The Washington Post's stoning of Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry is journalistic malpractice. Instead of calling the newspaper to task, other national media outlets have joined in. And now, the Post is doubling down on slander.
The Post dispatched reporters to the remote hunting grounds of a Perry-linked ranch — "associated" with Perry through "his father, partners or his signature on a lease" — because it once had a rock on it somewhere that had the word "Niggerhead" painted on it. The term is an embarrassing vestige of past racism not just in Texas but on geographical landmarks across the country.
The Washington Post interviewed dozens of people about the remnant, which Perry says his family painted over and turned over years ago. The New York Times piled on Perry with its own crack investigation of hazy memories of bygone days. They unearthed one Perry hunting pal who never saw the sinful stone, but "could not be sure it was the same parcel that was the subject of the Post article." Another friend, Fred McClure, who is black, also could not recall ever seeing the rock and emphatically added that the paper's stone-cold insinuation that Perry is a bigot "is not only untrue but also extremely unfair."
But the actual testimony of black Texans counts for nothing at the newspaper that infamously "Macaca'ed" former Virginia GOP Gov. George Allen after he clumsily traded barbs with a young liberal operative of Indian descent during his failed Senate bid. Recycling the tried-and-true "GOP equals racist" narrative, the Post composters published a second Stone-gate piece on Tuesday claiming that unidentified "minority legislators" had a problem with Perry's "complicated record on matters of race."
Perry appointed the first black Texas Supreme Court justice, hired several top minority aides and "enjoys warm associations with many black leaders," according to the Post. So what's "complicated"? Unidentified minorities don't like his "embrace of the tea party movement" (which currently favors black GOP candidate Herman Cain, but never mind that). They, whoever "they" are, also seem to be upset that he featured race-hustler Jesse Jackson (you know, the demagogue who called New York City "Hymietown") in an old campaign ad.
You don't have to be a Perry supporter (and I am most certainly not) to spot the Post's boulder-sized double standards. These rubble-rakers vetted the origins and whereabouts of a painted-over inanimate object with far more investigative zeal than they did with any of the actual living, fire-breathing race-baiters Barack Obama consorted with before and during his first presidential run.
Case in point: the continued whitewashing of Obama's ties to the New Black Panther Party and its leader Malik Shabazz, a Jew-bashing, America-hating, 9/11 conspiracy theorist who inveighed: "If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10 percent, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center. ... We're daring anyone to dispute its truth. They got their people out."
Former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams blows the lid off the Obama administration's coddling of Shabazz and the NBPP's voter intimidation thugs in his new book, "Injustice" — and uncovered photos of Obama and the race-hustlers appearing at a 2007 civil rights event in Selma, Ala. The Post's response to Adams' whistle-blowing over the past two years? Liberal columnist E.J. Dionne sneeringly dismissed the career civil servant as a "Republican activist."
But, hey, let's get back to squeezing blood from stones.
Has Perry himself actually used the racial epithet that was once painted on the rock — you know, like the late former KKK leader Robert Byrd did as recently as 2001 when he referred to "white niggers"?
Did Perry condescendingly refer to a black politician as "articulate and bright and clean" like Joe Biden did when he described Barack Obama in 2007?
Did Perry racially stereotype Hispanics for political gain or refer offensively to President Obama's "light skin" and "lack of a Negro dialect" like Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid did just last year?
What does it all say about Rick Perry? Nothing. Nada. Zip.
While the Post cites unnamed minority pols decrying Perry's right-wing "racially tinged rhetoric," this is the guy who has indulged in left-wing impulses and disparaged his own base as racist in two separate GOP debates. First, he shamelessly suggested that opponents of in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens were xenophobes who didn't like the sound of foreign last names. Then, he told them they were haters who lacked compassion: "I don't think you have a heart."
That sounds a lot like the very suggestion the Macaca Media is leveling against him.
It stinks to be falsely accused of racism. Maybe Perry, now under siege by the ruthless race card-playing media, will remember that the next time he's tempted to accuse conservatives who disagree with him of heartless bigotry.
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
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