On Fox News Sunday, Mitt Romney showed his usual class by accepting the apology from Melissa Harris-Perry for ridiculing his adopted black grandson, then hypocritically suggesting that it was time to move on. Perhaps because he has more class than I do, or perhaps because I watch much more MSNBC than he does, I am not ready to move on.
Along with writing for this site and my weekly column for the Jewish Star, I earn my income by writing for Truth Revolt, the conservative media watchdog run by Ben Shapiro.
During the day while trolling around the net looking for stories, my TV set is on MSNBC because, to be frank, it is a great place to find material for my Truth Revolt responsibilities.
Five days a week 11 hours per day, my TV is tuned to the nastiness being spewed from deep within the bowels at MSNBC. Although people know about the scandalous Martin Bashir and Melissa Harris-Perry statements because they became national headlines, those are the extremes. What the average viewer is unaware of is that every day on almost every program the political dialogue consists of the same baseless charges against Republicans (or the Tea Party) as haters of women, gays, blacks, the poor, the truth, Obama (I am sure I am missing a few). Then there are the outright lies and misrepresentations.
This is not a matter of progressives having a different opinion from that of Republicans or conservatives; that would be a basis for a legitimate discussion. It’s the attitude of almost every host, panel member, and guest that the conservative viewpoint has no legitimacy. On MSNBC the Republican point of view is the starting point for personal attacks rather than political disagreement.
Some specifics include the time Melissa Harris-Perry wore tampons as ear rings to suggest the GOP hated women, or when she said that using the term “Obamacare” was racist. Or when Alex Wagner, aka the queen of childish attacks, did some creative surgery on a video of GOP Chairman Reince Priebus that made him look like a racist. Chris Hayes had a former adviser to the Iranian regime on to trash the people who were against the P5+1 deal but never mentioned that his guest was a former employee of the Iranian regime. Then there are the many instances of Mika Brzezinski blaming Obamacare’s problems on the GOP, and the daily slams from the network’s stars, Ed Shultz, Chris Matthews and the faux preacher Al Sharpton.
It is not up to me to accept the specific apologies from Martin Bashir or Melissa Harris-Perry. That is up to Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. But it would have been nice, for example, when Romney announced his forgiveness to opine that Harris-Perry’s segment’s was part of a regular pattern emanating from the progressive network.
Nevertheless I cannot forgive MSNBC its venomous slander against conservatives and Republicans, which its hosts wrap in righteous indignation and without which the network would have 24 consecutive hours of empty air time.
