Howard Kurtz: Bachmann Should Have Expected Verbal Abuse Because She Ran for President
Michele Bachmann complained that although the 
media are outraged over
an insult of Sandra Fluke, "there is no level of vitriol that's beyond
the pale" when the victims are conservative women. CNN's Howard Kurtz
questioned that assumption since Bachmann ran for president and should
have expected "a lot of criticism." Apparently, running for president
nowadays subjects you and your family to vile, obscene, personal insults
– and you should simply expect it.
When then-candidate Obama was the target of a fraction of the vitriol
Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann received as presidential candidates,
the media rushed to his defense and rightfully did not tolerate such
invective being a part of the presidential process. [Warning:
this article includes uncensored vulgarities to accurately represent
what certain members of the media have said about conservative women.]
Once
Bachmann declared last June that she had filed to run for president,
the floodgates were opened from the left. Liberal comedian Bill Maher
called her a "MILF" and joked about her being "mentally retarded" and her husband wanting to be violated. Gay rights activist Dan Savage ripped her as a "scumbag" and a "grifter."
Rolling Stone's Matt Taibi – who penned this lovely farewell to Andrew Breitbart – referred to Bachmann as "batshit crazy" and a "psychopath" with "Terminator-testicles." Washington Post columnist Colby King referred to the candidate as "Barbie with fangs."
On the Stephanie Miller radio show, one of the sidekicks wished Bachmann would be fed deadly "listeria-filled canteloupe," and at another time Miller herself pondered if Bachmann hadn't already had an abortion.
Probably the insult which drew the largest sense of outrage from the
public was Newsweek's embarrassing cover of a wide-eyed Bachmann next to
the headline "Queen of Rage." CNN's Carol Costello did ask if "Republican women" are "unfairly criticized because they're women?"
And Howard Kurtz added that liberal media pundits like Bill Maher and
Ed Schultz, who have made outrageous comments in the past about
conservative women, can rightfully be held to the same standard as Rush
Limbaugh. However, he had already questioned the validity of Michele
Bachmann's rightful complaints about "no level of vitriol that's beyond
the pale" for conservative women. Just because Bachmann opened herself
to criticism by running for president doesn't mean the vile abuse should
still have occurred.
[Video below.]
Earlier in the segment, Kurtz and CNN host Brooke Baldwin also played
up the fact that Limbaugh had attacked a law student and not a "major
political figure" – forgetting that the student Sandra Fluke is herself
an activist and testified before Congress, thus placing herself in the
public square.
A transcript of the segment, which aired on March 6 on Newsroom at 2:56 p.m. EST, is as follows:
HOWARD KURTZ: But there's something about this – you know, because Rush
has used some inflammatory language over the years, but something about
the use of the word "slut" aimed at a specific young woman who nobody
ever heard of before that really has created something of a crisis for
him.
(...)
BROOKE BALDWIN: You mentioned the student here. It got a couple of us
thinking, sort of, if there maybe is a pattern when it comes to the
target. Because you know the story of Don Imus who lost his job for what
he said about students, right? Some members of the Rutgers college
basketball team. In Limbaugh's case, this is a third-year law student. I
mean, we're not talking about pundits, we're not talking about major
political figures who are on the airwaves each and every day. There's a
difference, is there not?
HOWARD KURTZ: And that's precisely it, because Limbaugh can go on and
on and on about Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama. These are established
public figures who have their own megaphones and can answer back and are
used to being in the arena. It's the fact that he put a face on what
the Democrats, in trying to capitalize on this, call the Republicans'
"war on women," that he went after this young woman, Sandra Fluke, in
such a personal way for daring to testify about something that she
believes in, whether you agree with it or not, about access to birth
control through health insurance plans, that has caused this backlash,
one that I haven't seen a backlash of this magnitude, involving
Limbaugh, despite all the controversies that he has been at the center
of over the past two decades.
BALDWIN: Ever. Ever, you say?
KURTZ: That's correct.
BALDWIN: Yeah. I want to play a little sound. This is Michele Bachmann
talking to Piers Morgan about this whole controversy. This was just last
night. Take a listen.
(Video Clip)
Rep. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-Minn.): I have gone through, myself, an
experience – more things said about me, and I have never seen this level
of outrage on the left about what left-leaning commentators said about
me.
PIERS MORGAN: That doesn't – that doesn't justify it –
BACHMANN: No really. I mean, honestly. It's – if you're a conservative
woman, it seems like there is no level of vitriol that's beyond the
pale. I've been on the receiving end of it. We all know Governor Palin
has been on the receiving end of it. You don't see this level of
outrage. You certainly don't see advertisers cutting back, and I think
that maybe that's what we should learn out of all of this.
(End Video Clip)
BALDWIN: So that's her perspective. I mean, obviously, I read your
piece in the Daily Beast. Basically, you're lead is the fact that this
whole uproar is a gift to Democrats. But Howard, isn't this more about
women, than the left or the right?
KURTZ: Well, the view on the conservative side, though, is that the
issue should be about contraception and religious freedom, whether
Catholic organizations should be forced to provide this kind of
coverage. I mean, for Michele Bachmann to say that, it's a little bit of
an unfair comparison because she ran for president. She willingly
stepped into the arena, knowing that she was going to be the target of a
lot of criticism. That's part of running for the White House.
A better comparison, I think, and what does suggest that there is a
little bit of a double standard, would be comparing it to another
pundit. Bill Maher has said – used some pretty incendiary language in
talking about women. Ed Schultz of MSNBC used the slut word and then
last year, he was suspended and apologized to Laura Ingram, the
conservative radio talk show host.
Neither of those stories has ever been as big as this Limbaugh episode.
But at the same time, Rush is a much bigger figure and more closely
tied to the Republican party, which is why you have Republican
candidates like Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich being
asked about Rush's remarks, much bigger figure than these others. But
there should be a consistent standard here, and it shouldn't just be
let's all the people on the left beat up on a conservative when he says
that and vice-versa when it's a liberal who talks his way into trouble.
-- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center
