A death threat against a member of Congress -- any member of Congress -- is a deplorable thing and a very real cause for concern. You'd think pretty much everyone would agree with that, but that doesn't seem to be the case with NewsBusters' Brent Baker, who considers the videotaped death threat against Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) to be “real,” in contrast to the recent threats against Democrats, which were “less-immediate.”

That's the case Baker made in a blog post this morning headlined “No Time for a Real Threat as ABC and CBS Skip Arrest of Man Targeting GOP's Cantor”:

NBC on Monday night squeezed in a few seconds for the arrest of “a Philadelphia man for threatening the life of the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia.”

Yet after the networks led last week with less-immediate threats against Democrats, they weren't so interested in a real case of a death threat against a Republican as neither CBS nor ABC aired a word about the arrest and NBC's Brian Williams gave it short-shrift after leading last Wednesday with Democrats as the victims: “It's getting ugly as anger over health care reform erupts into some over-the-top rhetoric, including threats now against members of Congress.”

Baker offered absolutely no explanation as to why the voicemails threatening the life of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), or the images of nooses faxed to Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), were any less “real” than the threat against Cantor's life.

Baker actually came uncharacteristically close to having a legitimate complaint here. As I wrote above, any threat against a member of Congress is a serious thing, and there's a very good argument to be made that the media should afford them equal weight of coverage. Baker ran into problems, however, when he suggested that the “real” threat against Cantor merited coverage, whereas the threats against Democrats -- which he implied to be bogus -- did not.

That's not just bad media criticism, it's reflexive and disgusting partisanship.