In the past few days an unusual situation has developed regarding an interview of Michele Bachman by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Toward the end of the interview Wallace reminded Bachman of some of the left's attacks against her and then asked her point blank, "Are you a flake?"  The development of what followed, mostly on the Internet, and the conservatives' reaction to that one question presents some real issues as to fairness, both from the right as well as the left, and just how such ocasions of apparent ridicule should be treated.

Following the interview, many people accused Wallace of the kind of behavior we have grown accustomed to from the liberal media but not yet from Fox News.  Such a question from a media liberal would have automatically triggered an Alinsky Alert and it may well be that the call is applicable here.  But this time, the questioner was a fairly even handed and honorable man who was asking the same thing the liberals will ask Rep. Bachman in many different ways as they try to derail her and her candidacy for the White House.

In the ensuing days, for doing what he did, Chris Wallace was roundly criticized, called a liberal democrat, and to some extent, even his family background has been examined.  But most distressing, there is a distinct lack of fairness in some of the attacks on him that smack heavily of the bias and even the meanness of spirit that we often see from the left. It all makes you want to say, hold on, conservative people.  At least give it some real thought before you react and only then should you launch into what may or may not be a negative swipe at Wallace.

First off, Michele Bachman is going to see a lot worse from the MSM if she continues to seek the presidency.  Thus, a little schooling by someone who is clearly a decent man may eventually work to her benefit.  Of particular significance, Wallace gave a sincere apology with a clear-cut mea culpa of "I didn't mean any disrespect" and "I apologize."  That, just in itself, can be used to shame the MSM each time that they launch into their unfounded Alinskyite ridicule of conservatives.

Can anyone recall a truly sincere apology from the MSM to a conservative?  Ever?  It just doesn't happen, no matter the circumstances.  Clearly, the situation gave Wallace a chance to set a decency standard which the MSM cannot live up to.  True, the liberal media is guided almost exclusively by its agenda but Chris Wallace and Fox News are bound by a promise of fairness which they try hard to live up to because that is their main selling point and it is also the primary reason that they have a bigger audience.  Moreover, this whole episode has made that distinction very loud and very clear.  In fact it signals an occasion which illustrates a difference that may be of significant usefulness the closer we get to November, 2012.

Not that the moment was planned by either Wallace or Bachman like unto the curve balls that Sarah Palin now throws at the MSM.  But that is a good thought.  With such things as "Party like it's 1773!" and "Paul Revere warned the British,"  Palin has cleverly embarrassed the MSM for their lack of fairness and their ignorance of American history and she has done it like no one ever has before.  And today she even has them in a kind of jittery state.  Palin learned hard and she is now teaching the rest of us just exactly how to deal with leftist insults.  Bachman and the other conservative presidential hopefuls will have to do likewise or they will simply die on the vine.

Sometimes there is a power that runs among us, or at least a current of human behavior, that we may not always perceive until the moment has passed.  But the effect may last for quite a long while.  Perhaps this was one of those occasions.