As lefties, we'll leave it for the right to police their own; however, we will hold our own ranks accountable.
2008 was one of the most appalling and illuminating years.
We saw that inexcusable behaviors would either be minimized or outright ignored in order to whore for a candidate.
Which is how Barack Obama was able to stage a campaign event in South Carolina back in November 2007 featuring numerous homophobes on stage and get away with it. FAIR provided no action alert. Semi-closeted lesbian Laura Flanders chose to misdirect by asking Barack to break with Richard Daley over torture. Only The Progressive and the Black Agenda Report called out a leading Democratic candidate for the party's presidential nomination use of homophobia.
Mere months later, Amy Goodman and the anti-religious religious fanatic would slam John McCain because an endorser of his was a homophobe. Suddenly, homophobia mattered again. Until Barack got his homophobes back out to meet and greet for the 'swing-state tour' leading up to the general election.
Then, yet again, all was quiet on the left front.
Sexism was repeatedly ignored.
Katrina vanden Heuvel showed a bit of bravery calling out MSNBC vermin who suggested Hillary was "pimping" her daughter. In part, it was brave because it was one of the few times that The Nation bothered to call out sexism. It wasn't just The Nation ignoring the sexism. Though FAIR's CounterSpin found real racism and what they pretended was racism to call out every week of the fall of 2007 through 2009, they only found time to call out sexism once -- for one brief sentence -- at the end of May 2008. Back to The Nation, Katha Pollitt would reveal in the summer of 2008 (in a column calling out sexist Tom Hayden) that she was "doing my part" for Barack by refusing to call out sexism. Gee, Katha, when did you become a Barackist? We'd thought you were still pretending to be a feminist.
Feminism doesn't allow anyone the luxury of ignoring sexism.
Now, as you look around, you see the damages you've created by your silences.
Guess what?
There's more damage to come.
As Grace once warned Will, (Will & Grace, Alley Cats), "Oh, oh, and by the way, once you let Jeannie out of the bottle, there's no way she's going back to that little circle couch."
And as for you who built this Frankenstein monster -- either via whoring or silence -- you own him. Don't think you can show up -- Norman Solomon, Kevin Zeese, David Swanson, et al -- and pretend like your own hands are clean. You need to publicly take accountability for your actions.
For years and years, the likes of FAIR have attacked MSM reporters and pundits for being wrong and not admitting to their mistakes. Yet it's 2010 and to hear the newly emerging from the womb critics of Barack tell it, they were always critics of Barack, they were always warning you (Alexander Cockburn is one of the worst at this -- forgetting that he went back and forth every month on whether he was trashing Barack or cheering him on).
It's not just time to get accountable. It's time to get serious about what the so-called media of the left is supposed to be doing.
It is not supposed to be a Democratic Party organ. Come 2012, the refusal to cover Green Party and independent candidates, the refusal to do anything other than shill for the Democratic Party in an attempt to elect a Democratic President will be very, very obvious. We think your hypocrisy has already exposed you as the whores you are. But the thing about whores is, it's so very hard for them to pass up a buck. Meaning 2012 might feature even more exposures. Don't forget, the world is watching.
