I'm not sure which was more jarring about Jay Nordlinger's NRO post, the fact that he claimed -- apparently with all seriousness-- that for years conservatives have not complained about a liberal bias in the press. Or that Nordlinger then compared that same media bias with anti-Semitism.
Either way, it's tough to take Nordlinger seriously.
I mean honestly, conservatives have quietly sat on their hands for years and not said boo about alleged liberal media bias? That's the gospel according to Nordlinger [emphasis added]:
Let me instead say this: I think many of my conservative colleagues are far too gingerly when it comes to liberal media bias. Far too timid, delicate, and forgiving. For a long time, complaining about media bias has been seen as uncouth. It's something we all need to learn to live with, like death, taxes, and mosquitoes. Don't be uncool by bitching about it, man.
Question: On which planet has Nordlinger been living for the last several decades? Complaining about liberal media bias has been a not-very-small cottage industry since the Nixon administration. And in recent years it has taken on an almost revival-like following among whiney conservatives who, at times, seem to talk and write about very little else in this world besides cooked up allegations of liberal media bias. It's an endless obsession.
Nordlinger has heard of Brent Bozell, right?
Worse though, was when Nordlinger moved from that very shaky perch to introduce anti-Semitism into the debate. Continuing directly from Nordlinger's post:
I wish I could find an Abe Rosenthal column, written many years ago. It was about the reluctance of Jews to call anti-Semitism anti-Semitism, when anti-Semitism presented itself. They were eternally worried about “crying anti-Semitism” — so they stayed mute, when they should have been crying.
So unusual was this column, it was thrilling.
It's hard to know just when to pull the trigger — entirely a matter of judgment. Some people are too quick on the anti-Semitism trigger (or the racism trigger), and some people are too slow. It takes real judgment — real knowing — to pull it at exactly the right moment.
Every now and then, the curtain is pulled back on the mainstream media — and we see how these guys talk and act when they're at their most authentic. This is important. Liberal media bias is maybe something we all have to live with, but that doesn't mean it's something to ignore, be blasé about, or excuse.
So according to Nordlinger, it's long past time for conservatives to call out the offenders of liberal media bias, just like it's long past time to call out people who hate Jews.
This is a bizarre and rather deranged view of journalism and the people who practice it.