Excerpted with permission from Falwell Confidential.
You remember Dan Rather, don't you? You know, the impartial CBS News anchorman who recently spoke at a fundraiser for the Democrat Party of Texas . the guy who recently stated that willful liar Bill Clinton is an "honest man"? Yeah, that's him.
Well, it seems Mr. Rather has now gotten himself in hot water after making a foolish statement on the syndicated "Imus in the Morning" radio broadcast. When host Don Imus asked why "CBS Evening News" had completely ignored the Chandra Levy-Gary Condit controversy--at a time when every other network was making the story a priority--Rather explained that it was he who kept the story off the air. Only when his network bosses demanded the story be featured did Rather agree to air a lone report on the investigation into the intern's disappearance and the continual bizarre behavior by the congressman with whom she had a sexual affair.
But Rather wasn't happy about being coerced into airing the report, telling Imus, "They [CBS officials] got the willies, they got the Buckwheats." He was referring to the habitually alarmed stereotypical black character of the "Little Rascals" comedies of the 1930s.
Since this is CBS--the network that quickly fired Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder 13 years ago after he said blacks were better athletes because slave owners meticulously "bred" their ancestors--Dan Rather was also immediately fired for making an insensitive racial slur . right? Wrong. In fact, from all indications, Rather has not faced any form of reprimand from his network for his tactless remark. You can bet that if a conservative media figure like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity had made this remark--although I can't imagine either one doing so--we would be seeing a blistering backlash by the liberal watchdogs who are so aggressively willing to savage their opponents.
NewsMax.com, the excellent Internet news source that frequently goes where the mainstream media fears to tread--pointed out that 14 years ago, the NAACP was outraged when radio host Ed Tyll of WGST-Atlanta made a remark strikingly similar to Dan Rather's recent comment. The NAACP demanded that WGST immediately fire Tyll. He was later suspended. Fourteen years later, the NAACP has been conspicuously silent regarding a statement by Dan Rather wherein he utilized the very same word.
You see, liberal film director Spike Lee can exclaim that he wants to shoot NRA President Charlton Heston . and the media yawns. Leftist actor Alec Baldwin can tell late-night host Conan O'Brien that people should stone pro-life Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ind.) and his entire family . and that's OK. Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd can use a term like "White N_ _ _ _ _" . and he's quickly excused. And Dan Rather can use offensive language without fear of repercussion because . well, because he's a liberal.
The fact is, all of these types of language are insulting--some of it even dangerous. But what's so disgraceful is that your political affiliation gets you a pass and a wink when you say the wrong thing. But watch the hammer come down in an instant if you say the very same thing and you happen to be--God forbid--a conservative.