Topic: NewsBusters
It's axiomatic that NewsBusters would rush to the defense of Rush Limbaugh -- after all, that's what the Media Research Center does. And so it goes with Limbaugh's smear of Obama, claiming that he would use the Haiti earthquake to gain "credibility with the black community...both light-skinned and dark-skinned."
Geoffrey Dickens insists that Chris Matthews, in reporting the remark, took LImbaugh out of context, and that "What Matthews failed to tell his viewers was that Limbaugh and his African-American staffer James Golden AKA Bo Snerdley joked that Obama -- by letting Reid off the hook for his comment about 'light-skinned' blacks -- had disrespected 'dark-skinned' blacks." Dickens doesn't explain how that context makes Limbaugh's smear any more palatable.
NewsBusters' quasi-defense of Pat Robertson for suggesting that Haiti's earthquake was the result of the country's "pact to the devil" is much trickier since it's not explicit -- it's more of a criticize-the-critics approach. Scott Whitlock couldn't work up any criticism over Robertson's outrageous statement, reserving it instead for ABC for highlighting "lefty" Keith Olbermann's "over-the-top rant" on the subject.
While Whitlock concedes that "many Christians and conservatives were offended and embarrassed by Robertson’s comments," he offers no opinion on whether he or his MRC co-workers were. He also tries to downplay his status as a major Christian leader, despite the fact that he appears on TV pretty much every day: "When Robertson ran for President and weilded the power of the Christian Coalition, one could describe him as 'one of the America's top religious leaders.' But, now such a description is highly questionable."
It's more telling that Whitlock is apparently more offended by Olbermann's criticism of Robertson's remarks than the remarks themselves.
UPDATE: Ken Shepherd admits Robertson was "wrong," but that's not what his blog post is about -- he's more upset that the Huffington Post's religion editor told Robertson to "go to hell."
