Topic: NewsBusters
If NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard has any particular use, it's entertainment value -- between the cliched headlines (look, somebody's getting "schooled" again!), his constantly being shocked by the unshocking, and the aggressive unawareness of his own contradictions, comic relief seems to be the only reason the MRC not only keeps him around but gives him the title of NewsBusters "associate editor."
In a Nov. 13 post, Sheppard attacks conservative columnist Kathleen Parker for criticizing Newt Gingrich, putting "conservative" in scare quotes, declaring it an "absurdity" that she's considered a conservative, and ranting: "And that's the so-called conservative columnist CBS News brought on to discuss the Republican presidential race. Might as well have an Obama adviser there instead. At least then the viewer would know where her sympathies truly lied."
But literally an hour earlier, Sheppard was praising liberal-leaning TV host Chris Matthews for criticizing President Obama: "the man who used to get a thrill up his leg whenever a certain junior senator from Illinois spoke said that George W. Bush did a better job of using television to convey his message than the current White House resident has. ... What makes Matthews' point even more amazing is that no president has probably ever had as much assistance from the media in conveying his message as Obama."
So, to sum up: In Sheppard's world, Conservatives who don't unfailingly toe the right-wing line get Heathered and kicked out of the club. Liberals who deviate from the liberal line are to be praised and honored.
It's that sort of blatant hypocrisy that makes us love Sheppard so -- and even more because both he and the MRC seem to be completely oblivious to it.
