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PrintApril 22, 2011
MSNBC's Bashir Challenged by Breitbart
After enduring Martin Bashir's thirteen minutes of shameless race-baiting on MSNBC Wednesday, Andrew Breitbart challenged Bashir to a lie-detector showdown with a $10,000 payoff.
Breitbart would be tested on whether he told the truth about Shirley Sherrod, and Bashir would be tested as to whether he actually read Breitbart's book, Righteous Indignation, prior to their interview as Bashir claimed he did.
I suspect Bashir will pass on the bet, and his presumed failure to have read Breitbart's book is not the half of it. The deeper problem is that the media have long since ceased inquiring into anything that might disturb their worldview. Let me cite an example that emerged from the Breitbart-Bashir slugfest.
In the course of the interview, Bashir observed, "In the book, you talk about bloggers, citizen journalists who have implied that the president`s autobiography, Dreams from My Father, was actually written by, quote -- I`m quoting - ‘the domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers.'"
When Breitbart attempts to answer, Bashir intrudes, "Is there any evidence?" After numerous interruptions, Breitbart cites "the Jack Cashill articles," which he admits to finding "compelling." Breitbart mentions my name, first and last, three times despite being badgered. For his part, Bashir keeps intruding, "What is the evidence?"
The evidence is contained in two books, my own Deconstructing Obama and Christopher Andersen's Barack and Michelle: Portrait of An American Marriage. As Bashir surely must have understood, it takes a lot of words to make a case for literary fraud. In my Book-TV presentation, I spent an hour on the subject but barely broke ground, and I did not have anyone hectoring me while I spoke.
To be sure, the Breitbart-Bashir confrontation has gone wildly viral on both sides of the aisle. Given the exposure, one might expect our media friends to examine the evidence that Breitbart found compelling. Given that Donald Trump has made the same accusation against our president at least half a dozen times, one would think that the media would be particularly curious.
They are not. I cannot speak for Christopher Andersen, but in the last two months, let alone the last two days, I have not received a single inquiry on my thesis from any mainstream media reporter or from any print journalist in the "respectable" conservative media.
From the beginning, I have not asked anyone to buy my thesis sight unseen but to kick the tires and take it for a test drive. Yet even so simple a literary review proved a task too daunting.
The offer still stands. What dissuades the media, I suspect, is the fear of what they will find. No matter how old you are, crushes die hard.
