Topic: NewsBusters
NewsBusters' Greg Sheffield didn't like it one bit when conservative radio hosts were accused of inciting harrassment of Muslims. From a Sept. 18 post:
Blame it on talk radio. That is what Washington Post reporter Michelle Boorstein accepts as the reason for an increase in the harassment of Muslims in the U.S. It has nothing to do with terrorist attacks or threats of violence against those like the Pope who dare question any aspect of Islam.
In a media ranking of all those who are capable of committing a sin, talk radio hosts are near the top, while Muslims are close to the bottom, between baby lambs and blind orphans.
But NewsBusters is quick to accuse others of incitement when it's politically advantageous. In a Sept. 19 NewsBusters post, Mark Finkelstein accuses Keith Olbermann of trying to incite a revolt against the Bush administration:
Olbermann didn't call on the Kosmonauts, netrooters and assorted Moveoners of the world to take to the barricades today. But with an entire universe of provocative statements from which to draw for his hypothetical, Olbermann chose the one invoking the people's right to rebel and overthrow an oppressive government. Let's say he put revolution in the air.
Of course, being an Olbermann post at NewsBusters, Finkelstein threw in the requisite Olbermann-bashing content, such as claiming that Olbermann "plays to his Daily Kos demographic with vitriolic condemnations of all things Bush" and references to "hyper-partisanship" and "the nec plus ultra of nastiness."
Why is hurling accusations of incitement bad when liberals do it but perfectly fine when conservatives do it? Because it's a conservative double standard.
