I usually refer to The Washington Times as The Paper of Record for People Who Commit Hate Crimes. It is a fringe right-wing rag owned by the Moonie cult, and thus tends to tread in the most disgusting conspiracy theory and bigotry. So when this same Washington Times got angry at me for allegedly being too mean on my Twitter feed to freaks like Karl Rove, Dick Armey, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, I just had to laugh...and laugh hard.
What's great, of course, is that I ultimately shamed the Times into reprinting a good (and recent) example of its most disgusting qualities. Here's the article they ended up writing:
His remarks about Mr. Rove are not printable. And, he had this to Tweet about Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican: "Haley Barbour is the perfect GOP icon: A grotesquely fat corporate lobbyist whose gubernatorial rule keeps his state 1 of America's poorest."...
When asked by The Washington Times whether he thought any of his comments were "over the line," Mr. Sirota said in an e-mail, "The Washington Times is a newspaper that just published an editorial suggesting President Obama is un-American because he's half black. So being accused of 'going over the line' in defense of progressivism by that kind of rabidly racist, right-wing hate rag is just about the funniest thing I've ever heard."
Mr. Sirota was referring to a recent column by Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden that has been blasted by many liberals, including those at the Center for American Progress and Media Matters. The opinion piece said, "It's no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of 'the 57 states' is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream."
Now, you have every right to dislike some of my Twitter posts. That's fine - and if you don't like me being harsh to the Armeys, Palins, Becks and Roves of the world, then don't subscribe to my Twitter feed. However, let's just step back and look at what's going on here: A major newspaper is asserting that Obama's biracial heritage means he's un-American - and this same major newspaper is simultaneously saying my little Twitter feed is "over the line" in making a few tongue-in-cheek jokes about Karl Rove. And this newspaper is making these simultaneous allegations not in an Onion-style fashion - but in all seriousness.
When we talk about the genuine "craziness" of the fringe right-wing media - I'd say this is about as perfect an example as you can get to prove that such a characterization is undeniably accurate.