MSNBC Forgets Widespread Liberal Hype of 'Debt Slavery' in Palin Attacks

Liberals love to portray conservatives as idiots and slavery sympathizers. Despite such vicious attacks, these same lefties often forget their own inflammatory language.

MSNBC host Martin Bashir made particularly disgusting comments [1] on Nov. 15, when he attacked former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for comparing federal debt to slavery. Apparently, Bashir was too busy suggesting that someone ought to defecate and urinate on Palin to realize that liberals have been comparing debt to slavery for years.

Bashir should have checked with his colleague, former Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Florida), before senselessly unloading on Palin. In 2011, on the Oct. 14 broadcast of MSNBC’s “Politics Nation,” Grayson declared “what people see is that they’re falling into debt slavery – falling into debt slavery, where they owe more than they own on their house. They’re buried in credit card debt.”

For Bashir, not only did Palin’s remarks “prove her rank ignorance,” but it meant she was “truly qualified for a dose of discipline.” Since Grayson made a similar comparison between debt and slavery, he should probably be worried about Bashir’s feelings towards him.

As should all the liberal journalists who have used the phrase in the past. The notion of debt slavery has been touted by the liberal media for years. Since 2009, the Huffington Post made four seperate references to “debt slavery,” comparing student loan and Wall Street lending debts to slavery. These articles featured headlines such as “Slavery Legal in America Again [2]” and “Slaves of Wall Street [3].”

Huffington Post contributor Ronald Robinson even urged readers to “Sign New Emancipation Proclamation to Free Us From Debt Slavery [4].” Comparisons between American slavery and debt don’t get more blatant than that.

The notion of “debt slavery” has also been common among members of the liberal Media Consortium, including Alternet and MotherJones.

Alternet was particularly bad, making comments that far exceed Palin’s remark. On Sept 18, 2011, Alternet promoted a blog article [5] with the headline “Debt Slavery: If Aristotle Were Around Today, He’d Probably Conclude That Most Americans were, For All Intents and Purposes, Slaves.” Numerous other articles used Marxist class language [6] to contrast the rich with “a producer class forced into perpetual slavery.”

The Media Consortium was created to be a progressive "echo chamber," where 63 separate left-wing media outlets can network and share ideas, as well as cross-promote stories. Other members of the Consortium include such liberal outlets as The Nation, Democracy Now! and The American Prospect. The consortium has also received $675,000 in Soros funds since 2000.