The Soft Bigotry of Double Standards.(Brief Article)

Here's one thing we learned from the post-election Florida folderol: Black "leaders" can say anything, and the mainstream press will take it seriously.

"This is a replay of Selma all over again," Jesse Jackson declared. He yelled that "Holocaust survivors have been disenfranchised" deliberately. He repeatedly spoke of the "blood of blacks and Jews." Amidst calls from all sides to cool down the rhetoric, Jackson saw nothing wrong, factually or morally, with telling actual Holocaust survivors that, in effect, it was happening all over again. With not a single Bull Connor night stick, German shepherd, or even a nasty word in evidence, Jackson told blacks Jim Crow was back.

And this was all during the first week after the election. It's hard to imagine what--short of declaring a nuclear attack is minutes away, or perhaps that Filene's is having a clearance sale--could be more inflammatory to Palm Beach voters. Good thing the sober, truth-squading New York Times was there to cut through the hyperbole: "Mr. Jackson has been careful not to be inflammatory," Times correspondent Lynette Holloway wrote on November 13, "which may be one reason the Democratic National Committee has changed its mind about his involvement."

Not one allegation by Jackson & Co.--about blocked polling places, "targeted" blacks and Jews, harassed immigrants--was ever brought before an actual judge because they were all lies. But the press simply turned a blind eye. Is it conceivable that a white Republican could invent lies about blacks or gays or, well, anyone who could lay claim to being a victim, without the New York Times and Dan Rather unleashing hordes of truth-squaders?

Some years back Al Sharpton attempted to frame innocent men for a non-existent crime, ruining the lives of the accused and damaging race relations for years. Yet he's treated like Gandhi with a Jerri-curl by many reporters because he's the "authentic voice" of a "disenfranchised constituency." Yawn. He's a con man. Louis Farrakhan gets a wonderful megaphone on shows like "Meet the Press." Nice liberal reporters feel compelled to earn their merit badges by challenging Farrakhan's comments about Judaism (the "Synagogue of Satan") or what some of his lieutenants have uttered about, say, the Catholic Church (the Vatican is run by "a lot of white faggot boys").

But this just plays into his hands by allowing him to "stand up" to white). Few interviewers--Ted Koppel excluded--are willing to embarrass Farrakhan by asking about his numerous loopy claims: that he's flown around in a space ship talking to the late Elijah Muhammed (the ship dropped Lou off outside ...