Academic

JAMES TARANTO: David Frum Is Silly: Does he really think Dan Rather was the liberal Andrew Breitba?

By Glenn Reynolds

JAMES TARANTO: David Frum Is Silly: Does he really think Dan Rather was the liberal Andrew Breitbart?

Are we to believe that Ben Jealous thought Breitbart was what Dan Rather, before his fall, claimed to be–an impartial and reliable purveyor of facts? In the unlikely event that the answer to that question is yes, doesn’t his failure to know better reflect a stunning incompetence?

No, you can’t cheat an honest man. Breitbart set a trap for the NAACP, and the NAACP walked right into it. He was able to do so because he correctly identified the organization’s moral weakness. Confronted by a video showing apparent racism at an NAACP function, its leaders appear to have panicked and made a snap decision to denounce one of their own so as to pre-empt the charge of employing a double standard.

It was a very effective bit of Alinskyite political theater, and in a way more so for Breitbart’s having gotten the story wrong. As it turned out, the NAACP condemned Shirley Sherrod based on a false, secondhand accusation of racism. Members of the Tea Party movement know just how she feels.

And when the Tea Party was facing false accusations David Frum joined the pile-on. So spare me the notion that he’s a voice for journalistic ethics.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on July 23, 2010 (boomark / email).