Campos: The 'liberal media' ploy

Published March 6, 2007 at midnight

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This weekend, I was asked to address the annual Colorado Young Democrats convention, regarding how the media frame political stories. Here is an edited version of what I said:

As young Democratic activists, it's important to appreciate that you're playing a game that's in significant ways rigged against you. Republicans have engaged in several decades of nonstop whining about "liberal media bias," to the point where, ironically enough, the media let Republicans get away with things that would instantly destroy any Democrat.

A perfect example is provided by this morning's New York Times. It has a front-page story about the Conservative Political Action Conference, at which various Republican presidential candidates gave speeches. The story notes the conference "drew thousands of attendees, many of whom waited in a long line out the door for an appearance by Ann Coulter."

What the story fails to mention is that, during her speech, Coulter called Sen. John Edwards a "faggot." This is standard stuff from Coulter, who in July called former Vice President Al Gore a "total fag" on national TV. Now consider that earlier in the day at this same conference, leading Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney told the audience, "I'm happy to learn also that after you hear me, you're going to \[hear] from Ann Coulter. That is a good thing. Oh yeah!"

Romney then went on to note he was particularly glad to see members of "the mainstream media" in attendance, so they could get the views of "moderates" like Coulter.

Of course this was Romney's idea of a joke, but no politician ever tells a joke in public without a purpose. The purpose of this joke was to signal to the Republican base that Romney is proud to be associated with a true conservative like Coulter, who isn't afraid to tell those liberal faggots exactly what she thinks of their limp-wristed faggotry.

Consider how remarkable all this is. One of the frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination goes out of his way to associate himself with a woman who makes a habit of calling U.S. senators and vice presidents "faggots" - and who proceeded to do so at the very event at which he praised her - and the nation's newspaper of record doesn't think it's appropriate to inform its readers of these facts. (A spokesman for Romney later characterized Coulter's remarks as "offensive.")

Now suppose I were to stand up here and call Coulter a \[expletive]. (Interestingly, unlike "faggot," American newspapers won't print this word, although it's no more offensive). That would, I believe, be a highly inappropriate thing to do. Even though it's my personal opinion that, if anyone deserves to be called a \[expletive], Coulter does, it's still the sort of thing any decent person will avoid doing.

Yet if I were to point out that Coulter is, by any reasonable standard of evaluation, a \[expletive], I suspect much outrage would ensue. After all, Nancy Pelosi is giving a speech later tonight inside this same hotel, in which - in this hypothetical scenario - someone Pelosi doesn't know (i.e., me) would have called Coulter a \[expletive].

If such a thing were to happen, the entire right-wing noise machine would leap into action. Ann Althouse would probably write a column in The New York Times about how, if Pelosi were really a feminist, she would unequivocally condemn some guy Pelosi has never heard of, who called Coulter a \[expletive] in front of 75 people in a hotel room in Denver.

Meanwhile, Coulter calls John Edwards a faggot on national TV, at the same podium from which Mitt Romney had just told the world how much he loves Coulter, and the result is that, rather than being shunned by every decent human being on the planet - or at least by people who would like to be elected president - Coulter is immediately invited on to CNN to discuss her views further.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is your "liberal media" in action.

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at paul.campos@colorado.edu.

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