Liberal bias and missing the point

Stanley Kurtz goes on yet another tired whine about misunderstood conservatives and liberal media bias:

The belief in conservative bigotry is more than a misunderstanding. It is liberalism's indispensable drug - the opium of the elites. Are there some bigoted conservatives? Sure. But conservative bias can't hold a candle to the thunderous bigotry of the Left toward conservatives.

All I can say is there goes a man who has never read The Free Republic, or for that matter, the op-ed pages in the Houston Chronicle. Here's a charming example from today, in which Chron editorial board member Bill Coulter starts off by calling liberals "pantywaists" and goes downhill from there.

Earth to Stanley: You notice liberal bigotry against conservatives because you're looking for it. The fact that you live in an area that has more liberals than conservatives doesn't help, either. I'm sure that when you're around like-minded individuals that all of you would never consider saying or writing anything about liberals which may be unfair or overly generalized.

Can we please put a halt to this kind of crying victim for awhile? In addition to being supremely annoying - regardless of who's whining about whom - it always serves to distract from arguments rather than to address them. One of the comments I received for this post about how the NRA helps to foster the image of being a bunch of angry white men said that "the media picks up every stupid remark that the NRA makes" while ignoring the same from gun-control groups. Well, maybe that's true and maybe it's not - I'm sure as heck not going to take one person's word for it - but so what? That has nothing to do with my point that the NRA could vastly improve its image and blunt its opponents' criticism by taking advantage of its diversity and replacing their angry, stupid-remark-prone, right-wing white male spokesperson. All that this comment does is to try to shift our attention away from what we're talking about.

And for the record, Stanley, this liberal would read a lot more conservative opinion if so dang much of it weren't composed of liberal-bashing. (Yes, I know, this means I look for it, too. I really need to do something about this masochistic tendency.) You keep telling me you've got something worthwhile to say. Please get around to saying it already, OK? In the meantime, here's a quick-reference guide for you: Targeting an individual is criticism. Targeting an entire group based on the behavior of a few individuals is bigotry. Doing so in the context of decrying that group's bigotry is pathetic.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 13, 2002 to Other punditry