The Unfair and Unbalanced Media

The Unfair and Unbalanced Media

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

April 8, 2011

While Congressman Jim Moran’s assault on the military and its veterans went viral Friday, April 8, one day following a town hall meeting held in Alexandria at Hammond Middle School, nary a word appeared in The Washington Post.

Moran treated Wayne Tunick, a disabled 27-year veteran rudely following an important question regarding military pay in the event of a government shutdown. In his typical low-rent manner Moran attacked Tunick accusing him of using caustic language.

The video proves Moran’s accusation to be just another lie by a politician who was clearly hell-bent on belittling and demeaning a United States military veteran, a veteran who put his life on the line defending the right of Moran to behave like a petulant child.

None of the exchange between Moran and Tunick appeared in the Post article on April 8 – surely the liberal media covering up the “Morantics” of an elected official who for years has embarrassed both himself and the district he supposedly represents.

The spectacle of our member of Congress shouting at a veteran with such contempt and disrespect dripping from his voice, calling the question insignificant and simple rhetoric designed for Tunick to hear himself speak. During his tirade directed at Tunick, Moran shouted at him to either sit down or leave.

And while it is embarrassing to see this video on Fox News, Facebook, and other sites, it is necessary for the citizens of Virginia’s Eighth Congressional District to see how their elected official behaves.

On the flip side of the Moran coverage, the liberal media continues its witch hunt of former Governor and Senator George Allen by parsing every syllable out of his mouth in an attempt to create another “macaca” moment and thwart his effort to return to the US Senate.

Allen, who paid with his job in 2006 for a verbal gaffe, is now being accused, by some, of racism simply for asking a black news reporter what position he may have played in sports in his younger days. There was no reporting that white scribes were asked the same question.

As most people know, Allen has an impressive sports pedigree. His father, the late George Allen, coached nine teams in college and the NFL, during a career spanning 40-plus years, most notably with the Washington Redskins.

George Allen, the current Senate candidate also penned the tome What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports, published in 2010. It should come as no surprise that Allen would ask the aforementioned reporter what position he might have played. According to Allen he asks that question of most people he encounters, usually as a form of an ice-breaker. To suggest there is even a hint of racial undertones to the Allen query is absurd. I’ve had several conversations with Allen with subjects ranging from sports to religion to education.

This unbalanced treatment by the liberal media of Democrats and Republicans is not an aberration. Instead it is typical of the double standard by which candidates and elected officials alike are treated. Even after Moran blamed the war in Iraq on the Jews at a town hall meeting, the Post still endorsed him for reelection. Despite numerous ethics complaints, Moran once again received media endorsements.

Yet an innocuous question about what position a reporter may have played in sports becomes a racial epithet in the eyes of a media so partisan it is attempting to create a scandal where none exists and derail a candidate whose campaign is barely out of the locker room and on the field.

Oops – a sports metaphor. What could that possibly mean?

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA – for now.