The American Spectator

In their rush to pack the presidential debate moderators with far-left liberals, the Commission in charge of these shenanigans somehow managed to miss PBS’s Gwen Ifill who was reported to be “livid” at being snubbed.

On Monday night, ABC and Yahoo! News broadcast over the Internet a video in which a Yahoo! reporter (their Washington bureau chief) named David Chalian was heard saying, regarding Mitt and Ann Romney’s reaction to Hurricane Isaac hitting the Gulf Coast, “They’re not concerned at all. They’re happy to have a party with black people drowning.”

(You can hear him starting about 5 seconds into this video.)

On Wednesday, Yahoo! fired Chalian, offering this statement: “David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!.  He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”

While I am more than tired of reporters being fired for one statement, even a stupid one, it’s interesting to note Gwen Ifill’s response to the events, as posted on her Twitter feed: “One mistake does not change this. @DavidChalian is God’s gift to political journalism.”

On his own Twitter feed, Chalian apologized: “I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke.”

He should be sorry, of course.

And while I cannot say with utmost confidence that Chalian should have been fired, his comments certainly reinforce our understanding of the intensity not just of “liberal bias” in the media but of the outright disdain that so many “reporters” hold for all Republicans.

We have seen a couple of welcome pangs of conscience and professionalism from non-conservative journalists such as Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper (must see video here). For me, this is like a patient getting the results of an initial test suggesting cancer. The question now becomes whether the media sticks its head in the sand, or takes the next test to confirm, the first major step toward radiation and chemotherapy to cure a disease which is most likely otherwise to be fatal.

Meanwhile, today’s events suggest a small shred of wisdom among the Commission on Presidential Debates to avoid Ms. Ifill.