Thursday, August 7, 2008

Racism: Name that party!

The New York Times:
In the culmination of a racially fraught Congressional campaign in Memphis, a black candidate is linking her liberal-leaning white primary opponent in Thursday's contest, Representative Steve Cohen, to the Ku Klux Klan in a television advertisement. . . .
The advertisement for the challenger, Nikki Tinker, juxtaposes Mr. Cohen's picture with that of a hooded Klansman, and criticizes Mr. Cohen for voting against renaming a park in Memphis currently named for the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Ku Klux Klan founder.
"This makes you wonder," a black former county commissioner, Walter Bailey, says in the advertisement. "Who is the real Steve Cohen?"
Read the whole thing -- 662 words and "Democrat" is not one of them.

UPDATE: Linked by Instapundit and Small Dead Animals -- thanks! Meanwhile, we learn that Emily's List and Keith Olbermann are shocked, shocked that a Democrat would resort to such tactics:
"We were shocked to see the recent ads run by the Nikki Tinker for Congress campaign. We believe the ads are offensive and divisive," said Ellen Malcolm, the group's director. "EMILY's List does not condone or support these types of attacks."
Those ads brought Tinker another blast when MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named her tonight as his "Worst Person in the World," a regular over-the-top satire on his program.
While smearing Republicans is still fair game, Democrats aren't supposed to say such things about each other.

UPDATE II: Jammie Wearing Fool notices that a mayor of "unknown party affiliation" was sent to jail in Detroit.

5 comments:

  1. The article leaves little doubt that both Cohen and Tinker are Democrats. The lead paragraph says they are primary opponents and describes Cohen as liberal-leaning. Later it says Cohen has earned a reputation as a loquacious, media-friendly liberal.

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  2. Except that if it was a Republican doing it, they not only would have mentioned a dozen times, but they would have found a way to get Bush and the entire Republican Party on it. Something like:

    "The racist attacks came from Republican John Doe at a time when a lot of senior Republican staffers are secretly worrying that the overtly racist Republicans campaigns are going to even further hurt a Republican Party already devastated by the unpopular President Bush, and Republican scandals affecting conservative senators Larry Craig and Ted Stevens. Republican insiders are worrying that this type of racism will lead to a tsunami of votes for the Democratic Party in this November's election, including a big win for Barack Obama, whose campaign has worked hard against McCain campaign advertisements that some have accused of having a racist tinge.

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  3. I believe the AP rule is that an article about a Republican who does wrong mentions his/her party in the headline. A similar mention of Democratic malfeasance is rare and the party is only mentioned deep in the article if at all.

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  4. To Anonymous at 1:55 -

    That was a good recreation of prevailing media prose style. Your multiple repetition of "Republican" is enough for a passing grade, but for top marks you need to work in the epithets "right-wing", "conservative", and "evangelical". For example, "conservative Republican congressman Joe Smith (R-Whitebread) threw some red meat to his right-wing supporters at a prayer breakfast yesterday morning at the First Megachurch of Christ Creationist" would be an example of the kind of thing you need to produce to move up in the media food chain.

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  5. Yo, Foo bar,
    I could assume you are a liberal/Democract, but you know what they say about assuming.
    Lest we forget, the liberals/Democrats vehemently deny favored treatment by the media. Just think about the Obama coverage.

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