Hypocracy, the Media, and You

I've read the CL headlines.  Since Charleston, it's been non-stop.

I'm agnostic on the flag; I've told you all this.  Don't care either way because it really won't affect my life (or yours-and you know it's true in your heart of hearts, CL editorial board) in any discernible way.

("But SYMBOLISM!" cried Former Democrat Operative Sam Hall.  Symbolism being the thing that puts bread on your table, after all.  How's that article damning Steve Holland and Jamie Franks going, by the way?)

But I'm really flummoxed at some of the headlines.

The first that drew my attention was the three days that the CL hyped the "Mississippi Celebrities for Changing the Flag" ad/article/whatever.  If my memory serves, it was the same week that the Center for Medical Progress released their Planned Parenthood videos, which the media seemed to have discovered this week.  Thanks, Carly!

My thoughts went to the Planned Parenthood videos immediately.  How many of these Celebrities would put their name to a letter to defund PP?  Archie Manning, Hugh Freeze...maybe Dan Mullen?  After all, if a flag hurts your feelings, what does a person describing how they cut through a live baby's face to get to the brain FOR MONEY do to you?

(Please save me the "EDITED VIDEO" sermon.  There's nothing out of context about it, and you know it.)

The second was Steve Earle.

You may remember Steve.  Back in the 80s he was a really good, edgy, country artist.  Since about 1990, however, he's slipped into paranoia, activism, and his music has been noted more for being more political than...you know...good.  Johnny Cash warned you about this, Steve.  He even did a song about it.

For those of you under 30, he's probably more well known for CMT documentaries (do they even do those any more, or is it all reality shows? Haven't watched CMT since I discovered YouTube).  Plus a little song he did in 2002 from the perspective John Walker Lindh.  Name ring a bell?

JWL was the original American Islamist.  He'd be at home at the preschool with the non-competitive musical chairs.  Sometime around 2000, he became a member of the Taliban.

So Steve Earle has sympathy for Johnny Taliban.  You, the average American who didn't learn guitar under Townes Van Zandt and make millions from "Copperhead Road?"  No, he doesn't have sympathy for you.  Cause you think the wrong way.

I'd love some justification from the Clarion Ledger as to why anyone who disagrees with Earle is worse than the Taliban, who blew up monuments because they didn't agree with the beliefs of those who disagreed with them.  But that would require them to make a connection I'm certain they don't want to make.