this afternoon on the leon charney report, paraphrased:
charney (after interrupting his guest, who was answering the question "who's your favorite conservative?"): by the way, i should point out to our audience that our guest is the editor of the oldest liberal magazine ... in the country?
katrina van heuvel: ... oldest weekly. but we actually cover a wide range of viewpoints ...
aarrgghh!
oh god no, she didn't! not the dreaded liberal defensive crouch!
i know, i know, not an earthquake of epic proportions, but it brings out my ptsd every single time i even smell it. i even have flashbacks:
nightline, oct 25, 1988, paraphrased:
mike dukakis: i think all of us have combinations of liberal and conservative about us, ted. i'm not a liberal.
ted koppel: governor, forgive me, that's been your answer now for three months. with all due respect, let me suggest to you i still don't think you get it.
george bush has kicked you in the balls. you've let george bush define liberal. and you're running away from it.
i remember that day, painfully. even though dukakis wised up and declared at his next rally, to relieved and cheering throngs, paraphrased, "i am a liberal, in the spirit of fdr and jfk ...", obviously it was too little, too late. the virus was now firmly planted in the liberal spine.
katrina's no milquetoast, but it looks like she's got the bug. i guess conservatives can congratulate themselves on a job well done. can you imagine bill o'reilly, or many other conservatives, when being accused of conservatism, responding:
but we actually cover a wide range of viewpoints.
now leon charney is not a tv pugilist and i'm not advocating the o'reillization of our spokespeople, but wouldn't it have been nice if, instead of saying "hey, we print real news, too", katrina had responded with something like:
damn straight it's a liberal mag! and we even let conservatives write for us too, if they behave.
where's alan grayson when you need him?