Aaron Brown's Teeth Chatter For The Future Of American News

Doesn't seem like it would take much.

Someone (I'm sorry, forget who) pointed this out to me a few days ago:

He's shocked "by how unkind our world has become," he said. E-mail and talk radio appear to have given people the license to say anything, regardless of how cruel or false it may be, he said.

He cited the example of an e-mail faulting what the sender considered to be NewsNight's inadequate coverage of an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. The note ended with, "I hope the violence visited on the people of Iraq will someday be visited on your children."

Those on the opposite side of the political spectrum are no more tolerant, Brown said. "Any criticism of the administration is regarded as hatred of the president and hatred of the country itself," he said.

Note that the article, if not Brown himself, suggests it's equivalent to wish death on one's children as to accuse one of hating America. Calling someone an America-hater isn't exactly kind, but I think hoping for the death of someone's children is a tad worse.

Lefties always seem to get the benefit of the doubt, eh?

Similarly, NRO's Media Blog notes that the media never seems to be that interested in the hateful venom on left-wing blogs, and yet it's forever citing nasty posts on, for example, Little Green Footballs.

Glenn Reynolds explains he doesn't have comments on his blog because he fears that nasty posts will be attributed to him. A left-leaning blogger says he doesn't share that fear:

Jay Rosen: I must say I have never heard of that concern before: "media reports would attribute comment trolls to me, so I don't have them."

I have comments at my blog, and they are completely open. I not only monitor them carefully, I'm an active presence in comment threads and I argue a lot with readers. I get mad at them too. A great many users have told me that while I write good posts, what they really like is the range of reactions from others in comments. For some, that discussion is a primary, not a second-order good on offer at PressThink.

Glenn Reynolds: It happened to Charles Johnson and he was quite upset. Perhaps the press would be more sensitive where you're concerned, Jay.

The very afternoon that transcript was posted, Reuters published a comment from LGF threatening to knock Joel "I don't support our troops" Stein's head off.

Remember-- the actual writer/proprietor of the Daily Kos said of four murdered contractors in Iraq, "Screw 'em... I feel nothing [for these mercenaries]." And now John Kerry is a "diarist" there, and the media doesn't publicize that.

Thanks to DeeGaGo for reminding me of the Brown piece. He likes this part of it:

"Many Americans on the left and the right aren't interested in the truth, but simply want news that confirms their viewpoints, he said.

"You'd think that it's no more complex than good vs. evil," he said."

No, those on the right, for the most part, just want balance. The left are the ones clamoring for full-fledged censorship, shrieking like epileptic monkeys because the Washington Post truthfully, factually reported that Democrats received millions of dollars from Jack Abramoff's clients at his personal direction.

posted by Ace at 04:36 PM

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