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Media Hypocrisy On Health Care Protests Is Grotesque
The media’s reaction to the health care protests has been so hypocritical at times, I actually get light headed. The putrid stench of hypocrisy is hanging like a thick cloud over every newsroom in America — with the exception of Fox and a few others.
Besides 9/11, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the Bush years is protests. You couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing some hippie puke bellowing about the Iraq war or calling Bush a terrorist or war criminal. In fact, I can remember violent, ugly demonstrations that went light years beyond anything we’ve seen thus far over health care.
Bill Sammon has a great piece on FoxNews.com that should help jog the memory about just how scary things actually got during the Bush years — and what the media didn’t say about it:
News outlets that are focusing on the incendiary rhetoric of conservatives outside President Obama’s town hall meeting Tuesday ignored the incendiary rhetoric — and even violence — of liberals outside an appearance by former President George W. Bush in 2002.
When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting "Bush is a terrorist!", the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.
One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush’s assassination. The man held a large photo of Bush that had been doctored to show a gun barrel pressed against his temple.
"BUSH: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE," read the placard, which had an X over the word "ALIVE."
Another poster showed Bush’s face with the words: "F— YOU, MOTHERF—ER!"
A third sign urged motorists to "HONK IF YOU HATE BUSH." A fourth declared: "CHRISTIAN FASCISM," with a swastika in place of the letter S in each word.
Although reporters from numerous national news organizations were traveling with Bush and witnessed the protest, none reported that protesters were shrieking at Republican donors epithets like "Slut!" "Whore!" and "Fascists!"
Frank Dulcich, president and CEO of Pacific Seafood Group, had a cup of liquid thrown into his face, and then was surrounded by a group of menacing protesters, including several who wore masks. Donald Tykeson, 75, who had multiple sclerosis and was confined to a wheelchair, was blocked by a thug who threatened him.
No matter how dangerous or extreme the protests got, the media either didn’t report it or downplayed it. You never read headlines about “Angry Mobs” or “Political Terrorists” or anything even remotely close. The media preferred to call them “Activists.”
We all know the mainstream media is liberal as hell and didn’t report honestly on the Bush protests because they agreed with them. I get that, it’s no surprise.
What really chaps my ass is how the media treats the public like a bunch of brain dead jerks who can’t remember from one year to the next.
It’s just so sickeningly phony for the media to feign shock and horror over a few cranky senior citizens upset over health care, when they sat back and said nothing during eight years of the most extreme protesting since the Vietnam war.
I’m not even asking for the media to change, I’m just asking for an acknowledgement of the hypocrisy.
-Chris Jones
(Image via Rush The Court)
Has The Left Suddenly Lost Its Appetite For Rowdy Protests?
First, let’s take a trip down memory lane:
One of the most memorable aspects of the Bush presidency was the constant presence of protesters at any Bush event. Even if Bush himself wasn’t there, you could always count on a heavy presence of left-wing protesters.
When Condoleezza Rice spoke in front of the Senate, wild-eyed protesters with fake blood on their hands confronted her and screamed WAR CRIMINALS!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE A WAR CRIMINAL!!!!!!
Everywhere a member of the Bush administration appeared, so too did kooky protesters wearing orange Gitmo jumpsuits . These miscreants would often break into impromptu fake water boarding sessions right in front of the podium.
Karl Rove continues to be shouted down and protested to this day when he tries to speak in certain places. Lawyers from the Bush Justice Department also continue to be protested.
Whether it’s civil rights, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, baby seals, wearing fur, oil drilling, global warming, you name it and the left has a protest for it.
The left loves to protest — it’s what they do. While the rest of us are working, liberals are parked in front of military recruitment centers agitating, screaming, spitting, and generally being disruptive.
Hollywood and the music industry even got in on the act. Michael Moore ran around making his propaganda films while singers used concerts to smear president Bush in between songs .
Now we have a new president. A liberal president. A radical Marxist president — and suddenly the left hates protests.
They hate that which they’ve spent a lifetime doing. Many liberals wear the number of abortion rallies they’ve attended as a badge of honor.
So why then is the left so upset when a few conservatives turn out and use some of the same tactics liberals have used for decades?
You could literally choke on the hypocrisy.
Immigration Rallies Planned Nationwide
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Hispanic and other civil rights groups wrapped up plans for immigration reform marches and rallies Tuesday in dozens of cities, but conceded that a replay of last year’s huge turnout was unlikely.
Still, organizers said the demonstrations reflect a robust movement determined to win a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.
“There was a sort of energy last year,” said Gordon Mayer, a vice president of the Community Media Workshop, which helped groups organize the Chicago march. “This year that boulder has split up into a lot of smaller rocks.”
Marches, meetings and voter registration drives were planned from Oregon to Florida.
In Miami, Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean planned to speak to immigrant groups. In Washington, D.C., about 400 members of Asian groups from across the country were set to lobby lawmakers. Two large demonstrations were planned in Los Angeles County – home to an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants.
Last year’s May 1 boycott brought out more than a million protesters across the nation. But later rallies failed to produce large turnouts, as legislation stalled in Congress and bipartisan proposals for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship have become more conservative.
The developments have disheartened many would-be marchers, but organizers said the frustration with Congress also brought out new supporters.
“It used to be that Hispanic immigrants, those who came legally, were more conservative on the issue,” said Joe Garcia, a Cuban-American who heads the Democratic Party’s Miami-Dade County chapter.
“But now it’s become so wrapped up with issues of racism and identity, even Puerto Ricans and Cubans care about immigration,” he said.
Yet stepped-up raids in recent months have left many immigrants afraid to speak out in public – a major change over rallies in 2006 when some illegal immigrants wore T-shirts saying “I’m illegal. So what?”
“The raids are intended to terrorize people and make President Bush look tough,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “But they are not a solution.”
Some Los Angeles area groups called for an economic boycott and hoped for a repeat of last year, when thousands of immigrants and students stayed away from work and school in a sign of solidarity.
Others have rejected the boycott, arguing that it puts immigrants’ livelihoods at risk and deprives children of valuable classroom time. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, urged students to stay in school.
“This is a very decentralized and organic movement, so in all different cities people will be doing what they feel is important in their area,” said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, a major organizer of rallies.
Among the events planned:
- In New York, groups are planning an “American Family Tree” rally, where immigrants will pin paper leaves on a large painting of a tree to symbolize the separation of families because of strict immigration laws.
- In Chicago, demonstrators will march more than three miles through downtown, ending at a lakefront park.
- In Fresno, Calif., organizers planned a rally focusing on children whose parents had been deported. The San Joaquin Valley is home to thousands of seasonal workers who cross the Mexican border illegally each year to work in the fields and construction industry.
- In Milwaukee, Ricardo Chavez, the brother of famed agricultural labor leader Cesar Chavez, was expected to speak, as protesters demanded a stop to immigration raids. A raid last year in Whitewater, Wis., saw the arrests of 25 workers and the owner of a packaging plant. Mothers were separated from their children.
- In Florida, voter registration drives and vigils were planned in Miami, Tampa, Orlando and West Palm Beach, along with after-hours rallies in agricultural towns in the Everglades.
- In Los Angeles, marches will include demands for a legalization program, a stop to the raids and an anti-Iraq war message. City and transportation officials were planning for as many as 500,000 people in downtown, believing it could be the largest in the city so far this year.
