PrintApril 21, 2011
Wonkette's dearth of common decency
This story hit the internet yesterday and has blown up into a major brouhaha between Mediaite writer Tommy Christopher and Wonkette editor Ken Layne. The obscenely satirical website that dishes hyperpartisan Democratic talking points went after Trig Palin yesterday on the child's birthday in the most brutally inappropriate manner.
I didn't think anything I read on the internet could shock me. This did:
Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter's magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.)(I will not send traffic to Wonkette and fill their coffers with ad money from potential click-throughs)
The writer, Jack Stuef, referred to Trig as "retarded" and recycled the old lies about Sarah Palin not being his mother. Christopher had some testy email exchanges with editor Layne but in the end, the website refused to take down the offending post.
Perhaps as disturbing as the hit piece on a baby was Layne's dismissive attitude toward critics. He obviously wandered out of line when the lord was handing out empathy genes. Some liberal, eh? Attacking the family of your political opponent may be considered fair game by animals like Layne, but even "decent" liberals have maintained a troubling silence on this matter - with one exception.
Where's Think Progress on this scandal? Or Digby? Or Steve Benen? Or Jane Hamsher? Or Kos? Or any other liberal blogger who can find the time to trash the right for even the most minuscule of transgressions, but stays silent as a colleague attacks a baby in the most shockingly illiberal manner. No outrage about making fun of a special needs child? Or the insinuation of incest?
The test of sincerely held principles is consistency in applying those principles to issues and events every day. In this case, as in many others, the left doesn't have it.
