For the past eight years, left-wing commentators and media such as
Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Daily Kos and the Huffington Post railed
virtually non-stop against President Bush and Republicans. Night after
night they blasted conservatives as fascist war-mongers and
law-breakers. They insisted that dissent was noble, courageous,
patriotic and that they would not be muzzled by the sinister and totalitarian Bush-Cheney junta. The tone was shrill, extreme, and anything but
civil.
None of that seemed to bother Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL ONLINE's America correspondent and resident expert on socks, aliens, Pabst blue-ribbon beer and the infrastructure of the United States.
Left-Wing Dissent = Patriotic; Conservative Dissent = Evil
Now
that Democrats are in power, however, Marc Pitzke has suddenly
identified great danger in outlandish and outspoken media personalities
who dare oppose the authorities. In fact, one of his more recent
articles is entitled "Right-Wing Polemicists: The Revolution is Coming!"
According to SPIEGEL's (on) crack reporter, pundits like Glenn Beck of
Fox News, radio host Mark Levin, and actor/blogger Chuck Norris are at
the head of a dangerous and increasingly "militant" right-wing movement
with close ideological associations to the militias. This despite the
fact that they are criticizing the powers-that-be using essentially the same approach employed by Olberman, Maddow and Arianna Huffington for years. (Apparently, outspoken dissent is not patriotic, noble, or
courageous when carried out by non-leftists...)
Pitzke goes on
to crudely characterize the tea party movement as a phenomenon of the far-right. What he fails to mention is that not only
Republicans, but many Democrats and Independents question the wisdom of
trillion dollar budgets likely to burden future generations with
mountains of debt.
Marc Pitzke to German Readers: Trust U.S. Homeland Security
And what proof does Pitzke offer to convince readers that the threat posed by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is real? The heavily criticized Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing radicalism.
Of course Pitzke completely fails to mention that the report was widely
panned, that the Obama administration immediately distanced itself from
the paper, or that DHS Secretary Napolitano called the report "not
worthy" and said it "should never have been released" - as reported by
the Washington Post:
“The report was not worthy of this department, or of veterans,” Napolitano said to Rehbein, according Legion spokesman Craig Roberts, who attended the meeting. "It was very badly written and should never have been released," she said."
But that doesn't stop Pitzke from using the report as evidence. (And by the way: Since when has SPIEGEL ONLINE accepted
the United States government as a reliable source?)
To top it all off, and ensure that German readers get really scared, Pitzke mentions that Americans are buying more guns. Right-wing cowboy bastards...
Here
again, Pitzke and SPIEGEL are making their own bias and lack of
journalistic professionalism rather obvious to those willing to take a
slightly closer look. When Democrats go out on a limb and bash the
opposition it is justified and noble, when Republicans do it - it is
dangerous, militant, and a grave threat to society.
UPDATE: Commenter Helian has this to say:
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