Either because of neglect, indifference, ignorance or because they have been continually outmaneuvered, over the years, conservatives have ceded the high ground to liberals in such important areas as the mainstream media, entertainment, and most troubling of all, our education system.
For whatever reasons, conservatives surrendered their rights to the rhetorical soap box and those decisions have had severe consequences. I was reminded of that surrender by two very public job actions this week. One a new hire and one a new fire.
Let’s look at the new fire first. NPR, a left-leaning media organization funded in part by the American taxpayer, made the politically correct and cowardly decision to fire Juan Williams for exercising his First Amendment right to say “…when I get on a plane, I’ve got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Of course, the fact that Williams made this comment on the Fox News Channel to Bill O’Reilly, who himself had just touched the third rail of political correctness with a comment about Muslims on the left-of-center program The View, made it all the more objectionable to the liberals at NPR.
In its haste to pile on its former employee, the left-of-center Washington Post labeled Williams comments, “…anti-Muslim remarks.” Are you kidding me. Williams, who as an African-American, has spoken eloquently and forcefully for years on the subjects of race relations and bigotry is anything but “anti-Muslim.”
Fine. If this type of innocent conversational remark has now sunk to being the despicable and unethical standard for which NPR would fire someone over and The Washington Post would slander someone over, then what would they have done to the Rev. Jesse Jackson for saying, “I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved.”
Now let’s look at the new hire. Random House publishing has just trumpeted its hiring of far-left “journalist” and “historian” Jon Meacham as executive vice president and executive editor.
This would be the same unbiased “historian” and editor who while at Newsweek, which his judgment helped to collapse, went after numerous Republicans and conservatives and who shamelessly took a photo of Sarah Palin from Runner’s World to put on the cover of Newsweek.
Said Palin of that cover, “The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now.” Ironically, Meacham will now be reporting to Random House publishing president Gina Centrello. A very talented and tough woman who unfortunately does not seem bothered by Meacham’s bias or sexist covers.
But then, that’s the point. The vast majority of publishing – just like the vast majority of the mainstream media, entertainment companies, and our educational system – is populated and controlled by liberals. Generally very wealthy liberals who think nothing of looking down upon the unwashed masses while laughing at them as they “ …cling to guns or religion.”
All across the megaphone board, conservatives have ceded this critically important territory to the left and far-left. Why? And more importantly, when do they attempt to get some of that real estate back?
Actions and non-actions can and do have lasting effects. Look at the “business” pages of our major mainstream newspapers or in network newsrooms. Many of the editors and reporters on those pages or at those networks are liberal and have a strong bias against corporations, capitalism and the free market system. And yet, they are the ones “reporting” on business to the vast majority of Americans.
The same example applies to something as seemingly innocuous as sports. Because these papers and networks are controlled by a liberal mindset, they now only hire like-minded politically correct, ethnically and religiously diverse “sports reporters.” People who come into the business mostly never having played sports and who have a strong bias against the traditional view of sports or the very concept of winners and losers.
Conservatives have walked away or been shut-out of much of the media, entertainment and education. For the good of our nation, it’s time for them to get back in the game.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official in the Reagan administration and a regular oped contributor to the online edition of The Washington Examiner.
