The Thin Skin of Conservatives

August 25 2004
Counterbias.com
Scott C. Smith

        Conservative pundits utilize a very specific “debate” tactic when they appear on a cable news debate-format show, such as Hannity & Colmes.  That tactic is simply to barrage the liberal guest with a series of questions/statements/comments, and in the process leave the liberal guest unable to respond.  It’s a bullying tactic employed by pundits like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.

        Michelle Malkin is a columnist and a Fox News contributor.  She writes a column very much in the spirit of an Ann Coulter column. 

        Malkin as a columnist offers up standard conservative fare, presented in the standard bullying conservative style.  Malkin makes frequent appearances to programs like Hannity & Colmes, where she can present her point of view with no liberal opposition (Alan Colmes isn’t going to challenge her, unfortunately).  As is the case on many a Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity and the conservative guest will gang up on the liberal guest while Alan Colmes sit silently as this drama unfolds.

        Last week, Malkin was a guest on MSNBC’s Hardball.  Hardball is hosted by Chris Matthews, and to be honest, I had never watched Hardball prior to last week’s show.   I had heard that Malkin’s August 19 appearance was a memorable one, so I watched to see what the fuss was all about.

        Matthews opened the show with guest Larry Thurlow, one of the Swift boat vets attacking John Kerry.  To my surprise, Matthews actually challenged Thurlow after Thurlow had suggested John Kerry had some sort of cryptic “Master Plan” to get himself elected president, which included a tour in Vietnam in order to present himself to America as a war hero if and when he ran for office.  Here’s a bit of that exchange from August 19:

MATTHEWS:  Can you honestly tell me now, sir, that you could swear in open court that you know that John Kerry, when he was a lieutenant JG in the same theater you were in had some plan for winning medals?  Do you know that for a fact?

THURLOW:  OK.  In other words, present evidence that he had this plan?

MATTHEWS:  Yes.

THURLOW:  Of course, I couldn‘t.

        Later in the show, Michelle Malkin appeared with San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.  Apparently Malkin had been booked to discuss her new book, but the conversation was about John Kerry and the accusations made by the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.  At one point in the conversation, Malkin advanced the theory that John Kerry had injured himself in order to get a Purple Heart.  No surprise that Malkin had learned of this from the book Unfit For Command, written by one of the Swift boat vets, John O’Neill.  From the Hardball transcript, again:

MALKIN:  Well, yes.  Why don‘t people ask him (John Kerry) more specific questions about the shrapnel in his leg?  They are legitimate questions about whether or not it was a self-inflicted wound. 

MATTHEWS:  What do you mean by self-inflicted?  Are you saying he shot himself on purpose?  Is that what you‘re saying? 

          Bam!  As the show cut to commercial, Malkin looked like she wanted to stab Chris Matthews in the eye with a pen.  She had gotten a taste of her own medicine and she did not like it one bit.  And like many a conservative, Malkin was on the defensive the next day, aghast at the “caveman” antics of Chris Matthews.  Malkin complained at her web site:

Well, guess what? This foaming jerk Matthews, who called me irresponsible and kicked me off the show admitted that a) he himself had not read the damned book, b) he was not interested in asking Kerry about the specific doubts raised by vets about his wounds, and c) he had not and would not question Kerry about these specific allegations.

          Poor Michelle.  She got a taste of her own medicine and found it a bitter pill to swallow.  She was on the Rush Limbaugh show the next day to complain about how she had been treated, including being asked a barrage of questions.  Sound familiar?  Sean Hannity does it all the time.  Gee, Michelle, I don’t suppose you remember Sean Hannity treating liberal guests the exact same way Matthews treated you?

        On the Limbaugh show, Malkin also complained about being “thrown off” of Hardball. 

            Imagine that, a guest being “thrown off” a show!  That never happens at Fox News.  Oh wait, it does.  Bill O’Reilly did it on The O’Reilly Factor to guest Jeremy Glick, a young man who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks.  Glick had signed on to an anti-war advertisement, and by the end of the show, O’Reilly was foaming at the mouth, abruptly ending the interview with Glick as he did not like Glick’s politics. 

        So, note to Michelle: make sure you can take what you dish out.  You’re not going to get the Alan Colmes treatment outside of the comfortable studios of Fox News.  Someone may actually challenge you on statements you make.  I know, it’s a crazy world, Michelle.  Best to stay within the safety of your column and not venture out into unchartered waters.  That way you don’t have to worry about anyone throwing stones at your glass house.