Via LeftLeaner, I see that not only are religious conservatives lining up behind Sen. Rick Santorum, they’re now aiming their fury at the AP reporter who interviewed him, as if this is somehow her fault:
Joseph Farah, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, has gone so far as to suggest that Ms. Jordan deliberately targeted Santorum.
“It’s not Rick Santorum who should be forced from office for clearly stating views that have been considered mainstream for the last 5,000 years. It’s Lara Lakes Jordan who should be drummed out of the news profession for scoring cheap political points under the guise of news reporting. Rick Santorum should [not] apologize to anyone. It’s the Associated Press for sponsoring this political hit piece,” Farah said in a recent WND editorial.
Farah also noted that Ms. Jordan was one of several signatories on a letter to her employer in January attacking the news organization for “rolling back diversity” by not extending benefits to domestic partners.
“It seems Mrs. Jordan’s ideological fervor is not reserved only for her private life and her corporate politicking,” said Farah. “This woman clearly ambushed Santorum on an issue near and dear to her bleeding heart.”
Anyone with reading comprehension skills past the third-grade level can see for themselves that Santorum led the way in this interview. Lara Jakes Jordan followed along and wrote down what he said. I suppose that counts as an ambush in Joseph Farah’s world, but I think the rest of us on planet Earth would agree that the Senator eagerly grabbed all the rope that he used to hang himself.
Keep your eye on this, for it’s just a matter of time before the standard attack in the wingnut crowd is to call her a slut, just as many attacks on the Dixie Chicks include rude comments about Natalie Maines’ weight. (Frankly, after examining the evidence, I don’t see how any sane person could call her fat, but hey, what do I know?) It’s ugly and demeaning, but hardly surprising.
In a similar vein, I think there’s a bit of an astroturf campaign at the blog level about the reporter in the Josh Llano case. I got a comment on one of my posts about it that sounded canned, and googling on the commenter, found out that she’d left similar comments other places.
“Kill the messenger” may become SOP for stories the right doesn’t like.
Santorum’s view must be okay. I mean, if Pat Buchanan agrees with them. He’s a pretty inclusive and compassionate type.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/905273.asp