Whole Lotta Facts

"Mike", commenting on my earlier post on Eric Black's piece in the Strib, asks:

Black claims that Trent Lott's fall from grace came about when major media picked up the story "only after it had been promoted on liberal blogs". While I'm sure that they were all over the story (I was oblivious to blogs at that point), I have seen Hugh, LGF, and other "conservative" sites also claim to have had their collective hand in that affair. So can it be credited solely to the liberal blogs, as Black does in his article?

The implication, whether Black intends it or not, is that the righties brought down Rather, to the protestations of the lefties, and the roles were simply reversed during the Lott situation. But if, in fact, big time conservative sites were joining in the chorus to have Lott held accountable - well, that would have been nice for the reader to know, don't you think?

Let's check it out.

Black says of the Lott affair:

Remarks by Sen. Trent Lott that critics considered racist and that got him dumped as Senate majority leader in 2002 became a major media story only after it had been promoted on liberal blogs.

It seems like a reasonable simplification - but it swerves into oversimplification. Powerline wrote:

on December 9, 2002:

While I would have been happy to hear Lott explain what "problems" he was referring to, the reality is that, given the history of the Dixiecrat movement, no explanation could save Lott's comment from being incomprehensibly stupid. It is hard to avoid the image of Lott as a Dr. Strangelove who has to be restrained from blurting out what he really thinks. Lott has not been an especially effective Senate leader, and I wouldn't be sorry to see him go. This incident confirms that he doesn't have the good sense necessary to be Majority Leader. The biggest downside to replacing him, I think, is that it will give credence to the liberal theory that Republicans are closet racists. So far, Lott's blunder hasn't drawn as much fire as one might have expected. But this is sure to change, and I am afraid Lott and the Republican Party will bleed slowly until he is replaced.

Powerline also linked, via Instapundit, to C-Span's video of the damning speech, as well as Steven Hayes' article in the Spectator denouncing Lott.

For my minimal part (this blog was getting about 100 visitors a day at that time), I linked to many bigger /a>, national writers on the subject, as did many conservative bloggers.

It was hardly a purely left-wing party.

Posted by Mitch at March 9, 2005 04:31 PM | TrackBack