How The Media Handles “You lie” vs. You Lynch

How the Media Handles “You lie” vs. You Lynch (Updates)
John on August 31, 2011 at 6:21 am

Almost exactly two years ago Rep. Joe Wilson yelled out “You lie!” during a nationally televised joint session of Congress. It was rude and the congressman later apologized. However that wasn’t enough for some on the left who detected racial bias behind the remarks.

A group of black newspaper publishers condemned Wilson saying “Rep. Wilson’s remarks were racist…” NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd said she heard a phantom word from the South Carolina representative “You lie, boy!” Dowd’s conclusion from the incident, “Some people just can’t believe a black man is president…”

Nearly a week later as the tempest had begun to subside, former President Jimmy Carter weighed in saying “I think (Wilson’s outburst) is based on racism.” To its credit, the White House finally stepped in at this point and quashed Carter’s nonsense. But before that there was a large national discussion about race prompted by Wilson’s remarks.

Here we are two years later and the shoe is on the other foot. In audio that was brought to wider attention by Naked Emperor News, Rep. Carson accuses Tea Party members of Congress of wanting to see blacks “hanging on a tree.” There’s no need to hear any phantom words this time. The race-baiting is as plain as it could be.

Rep. Carson’s spokesperson has confirmed the words were his so there’s no question about the words. Will anyone at the NY Times condemn his language? As I noted yesterday, this is the second time Rep. Carson has gotten into a racial flap involving the Tea Party, the first being his accusation that protesters had hurled the N-word “15 times” as he walked among them. That story was never confirmed.

There’s a real story here that goes beyond one incident. It will be interesting to see if any major paper even bothers to report it, much less connect the dots.

Update: Kudos to Politico for running the story, though they downplay it by noting…Joe Wilson’s “You lie” comment. Wilson’s comment was hot and inappropriate. He apologized. Carson’s comment was the worst type of race-baiting and so far he has refused to apologize. Anyway, isn’t calling someone a would-be-murderer and racist a bit more heated than calling them a liar. I think so.

Update 2: Well, I had simply figured there was no major media at this event which would explain why there was initially no coverage of Rep. Carson’s remarks. Turns out I was wrong about that, proving once again that when you figure you make a fig out of u and re.

In fact as RealMReynolds reports, the event at which Carson made those remarks was hosted by MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall. CBS and NBC also had reporters there. One of them apparently did tweet out Rep. Carson’s remarks but they did not make it into anyone’s reports on the event. Dare I call this a media whitewash? I dare.