Sometimes I wonder if liberal media members understand English.
Take the case of Daily Beast contributer and comedian Dean Obeidallah who demonstrated a deplorable lack of reading comprehension skills in his Thursday offering "The Tea Party’s War on Comedy":
A comedian tweets a political joke that some people don’t agree with: cue instant outrage!
We have seen this time and time again. To me, this is part of a war on comedy which has increased in intensity during the current hyper-partisan climate and I fear it will become even more lethal in the future. And in my experience, this war is being waged by the far right. Cue more faux outrage.
For some background, this is what Obeidallah tweeted last week:
Anyone else hoping Ted Cruz and John McCain settle their feud in an Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton style duel? Id be rooting for John McCain
— Dean Obeidallah (@Deanofcomedy) October 20, 2013
As Obeidallah observed in his piece, a number of conservative writers - including yours truly - responded to a wish that McCain would kill Cruz with outrage. I assure you, mine was not "faux."
However, unlike most I believe, I began my piece saying, "I'm fully aware that Daily Beast contributor Dean Obeidallah is a comedian, but would the following comment he made on Twitter Sunday be funny if made by a conservative comic about Democrats?"
And I concluded my piece with, "No, I don't think the Tea Party is shutting down comedy, but since we live in a world where any conservative criticism of President Obama is deemed racist, we on the right are just tired of liberals being able to say anything they want with total impunity."
That seems like pretty simple English to me with an easily understandable point. Apparently not to Obeidallah who responded:
So there you have it. The right is “tired” of liberals being able to express themselves freely. It’s simply payback time. It’s a reckoning.
The outrage truly had nothing to do with my joke. It had to do with me having the audacity to mock their new savior Ted Cruz. And the right wants to make it clear that if you do that, they will come after you.
Did any of you interpret that from what I wrote? I'm "'tired' of liberals being able to express themselves freely. It’s simply payback time. It’s a reckoning."
Let's call that strike one for Obeidallah and see if he handles the next pitch better.
The First Amendment is supposed to apply to everyone in our society. Unfortunately, what we have seen - particularly in the last six or seven years - is that it applies more to liberals than conservatives.
Liberal politicians and pundits - such as Obeidallah - can write and say whatever they want with total impunity.
Joe Biden can make clearly racist remarks and be excused for them. So can Harry Reid.
Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher can make misogynistic comments with narry a concern that it might impact their livelihood.
Alec Baldwin can go on a homophobic tirade and rather than losing his position as spokesman for Capital One actually get rewarded with his own show on MSNBC.
But if you're a conservative, and you make such comments, you'll be required to apologize and even that might not save your job.
Heck, if you're a conservative, you don't even have to make a racist, homophobic, or misogynistic joke to draw the left's ire.
Just criticize President Obama and there'll be people lining up to call you a racist - many of them elected officials as well as members of the media.
As such, in the plainest English I can summon, we conservatives want the same freedom of speech rights as liberals!
Now I hope the second pitch is clearer to Obeidallah who I'm beginning to consider a friend as a result of our interactions on Twitter and look forward to some day slamming back a few cold ones together laughing our heads off as we discuss the comedy that is politics.
However, it's quite clear to conservatives across the fruited plain that they have far less rights supposedly granted to all Americans by the First Amendment, and we wish clearly intelligent liberals such as Obeidallah would not only be willing to acknowledge this but also maybe, just maybe be honest about it in their writing.
After all, telling a conservative that he has the same freedom of speech rights as a liberal is like calling an ox a bull: he's thankful for the honor, but would rather have back what's rightfully his.
If Obeidallah doesn't believe me, let him write his next Daily Beast column claiming to have joined the Tea Party. Then make a "joke" about a top Democrat killing another top Democrat.
When his inbox fills up with hate-mail, some of it threatening, and he ends up either getting fired or having to issue a formal apology, he'll know what a double standard is.
