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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Saturday, October 09, 2010 :::
Self-styled pastor Fred Phelps - his group, anyway - was before the Supreme Court this week. One of Instapundit's readers says, "I keep wondering whether the existence of homosexuality is proof that God hates Fred Phelps." I don't think it does, but it's still a cute line.
Megan McArdle reacts by saying we should all ignore him; Reynolds links to a comment in her comment section saying, "The media plays up Phelps to smear the non-left by association. The media gives Phelps publicity because they find doing so to be politically useful. Period." Again, I don't think so.
It is true that the vast majority of journalists see the world from the left, and I'm sure that some are not fastidious about keeping their politics from influencing their news judgment. But journalists also like sensationalism and drama. Fred Phelps has protested against homosexuality, and he got a lot of media attention for that, but he and his family have more recently been in the news for protesting soldiers. Journalists don't cover them to embarrass the political right. Journalists cover them for the same reason they covered that pastor in Florida who was Favring over whether to burn a Koran a month ago and the same reason they cover Al Sharpton: nuts sell newspapers.Labels: media distortion
::: posted by Steven at 6:49 PM
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