promised before to call attention to it whenever it presents itself. So, here goes.

We begin, as always, with the obvious question: If Brit Hume, for example, had said exactly the same thing, in exactly the same context as Dan Rather did, i.e., putting Barak Obama and watermelons in the same sentence, do you think the reaction would be different? Is it hard for you to imagine the Reverends, Jackson and Sharpton of course, outside Fox studios, bull horns in hand, sign carrying rent-a-crowd behind them, demanding that Hume be fired? Moreover, is it a strain for you to see the same Chris Matthews, host of the show where the crime was committed, later commenting with furrowed brow and an insufferable air of superiority, that while he doesn't think Hume a racist, he surely, by now, should know to be more careful in his choice of words?

Is this as tedious for you to read as it is for me to write? That is yet another difference between a conservative and a liberal. But one must do one's duty, and I promised.