More On Savage, More On Lambert
Earlier this week Powerline quoted Whittaker Chambers remarking on the danger of having an irrational, irresponsible person advocating your cause:
In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that we live in terror that Senator McCarthy will one day make some irreparable blunder which will play directly into the hands of our common enemy and discredit the whole anti-Communist effort for a long while to come.'
The same warning can be applied to Michael Savage. The substance and style of his remarks have the potential to discredit any conservative voices in the mainstream media. With his latest childish outburst, it seems Savage has played right into the hands of our common enemy.
St. Paul Pioneer Press entertainment columnist, and liberal media bias denier, Brian Lambert gets out his broad brush to paint all of conservative media and its audience as follows:
[Savage] was, after all, only repeating the same vile spew that has made him a hero to millions of radio listeners. Average Americans are hungry for characters who, as they describe it, "tell it like it is." (Translation: "Say the stuff we only say to our closest friends when we're angry and drunk.")
...the modern media marketplace is extraordinarily forgiving to bigots and inflammatory demagogues. Ratings show a substantial, lucrative audience that sees not hate but "passion" and, most ironically, moral clarity in acts like Savage's.
A further irony is how little the FCC does to constrain this kind of rancid misanthropy.
As is his slippery style, Lambert doesn’t specifically name any of the other broadcasters he identifies as bigots, inflammatory demagogues, and rancid misanthropes. Which is more than a little manipulative. And lazy. As any blogger knows, it’s easy to condemn by inference and loose association. But you’d hope a major newspaper (relatively speaking) would have higher editorial standards when it comes to publishing defamatory accusations.
But, of course, they don’t. So now Rush, Jason Lewis, the A-list of Patriot personalities (Prager, Medved, Hewitt) and all their listeners now get rolled into a bundle with some raving lunatic. Just because we all happen to agree that the government should be more interested in preserving individual liberty rather than assuring an equality of societal outcomes.
And if that’s not bad enough, Michael Savage has now given Brian Lambert a reason to be sanctimonious. Now that’s an irreparable blunder.
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