Michelle Goldberg argues against heated rhetoric while mentioning that she "hated Bush so much" and talks of the "blessed day" when Dick Cheney dies.

Via Instapundit, I watched the long discussion between Michelle Goldberg and Megan McArdle over the Tea Party rallies.

Goldberg is attacking what she sees as right-wing rhetoric that "contribute[s] to a climate of incitement."

What struck me was how, in the course of the debate, Goldberg casually expresses her deep hatred for Bush and Cheney. At 64:20, she mentions in passing, "God, I hated Bush so much." And at 39:10 Goldberg refers to the "blessed day" when Dick Cheney dies and says, "I certainly wouldn't be shedding many tears if Dick Cheney dropped dead."

Goldberg also refers to the protesters by the sexually derisive term "tea-baggers" (at 54:03).

The biggest problem with the media's understanding of the Tea Party movement is that some on the left assume (1) that the Tea Parties are Astroturfed at least as much as some of the left's own demonstrations and (2) that the educated right hates Obama at least as much as the educated left hates Bush and Cheney. So far, I haven't seen much evidence of either.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. A Quick Response to Orin.--
  2. Quick Response to Jim:
  3. Michelle Goldberg argues against heated rhetoric while mentioning that she "hated Bush so much" and talks of the "blessed day" when Dick Cheney dies.

Quick Response to Jim: My co-blogger Jim Lindgren has closed comments in his post below, and I wanted to respond to this comment:
The biggest problem with the media's understanding of the Tea Party movement is that some on the left assume (1) that the Tea Parties are Astroturfed at least as much as some of the left's own demonstrations and (2) that the educated right hates Obama at least as much as the educated left hates Bush and Cheney. So far, I haven't seen much evidence of either.
  Taking the second point first, I don't think I recall anyone suggesting that "the educated right hates Obama at least as much as the educated left hates Bush and Cheney," much less that this is a view widely shared by "the media." Whether you like Obama or dislike him, he has been President for only seven months; he hasn't been around long enough for most people to actually "hate" him. In contrast, opinions of Bush took several years to reach the strength they did; a chart of Bush's approval ratings over the eight years of his Presidency suggests that the strength of opinion grew in a relatively linear way over the course of those eight years.

  As for the second point, I'm not sure what to make of Jim's claim that "some on the left" have a false assumption about "some of the left's demonstrations," without indicating who those people are and what demonstrations they have in mind. If this false assumption is really a major problem in media coverage of the Tea Parties, I think a few examples of it in the press would make the point more helpfully.
Comments

A Quick Response to Orin.--

Orin responded to a post of mine on the Michelle Goldberg-Megan McArdle video.

First, I don't know whether Orin is objecting to my pointing out that opposition to Obama is often attributed to racial hatred -- something that I have seen again and again on MSNBC and on the internet (and even occasionally in Volokh.com comments) -- or whether Orin is objecting to my opinion that for some on the left this is likely a matter of projecting their own hatred of Bush and Cheney. In the clip I linked, I read Michelle Goldberg as defending the idea that the Tea Party movement is racist.

Second, I don't know whether Orin is objecting to my pointing out that some left-wing protests were astroturfed at least as much as the Tea Parties — remember ACORN, Moveon.org, and the AIG protests -- or whether Orin is objecting to my opinion that for some on the left this is likely a matter of projection of their own approach to organizing.