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The Spectacle Blog
Imagine, if you will, that Roe v. Wade had never been decided by the Supreme Court. Abortion policy thus is set by all 50 sovereign American states. Wisconsin’s newly elected Democratic governor and legislature have just passed modest and incremental reforms that will make abortion more widespread.
As a result, thousands of Christian Right protesters have descended upon the state capitol building in Madison to protest what they believe is a gross travesty of justice. Some of the Christian Right protesters carry signs and placards that depict Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Scott Walker as Adolph Hitler.
Pretend, too, that the media is predominantly conservative and thus routinely reporting about that this new legislation will “strip the unborn of basic civil rights” and “limit civil rights protection for unborn children.”
Also, right-wing filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe has come to Madison and given a series of speeches and media interviews in which he’s denounced Walker and the Wisconsin Democrat legislature.
“Really, this is a war,” O’Keefe told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “This is a religious war that’s been leveled against Bible believing Christians in this country.”
And finally, a Republican Congressman — Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota — told a pro-life crowd protesting the Wisconsin legislation that she’s proud of them:
“I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going,” she said. “Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.”
Does anyone doubt that, given the facts as I just described them, there’d be a mass media firestorm warning of the dangers of the “radical religious right”?
Why, the media would be beside itself! They’d be warning about incitements to violence, the danger of the mob, and the importance of separating church and state.
Yet tellingly, the facts as I describe them are exactly what has happened in Wisconsin today; but the issues and personalities — and, most importantly, the political sides — are completely different.
At issue is not abortion, but collective bargaining by public employees unions. And James O’Keefe is really Michael Moore, Rep. Michele Bachmann is Rep. Michele Capuano (D-MA.), and Fox’s Sean Hannity is the real-word Rachel Maddow.
So, not surprisingly, the media are reporting this story very differently: they are mostly silent and mum. There’s no outrage or concern.
And of course, in their choice of language — collective bargaining “rights” — they’ve implicitly sided with the public employees unions. Would the media ever side with pro-life advocates? Please, be serious.
In short, Wisconsin reveals, yet again, that liberal media bias is real; and that it really distorts the news. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John R. Guardiano
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/11/what-if-the-christian-right-we
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jharp| 3.11.11 @ 3:01PM
You wingers are just don't get.
You got what you wanted. You respect the right to protest. And it's soon to be in the hands of the Wisconsin voters. What is wrong with that?
Quit whining.
LiveFreeOrDie| 3.11.11 @ 4:02PM
Troll alert, do not feed!
Warrior | 3.11.11 @ 6:00PM
Your sentence structure is awful. You leftists stated that you believed Obama was elected by a wide margin (53%-46%) and had a mandate. Walker was elected (52%-46%) and yet you do not believe that the 1,128,941 who voted for him should be heard louder then the less than 10,000 protestors? What you also are willing to gloss over is the death threats and other potentially criminal behavior perpetrated against the elected officials.
tonypal| 3.11.11 @ 6:39PM
"You wingers are just don't get."
Ladies and gentlemen, that was an actual sentence from a silly little person who ends most of his sophomoric lefty rants with "God you people are stupid."
As for his latest idiocy, he lectures us to quit whining. This after several weeks of leftist losers, like our hero, whining about having to pay a few more dollars for their pensions and health care benefits. This after the democrat caucus in the state senate ran to another state because they couldn't get their way.
I'm starting to wonder if our hero isn't some sort of trained monkey, like Mister Teeny on the Simpsons. Mister Teeny is the chain smoking monkey who serves as Krusty the Klown's butler. Driving might be beyond our hero, but putting together a coherent argument or sentence is clearly an unattainable goal.
God jharp is a shitty sperm donor.
jharp| 3.11.11 @ 6:46PM
Leave my ejaculate out of it.
I am 100% heterosexual and have no interest, none, zero, in a homosexual relationship.
Try Craigslist.org.
There are lots of fellas that would be willing to share their ejaculate with you.
Enjoy yourself.
Curtis Rasmussen| 3.11.11 @ 6:56PM
You bore me.
From now on I'll take the advice of others and not feed the troll.
Don't feed the troll.
jharp| 3.11.11 @ 8:13PM
You wouldn't dare to consider letting tonypal know to leave my sperm out of the debate. Are you also into reading posts about my ejaculate?
Eff you too buddy.
God you people are stupid.
Cousin Arlo Harp| 3.12.11 @ 8:54PM
Around these parts Junior Harp is known as The Chairman of the Bores.
It's painless| 3.14.11 @ 9:38AM
Jharp - you homo - just kill yourself before you come out of the closet and embarass your mama.
You know suicide is the answer for you.
vladdy| 3.13.11 @ 8:58PM
Jharp: You are not on HuffPo. Could you keep the constant slurs, insults, and juvenile profanity to yourself and just debate like an adult?
Oldefarte| 3.12.11 @ 1:27PM
Oh, we 'get it' [the thuggery, stupidity, financial rape of the taxpayer, organized crriminality, the destruction of public property by scumbags/morons/heathons/imbiciles, etc]alright. Oh, if/when it gets into 'hands of the Wisconsin voters' [or all other voters nationwide], the slimball nature of liberals/Democrats has now COME OUT OF THE POLITICAL CLOSET into the exposure of sunlight; AND WE VOTERS have been [and will continue to] observe and will thereafter be VOTING FOR CONSERVATIVE/REPUBLICANS IN DROVES BEGINNING WITH NOVEMBER OF 2012 AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!!!!
vladdy| 3.13.11 @ 6:46PM
Your remarks will be taken more seriously if you change the tone and drop the slurs.
The refudiator| 3.11.11 @ 3:46PM
Christians are persecuted in America, no doubt about it. Why you practically have to be a Muslim to be elected President anymore. Must be a sign of the end times.
Jim Hlavac | 3.11.11 @ 4:32PM
Now imagine if gay folks took over a state capital building because we lost another vote? Oh, yes, the outrage indeed. Why, we get blamed for stuff that we never did, have nothing to do with and aren't involved with. We get blamed for sitting still and doing nothing. We got blamed for the earthquake in New Zealand, and birds fell out of the sky because DADT was repealed, and hurricanes strike Florida because we go to Disney World. Delusional, but it's said with staid impunity.
Or imagine if we actually, in reality, "Attacked" a family, or a church, or a bunch of boys, or the nation, or the culture, or anything. None of it ever happens; still, the charge is hurled at us. Often right here on these pages. Quite amazing.
And for having done nothing more than being born gay (though many of still think our parents or someone did it to us, you're not sure, and we chose it too, I guess to argue incessantly with you over sissy smooching for the rest of our days) -- and being peaceful productive taxpaying citizens of this nation who provide an awful lot of the culture workers -- we're pilloried for having the temerity to exist and demanding a shred of humanity in the recognition of the reality.
Still, we turn the other cheek, and go back to asking for decency. So given the way leftists act, I guess gay folks aren't leftist at all, now are we? Nope.
c. j. acworth| 3.11.11 @ 5:43PM
I don't know why Mr. Guardiano even bothered to post his remarks. The MSM are a bunch of libtards. Wow, thats news, I never would have known. Lets stop whining about how unfair it is and get to the polls every election and show them just how much they don't matter.
Paul McGrath| 3.11.11 @ 5:56PM
Nice try, Mr. Guardiano, but there are just too many hypotheticals in your essay to make it apt. Acworth nails it. The liberal media will always be the liberal media until voters shove them into a black, irrelevant hole.
The One Who Runs Like a Duck| 3.11.11 @ 9:42PM
Win The Future in China, Jharp. I like the heterosexual remark. You may be stupid but you can lie with the best of them. That is prevaricate. Maybe they will not remember that you were a no-show until DADT was eliminated. Angry gay trolls who aren't too bright are the rule for lefty trolls like yourself. I guess when you use your sewage removal plumbing destructively for pleasure it is an illustration of stupidity and would probably make you angry. That is what my gay Indonesian nanny was always trying to show me. Some think it is why I run like a duck. Anyway I will be out on the golf course this weekend. Life is good when you are me. Permanent health care waivers for everyone, baby.
k bo| 3.11.11 @ 10:36PM
http://thenewbostonteaparty.co.....ayers.aspx Here's some tea partiers. You can also find some at National Review.
Fool.
Tom Osterman| 3.12.11 @ 12:18PM
Let's face it: the mainstream media morphed into Orwell's Ministry of Truth ages ago, cheerfully and with malice aforethough. But we still need to keep track of the lies, half-truths, distortions and double standards, otherwise we have no answer when someone tasks for examples.
Tina Paine| 3.13.11 @ 1:32AM
I am sorry that we are all distracted by Scott Walker and the Unions. The real issue is that we are going downhill fast. Bush's tax cuts did not work - and giving the corporations a free reign did not work. We spend more on health care than any other country and yet we have one of the worst healthcare systems - Both France and Canada are better.
Our Corporations have grown fat and lazy; there are too few winner like Apples and Googles and too many losers GEs and GMs.
Lets get back to the main issue: how do we make America competitive again. The issue is hardly Unions or the welfare cheats, the issue is the failure of our Corporations to give a shit about America - and why should they, there job is to make money.
In the meantime, our middle class is getting pushed into poverty and the gains from productivity go largely to the rich and superrich.
Today 20% owns almost 90% of the wealth - ignore Pareto and the 80-20 rule at your own peril!
Oldefarte| 3.13.11 @ 2:03PM
Yeah Tina/Eric/Barry, corporations employ [translation: PROVIDES JOBS, SALARY-INCOMES, HEALTH BENEFITS, INVESTMENT-SAVINGS] millions. The reason for your referenced income disparity is due to EDUCATION/INTELLIGENCE. Those who obtain an education and increase their intellect in the process are able to adequately financially support themselves and their families, while the DUMBARSSES who flunk out of school are too stupid to do so and thereafter moan and groan to the government to obtain welfare benefits [paid by the taxpayers] for their survival [or their lack of education and whose factory jobs are replaced by computers, and then their union moans about the resultant lack of jobs available]!!!!!
Tina Paine| 3.13.11 @ 1:40AM
Liberal bias in media? Fox news is to the right of Attilla the Hun and Fox makes no pretense of fairness or balance. Fox is straight out of Orwell. There is no liberal equivalent that even comes close to Fox in terms of its audacity of its right of center mendacity.
So quit whining about liberal media and go turn your dial to Fox.
Oldefarte| 3.13.11 @ 1:49PM
The DIFFERENCE between Fox and the MSM is that the former mostly TELLS THE TRUTH, whereas the latter spreads COW MANURE AS NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vladdy| 3.13.11 @ 6:49PM
That's some hyperbole you got goin' there. Not really a logical debate, but you can ad hominem with the best of 'em.
Tina Paine| 3.13.11 @ 1:45AM
Quit dreaming about getting 100,000 people from Wisconsin to a rally by the Christian Fox wing - there were plenty of Christians at the Madison Rallys - they just were not Fox Wing Christians.
You have never had that kind of support and you can try all you want but media creations like Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin can only go so far before America rejects them. After all they are Faux Christians.
Truth to Power| 3.13.11 @ 11:34AM
We are broke; the party is over. Get over it. Your desire to reduce everything to religion demonstrates how full of hate you are. Let that go and think about how to make things better. Find ideas that don't involve stealing what is left. Stop living in the past. Leftism has been a murderous ideology that destroys the wealth of countries. The last Ponzi schemes of Europe and America are coming undone. Face that fact. Let us reign in runaway wasteful government and release the productivity of the American people. That is the only source of wealth. The government classes are parasites for the most part and need to be pruned. As you point out corporations like GM and GE are just what are lazy incompetent government decides to prop up. This kind of corporatism is at the heart of modern leftism. You indict while at the same time support American leftists who are responsible for most of this mess. Eliminate your own foolishness before you start offering advice.
Oldefarte| 3.13.11 @ 1:55PM
Yeah, and I guess Beck's/Fox's 300000+ people in Washington DC was simply a mirage, huh? Wait till you see the mumber of conservatives and/or rational voters flying to the protest voting polls in November of 2012 to rid this country of your favored extremism. Keep on dreaming you socialists' hallucinations aka Dorothy skippin down the yellow brick road, okay??????
vladdy| 3.13.11 @ 6:50PM
Why are you guys always so angry? And pssst-your PDS is showing.
Mimi| 3.13.11 @ 7:47AM
Tina... try to understand, the country is outraged at the Democrats for bringing this nation to it's knees..The dirty wrecking of a state capital..vicious threats..the wicked "SMELL" they haveleft in Madison will not help them. In Nov. '10 a 70-30 electorate went to the polls...you LOST !!! The 2012 will continue the oust of Politically Correct, un-safe spending, liberty robbing, incompetant un-virtuous, remnants of Dem's still there...starting at the top!!!
vladdy| 3.13.11 @ 6:54PM
Excellent attempt, but AS trolls have a hard time with critical thinking, logical argument, and comprehension. You can calmly explain the middle class paying for both the "disadvantaged" and corporate bonuses and breaks, but all they will hear is blah, blah, blah, Sarah Palin, blah blah blah, Fox, blah blah greedy corporations, blah blah Christians..blah blah...wingers and nuts.
Thomas| 3.13.11 @ 2:36PM
Your premise that a CONSERVATIVE media would somehow denounce protesters espousing conservative positions is simply idiotic. A media that is conservative in philosophy would not more castigate protesters espousing ideals held in common with the media than a liberal media castigates liberal protesters.
When you stipulated that the media covering a conservative event is, itself, conservative, then it simply boggles the mind that you would then state, in almost the next breath, that that media would indulge in a "firestorm warning of the dangers of the "radical religious right". Why would they? They would, being conservative, share the ideology and position of the demonstrators.
Stop grasping for positions that spin the situation in Wisconsin to fit a partisan perspective. Reprt facts, something that has been in short supply n both sides of the issue in Wisconsin.
Mundus| 3.14.11 @ 3:03AM
@Oldfarte:
'Those who obtain an education and increase their intellect in the process are able to adequately financially support themselves and their families, while the DUMBARSSES who flunk out of school are too stupid to do so and thereafter moan and groan to the government to obtain welfare benefits [paid by the taxpayers] for their survival [or their lack of education and whose factory jobs are replaced by computers, and then their union moans about the resultant lack of jobs available]!!!!!'
This would be fascinating except for the fact that it is untrue; educational attainment in the public sector is far higher, on average, than in the private sector.
As Greenfield notes:
Along with an older workforce, the public sector also employs workers with higher educational attainment than workers in the private sector. While almost 46 percent of the workers in the private sector have no more than a high school diploma, a little more than 25 percent of the workers in the public sector have this level of education.
Please see: http://facultysenate.unlv.edu/.....Sector.pdf
Whatever the opinion one holds on the actions of the trade unions involved in this instance, I regret you are in error on this specific point, Oldfarte.
Regards.