The only acceptable bigotry
PBS has produced a documentary on George W. Bush's faith, and its influence on his Presidency. The media elite are appalled. A prime example is Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times. Chris Weinkopf, an editor of the Los Angeles Daily News outs her for her bigotry in The American Enterprise online. The money grafs:

It's hard to imagine similar treatment of other major politicians. No one would ever suggest that Joe Lieberman is, well, too Jewish for the Presidency. Nor did the press ever much fret that being Baptist might have rendered Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton immune to critical thinking. The media typically portray Senator John Kerry's heterodox brand of Catholicism as a badge of honor.
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But Bush is different——a devout, observant, conservative believer. As far as the establishment media are concerned, he might just as well be from Mars.

Even PBS can't avoid a certain sense of bemusement in its descriptions of these earnest Bible—thumpers. At times, its documentary takes on the same curiously detached tone of a National Geographic special on African bushmen, describing in fascinated detail the strange, alien beliefs that, to much of the American public, are simply part of everyday life.
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The announcer explains, in that serious, public—broadcasting voice: "Conservative evangelicals consider the Bible to be the word of God, and without error.... To evangelicals, it is not their Christian denomination that connects them but a series of beliefs. One of the most important is committing yourself to Jesus Christ, or being 'born again.'"
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You almost expect him to continue: "While the men are out hunting lions, the women fashion nose rings from the bones of small rodents."

It is long past time to start calling the bigotry of the educated elites by its true name: vicious prejudice.

Posted by Thomasа 8 7 04