Imagine for a moment that Barack Obama, when he was a candidate for the Illinois state senate years ago, had attended a rally of drunken black police officers shouting insults and racial epithets at Chicago’s white Mayor Richard M. Daley and, in the heat of the moment, Obama leapt up and, gesticulating wildly, went on an obscenity-laced tirade against Daley, to the cheers of the angry crowd. The local daily newspapers the next day are filled with reports of the incident, one calling it “shameful,” and Daley accuses Obama of trying to incite the black cops to riot. Later, when asked by reporters why he did it, Obama refuses to apologize for his outburst, saying only that he tends to get over-emotional when talking about black police officers. Just how would the mainly white media have played that story these days as an indication of Obama’s character and fitness to be president? Wouldn’t they have questioned his maturity and judgment for making the profane remarks? Wouldn’t they have pondered soberly the dire consequences should a President Obama suddenly become ‘over-emotional’ during a world crisis? Wouldn’t they have further taken him to task for supporting a mob of racist police officers? And that’s just the MSM — the right-wing blogosphere and Fox News would have had a field day pummeling Obama.
Yet Newsweek on Nov. 24, 2007, published “Growing Up Giuliani,” by Evan Thomas and Suzanne Smalley, and here are the two paragraphs that open the article:
“On Sept. 16, 1992, the police in New York City held a rally that spun out of control. The cops wanted a new collective-bargaining agreement, and they were angry at Mayor David Dinkins for proposing a civilian review board and for refusing to issue patrolmen 9mm guns. More than a few of them tipsy or drunk, the cops jumped on cars near city hall and blocked traffic near the Brooklyn Bridge. According to some witnesses, they waved placards crudely mocking Mayor Dinkins, the first black mayor of New York, on racial grounds, while at the same time chanting ‘Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!’ to welcome Rudy Giuliani, the crime-busting former U.S. attorney who had arrived in their midst to shore up his political base.
“It is not clear Giuliani knew exactly what he was getting himself into-he later denied that he did-but video shows him wildly gesticulating and shouting a profanity-laced diatribe against Dinkins. The next day the New York newspapers were sharply critical of Giuliani (a Daily News editorial called his behavior ‘shameful’), and Dinkins, years later, accused him of trying to stir up ‘white cops to riot.’ At the time, Giuliani refused to back down or apologize for his remarks, saying only: ‘I had four uncles who were cops. So maybe I was more emotional than I usually am.’ Giuliani’s performance that day lost African-American voters, some permanently, but it guaranteed the informal backing of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the policemen’s union, which helped him get elected mayor in 1993.”
So where are the questions concerning Giuliani’s maturity and judgment in the MSM? Where is the sober pondering of the dire consequences of an ‘over-emotional’ President Giuliani during a world crisis? Where is the outrage over Rudy encouraging a crowd of racist cops?
I’m waiting.
Big Media ‘Fair and Balanced,’ But Not for Rudy
Imagine for a moment that Barack Obama, when he was a candidate for the Illinois state senate years ago, had attended a rally of drunken black police officers shouting insults and racial epithets at Chicago’s white Mayor Richard M. Daley and, in the heat of the moment, Obama leapt up and, gesticulating wildly, went on an obscenity-laced tirade against Daley, to the cheers of the angry crowd. The local daily newspapers the next day are filled with reports of the incident, one calling it “shameful,” and Daley accuses Obama of trying to incite the black cops to riot. Later, when asked by reporters why he did it, Obama refuses to apologize for his outburst, saying only that he tends to get over-emotional when talking about black police officers. Just how would the mainly white media have played that story these days as an indication of Obama’s character and fitness to be president? Wouldn’t they have questioned his maturity and judgment for making the profane remarks? Wouldn’t they have pondered soberly the dire consequences should a President Obama suddenly become ‘over-emotional’ during a world crisis? Wouldn’t they have further taken him to task for supporting a mob of racist police officers? And that’s just the MSM — the right-wing blogosphere and Fox News would have had a field day pummeling Obama.
Yet Newsweek on Nov. 24, 2007, published “Growing Up Giuliani,” by Evan Thomas and Suzanne Smalley, and here are the two paragraphs that open the article:
So where are the questions concerning Giuliani’s maturity and judgment in the MSM? Where is the sober pondering of the dire consequences of an ‘over-emotional’ President Giuliani during a world crisis? Where is the outrage over Rudy encouraging a crowd of racist cops?
I’m waiting.