BYRON HARVEY

To paraphrase that great senator from Minnesota…ahem.

This is a post about blatant lies that are sometimes told by people who are not bound by the facts; i.e., liberals. Actually, let me digress and say that there are some honorable liberals who represent, in my judgment, a minority, but who are people of real integrity who do credit to their cause. Naming a few: Juan Williams, Bob Beckel, Joe Lieberman, Harold Ford. May your tribe increase (though not by the gain of a single person to your cause, rather by your good example of decency in conversation persuading others of your mistaken viewpoint to themselves act more decently). But, as I promised I would, I digress…

I give as a case in point the following pathetic example of “journalism”, practiced by the prince of awful journalism, Keith Olbermann, in an interview with one Dan Savage. In this case, Savage plays the liar, and Olbermann the softball-lobbing stooge. By the way, you’ll note I’ve colored the YouTube box pink to reflect the viewpoints of these individuals…

Notice something interesting in the interview: Savage and Olbermann go on and on about individuals, attributing motives, casting aspersions, etc., but actual quotes by the people are nowhere to be found. Basically, you’ve got two clowns calling names (yes, I did call ’em “clowns”), talking about being “bat crap crazy”, hearing voices, wrestling snakes, “extreme remarks”, etc. She’s “nuts”, Savage says. Olbermann invokes Jesus as the grand apologist for big government, and Savage joins in, making one of the most consistent fundamental mistakes of liberals: Jesus never shunted off on government the responsibilities of individuals, people! Of course, what we need is for an atheist like Savage to tell us what Jesus would do…

Then Olbermann asks yet another leading question about the “ethics” of the “Religious FRight”, as the graphic calls it. Once again, nothing is offered by way of hard proof, only pictures of Michelle Bachmann speaking, and mentioning Glenn Beck. This leads to the piece de resistance, Dan Savage suggesting that people such as Beck and Bachmann want the president killed. Yep, that’s what it’s all about: assassination. And yet, instead of challenging this nutjob Savage, Olbermann nods along in agreement. Again, no proof is offered; no substantiation; nothing. Contrast this with Beck last evening: he’s taking on Van Jones (more about that Communist in my next post). He lists 9 items of fact, readily available by doing a simple Google search, and simply asks how a man who believes as he believes, says what he says, can get the position of “Green Jobs Czar” (don’t get me started on “czars”) in this administration. It’s a fair question, one based upon nothing more than the man’s actual quotes. Do we hear actual quotes from Olbermann/Savage, even one? No…we get five minutes of name-calling, gross exaggeration, wild speculation, and logical leaps.

All of this said, I’m neither a Republican nor do I consider myself a member of the “Religious Right” (in fact, I submit that those who like to use that term–a term not consciously chosen, to my knowledge, by anybody on the “Religious Right”–are hard-pressed to define what it means). I hold positions at odds with the majority of Republicans, and several at odds with the majority of people who’d be labeled “Religious Right”. But I do love truth, and reject the lies of the lying liars who tell them.