Wednesday, November 01, 2006

We've Come to Expect This from Them

Ran across an interesting contradiction while visiting that *snicker* media watchdog Media Matters. Media Matters is a "media watchdog" frequently sited by lefties as experts on liberal bias (of which they see none).

What caught my attention this time is the headline for this story about John Kerry's botched joke. It states:

Media ignored context of Kerry's remarks and acknowledgments by prominent Republicans that Kerry did not mean to insult troops


What struck me as odd about this headline (aside from it being the longest headline in history) is how Media Matters is taking the MSM to task for ignoring context for Kerry's unfortunate (for Democrats) attempt at humor, but they didn't have a similar problem with this headline about Laura Ingraham's appearance on Larry King Live:
Ingraham likened embryonic stem cell research to "public executions of child molesters"

If you actually heard what Ingraham said or read the full transcript, you would have a completely different impression of Ingraham's comments. But you won't get the full transcript at Media Matters. The story ends with this exchange:
KING: Laura, would you -- Laura, would you agree that more than 50 percent of the public would support stem cell research?

INGRAHAM: I think more than 50 percent of the public would probably approve of public executions of child molesters, but it doesn't mean that we actually do that, Larry. I mean, please.

Clearly what Ingraham was comparing was not embryonic stem cell research to public executions, but the reliance upon public opinion polls for policy decisions. Surely even John Kerry couldn't have missed the comparison. But Media Matters, as usual, did.