Sunday, January 17, 2010

Hypocrisy and its Supporters

It's hard not to quote the entire Instapundit post here:

COLBERT KING: Peter Orszag strays from President Obama’s prescription for responsible fatherhood.

If it became known that a Cabinet-level official in George W. Bush’s administration — a divorced father of two — was the father of a baby born out of wedlock to an ex-girlfriend, and that the official had announced his engagement to a woman he met while the ex-girlfriend was pregnant, do you believe for one second that reporters, and not just gossip columnists, wouldn’t be having a field day?

Of course they would. Especially if Bush had moralized about family and the need for men to be present in the lives of their children. Opinion writers would be all over Bush if they thought he was deliberately ignoring the aide’s behavior.

Let, however, the absentee daddy of a love child turn out to be an Obama administration official with close ties to Washington’s political and intellectual elite and the media, and the affair is treated as a source of brief amusement and no big deal.

Read the whole thing. And note this:

On that Father’s Day, Obama was in a black church talking to men in the African American community.

Do those views also apply to Peter Orszag, I asked?

Reader reaction varied, but I was struck by the apologists for Orszag.

See, “moral” issues are only for beating up on Republicans. That’s all there is to it. “This week, I contacted the White House for Obama’s views. I’m still waiting for a response.”



Moral issues are only for beating up on Republicans.

Update: Here's another story regarding media coverage and hypocrisy:

Media Matters is taking the Tea Party Convention to task regarding its limited credentialing for press access...

So….when a quasi political convention held by a private group selectively excludes dissenting media, that’s contempt. But when the White House selectively excludes dissenting media, singling them out for vilification, that’s just fine with Media Matters...

[T]he hypocrisy of Media Matters position on this issue is legendary, considering their fundamental working relationship with MoveOn.org and Brave New Films, in their “Fox Attacks” campaign to persuade the entire Democratic party to boycott a dissenting news organization...

Media Matters reveals their hypocritical partisanship (again) by condemning a privately funded group for excluding hostile media, while at the same time contributing to a campaign designed to deny media access to publicly funded parties and government.


Whether it's smart or not for the TEA Party folks to ban most media is open for discussion, but that isn't Media Matters' point.

4 comments:

KauaiMark said...

Coincidentally, I just mailed in my change of party affiliation yesterday to: "TEA"

Goal? All incumbents out of office by 2012 and term limits for all politicians at every level

Ellen K said...

I don't think it is wise of Tea Party officials to do this, but I understand why. In every public rally or meeting held, there have been paid plants that attempt to disrupt and takeover meetings. I sat next to one such person at a meeting with Congressman Kenny Marchant last summer. She had a script and once she had the mic she walked off as if to take over the meeting denying others a chance to speak. One lady even rose to say "I feel threatened by all these Tea Party people," but I noticed she wasn't too threatened to avoid filling up her plate with the free refreshments.

mmazenko said...

KauaiMark, I've been hearing the "throwthebumsout" argument for thirty years. And the term limits argument hasn't proved anything - as George Will argued nearly thirty years ago, we are long past the era of "citizen legislators." I left the Dems and GOP a decade ago, registering as unaffiliated. Now, it's a matter of choosing the moderate, pragmatic leaders in the field. There aren't any of those at the Tea Parties.

PeggyU said...

Let, however, the absentee daddy of a love child turn out to be an Obama administration official with close ties to Washington’s political and intellectual elite and the media, and the affair is treated as a source of brief amusement and no big deal.

It was worse than that! The writeup I saw actually commended Orszag on his ability to multitask!