An interesting series of events took place this week. Joe Biden forced Obama's hand to clarify his stance on gay marriage, voters overwhelmingly rejected gay marriage in the same state that is hosting the DNC convention later this summer, Obama "evolved" his position on gay marriage (a development that the creator of Will & Grace, stating the obvious, labeled as "choreographed"), his interviewer Robin Roberts got "the chills" a day later when remembering the historic moment with fellow Obama cheerleader George Stephanopolous, a 5,500 word Washington Post article was published online on Thursday reporting on things Romney allegedly did almost 50 years ago when he was a 17 year old high school kid to a "presumed" homosexual classmate, and by the end of the week Romney was polling ahead of Obama 50% to 43%.
There's a lot to talk about here, but I want to focus on the WashPo article. It is obvious that it was conveniently shrink wrapped in a nice little package just waiting to drop at the perfect moment, right after Obama announces his latest stance on gay marriage, to contrast and paint Romney as a homophobic bigot who bullied his "presumed" homosexual high school classmate.
The WashPo piece struck me as incredibly juvenile and the mainstream media double standard could not have been more obvious. First of all, the use of the phrase "presumed homosexual" was outrageous and unbelievable. There was no evidence, no quotes from friends, nothing to suggest that this hair cut was motivated by the guy's sexual orientation. How ridiculous and unprofessional, then, was it for the "reporter" to insert that phrase to construct that baseless, politically and conveniently timed inference? Romney responded, and there is no reason to doubt this given that it happened in the early 1960's, that whether Lauber was gay or straight "was the furthest thing" from his mind. Fellow WashPo blogger Jennifer Rubin correctly observed: "Frankly this seems that an incident was plucked out of a long story on Romney's teen years to make an inference, without factual support, that Romney harbored anti-gay animus."
I'd also like to know what 17 yr. old boy didn't do something he wasn't proud of in high school? Is the preferred liberal presumption that one is doomed to live the rest of his life as he did in high school; that one cannot grow up and become more mature? Indeed, Paul Begala thinks so: "Once a bully, always a bully." What nonsensical BS. By the same logic, Obama, the sitting President, should be busted for his continued illegal use of cocaine, which he admitted to as a youth. After all, once a crackhead, always a crackhead, right? Come on ... And we wonder why good, changed, and very capable people (e.g. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels) don't want to throw their hat in the ring? If immature actions from nearly 5 decades ago in high school are going to be put under the microscope like this, really?
Finally, I'm curious: where was the slanted 5,500 word vetting piece exploring Obama's admitted associations with Communist and Marxist professors and advisers to whom he was drawn, or the 20 years he spent as an adult sitting in the pews listening to Reverend Wright, or his Bill Ayers connections, or a host of other legitimate and relevant topics from Obama's past to report?
Nothing to see here, folks, move along ...
I wasn't surprised to learn that the WashPo piece imploded within a day. Incredibly, the "reporter" either wildly inflated or flat out falsified important details. For example, as reported by ABC, it turns out that one of Romney's friends, Stu White, who was first reported to have "long been bothered" about the hair cutting incident wasn't even there and didn't learn about it until he was contacted several weeks ago by the Washington Post! The Post's subsequent airbrushing of the story has also been troubling. The bullied youth's family released a statement decrying the article as factually inaccurate and said that if Lauber were alive today, he would be furious about the story and that he was used to further a political agenda in this manner.
It's comforting to know that the mainstream media isn't in the tank for one candidate above another and that it holds "reporters" to such high and unbiased journalistic standards. What a joke.
The "choreographing" the W&G creator talked about was Biden "forcing" Pres. Obama's evolution conclusion. He said that about two weeks before the Biden comment, he had a sit-down with Biden during which he said the very same thing as during the televised interview. What the W&G creator thought odd was that Biden had an entourage, complete with White House videographer, and the interview was taped. The WH "leaking" of the Biden apology to Pres. Obama also rings hollow.
ReplyDeleteI think mainstream reporters and editors have themselves convinced that although they are personally liberal, they strive to be objective in their reporting and editing. Otherwise that NY Times puff piece on Romney from a few months ago would never have been printed. We are all most blind to our own failings.
Nice post!
Interesting postscript, counterbalancing the Post story:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/05/13/051312-news-romney-web/
I read it. Tension between "let your light so shine" and "let not your left hand know." It's not service or charity if you value it as a campaign item. It will be interesting to see how many positive stories will come out.
DeleteMy whole thing about this, is I'm not convinced "bullying" is even a proper description of the event, because all he did was cut the kid's hair... Personally when I hear the word "bullying," I think of stuff like swirlies, wedgies, stuffing someone in a locker, etc. Now although this is similar in the sense of public humiliation, I also think it's different in that the physical harm inflicted is minimal or even nonexistent here. To me it feels like maybe "teased" or "humiliated" would be a more accurate description than "bullied."
ReplyDeleteThe other reason why I don't think this was bullying is because bullying usually happens in patterns, rarely ever in isolated incidents like this. But I gotta figure if there were more stories like this then they would have also been reported, so I also don't think Romney was a "bully" here because I picture something like Biff picking on George McFly repeatedly and consistently in Back to the Future, for example. I'm sorry but I don't picture Romney as a Biff, even in High School...
I definitely think this "alleged" event if true would absolutely be bullying but do not think it should have any sway on the election. I did lots of dumb stuff in high school but would never dream of holding something like this against someone as it occurred 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think this "alleged" event if true would absolutely be bullying but do not think it should have any sway on the election. I did lots of dumb stuff in high school but would never dream of holding something like this against someone as it occurred 40 years ago.
ReplyDelete