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Bitterness, Hatred Blinding Many Journalists
by
Gregory J. Rummo
“The
uncovering of mass graves, torture chambers and
other evidence of a systematically
brutal regime in Iraq hasn't deterred those who
assert the war was all for naught. There are no
weapons of mass destruction. Iraqis aren't really
happy to be liberated. The war was illegal,
unjustified,
immoral. American postwar leadership is chaotic.
Postwar Iraq is dominated by looters and closet
Baathists.”
So began “21 Years of Solitude,” an editorial in
the Review and Outlook section of the May 27
edition of The Wall Street Journal that detailed
the last two decades in the life of Juad Amir Sayed,
a
Shiite theologian forced into hiding for 21 years
by Saddam Hussein’s executioners.
He’s one of the fortunate ones. At least he’s still
alive.
What is it that blinds the Paul Krugmans, the Molly
Ivins and the other myopic columnists to the
truth behind these stories? Why do they think it is
their raison d’etre to hyperventilate every week in
their columns about the “chaos” in Iraq and the
“immorality” of the Bush administration for waging
war
while they conveniently ignore decades of
atrocities at the hands of its former brutal dictator and his
two maniacal sons?
It is an overarching hatred of George Bush that has
robbed them of their ability to see clearly
the events of history in the light of truth.
They just can’t stand it that he won the
presidency, that he has achieved two significant
victories in the war against terrorism on
battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq while winning
policy battles
such as the recently passed tax cut here at home.
What really has liberals seething is the
president’s
ability to remain unflappable. While they rage he
simply ignores the criticism, presses on and
accomplishes his goals.
The latest round of acrimony among leftist
journalists was born in the bitter dregs of not
getting their way in November 2000—the 8-year
Clintonian love fest having come to an abrupt end
in
Palm Beach County, Florida.
Bitterness has been aptly described by the apostle
Peter as a “poison.” The writer of Hebrews
explained it is like a “root” that “caused
trouble.” Who better to judge than these two
“journalists” who,
along with 38 other writers, were given the
responsibility to cover The Greatest Story Ever
Told.
Bitterness among the Bush-haters has led them to
write vitriolic rants—purple prose containing
little to stimulate the intellect. There's lots of
heat and very little light. Word count is not
important to
these columnists. All they wish to elevate are the
numbers that determine systolic over diastolic.
The premise is always the same—criticize
ABD—“Anything Bush Does.” Often, the “facts”
are spun so dizzyingly as to rival the best vomit
machines at Six Flags. To know what’s coming all I
need to read is the headline and the byline.
Here’s a sampling from columns that appeared last
week:
From New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: “But
the people now running America aren't
conservatives: they're radicals who want to do away
with the social and economic system we have.”
From syndicated columnist Molly Ivins: “Iraq is in
chaos and apparently the only way we’ll be
able to stop it will be to kill a lot of Iraqis.
Just what Saddam used to do.”
Ann Coulter, commenting on the relentless Bush
bashing writes, “In one of 4 billion columns
attacking President Bush this year, Times columnist
Maureen Dowd accused him of getting into Yale
only because he was a legacy. She sneered at the
argument of White House aides that Bush also
earned a degree from Harvard Business School though
no Bush family member went there. Dowd
responded:
“They seemed genuinely surprised when
told that Harvard would certainly have recognized
the surname and wagered on the future success of
the person with it.’”
The press plays an enormously important role in a
country with a democratic form of
government. By holding elected officials’ feet to
the fire, it makes them accountable. Sometimes this
involves asking the tough questions and appearing
confrontational.
But with a mostly liberal mainstream media and a
popular conservative Republican in the White
House, extremism is running rampant on the opinion pages of many newspapers, and in some cases, has
spilled over to the front page.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion—including
columnists, who unlike reporters, are allowed
to express theirs freely in their work. But many
have stepped over the line of civility, and have
allowed
their bitterness and hatred to affect their
thinking.
Paul the apostle, the author of a major portion of
the New Testament, wrote, “Let all bitterness,
wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you, with all malice.”
Coming from one of the greatest “journalists” of
all time, that is advice worth heeding.
Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Contact
him at
www.GregRummo.com
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