Topic: Media Research Center
When Helen Thomas made a very stupid statement regarding Jews and Israel, the ConWeb was quick to pounce. The Media Research Center slapped together a compilation of "liberal eruptions" from Thomas, as if being liberal was the same as criticizing Israel. When Thomas announced her immediate retirement in the wake of the controversy, NewsBusters was all but dancing on her grave, portraying any nice thing said about Thomas' career as tacit endorsement of her remarks.
At WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah declared without any hint of irony that Thomas is an "embarrassment ... to the entire White House press corps" -- remember, WND employs the highly embarrassing Les Kinsolving. Farah added, "This is a first-rate, raw-boned, dyed-in-the-wool Jew-hater."
Can you smell the stench of hypocrisy? Because as vociferous Farah and the MRC have been about Thomas, they completely ignored similar comments by Pat Buchanan.
As we detailed, both WND and the MRC's CNSNews.com published a May 14 column by Buchanan in which he complained that with the appointment of Elena Kagan, there were too many Jews on the Supreme Court. The column remains live at both outlets, and both have continued to publish Buchanan's column. Similarly there was complete silence about Buchanan's remark at NewsBusters, as its archive on Buchanan demonstrates.
Further, the MRC seems more than willing to gloss over Buchanan's Israel-bashing. Mark Finkelstein all but gave Buchanan a pass in a January 2009 NewsBusters post after Buchanan accused Israel of carrying out a "blitzkrieg" against Gaza and turning it into a "concentration camp":
I like Pat Buchanan. I do. He's wise, funny and charming. But every so often . . .
Like tonight. If Buchanan wants to criticize Israel's conduct of the current war, and its treatment of the Palestinians, so be it. But in doing so, is it really necessary to employ terms associated with the Nazis?
Can you imagine Finkelstein or his NewsBusters fellow travelers so blithely dismissing similar remarks by Thomas? Of course not -- Thomas would never get the "wise, funny and charming" defense. And she didn't in this case.
It seems WND and the MRC complain about alleged anti-Semitism only when it suits their political agenda -- which makes you wonder just how genuine the depth of their support for Jews and Israel really is.
UPDATE: You also won't find a disparaging word at either operation -- or any word -- about Glenn Beck promoting the amti-Semitic Nazi sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling.
UPDATE 2: NewsBusters' Tom Blumer laughably complains that "the establishment press is for the most part attempting to give Helen Thomas's hateful remarks and her dubious apology a very light once-over." Which would be more than Blumer and NewsBusters gave to Buchanan's hateful remarks.
