Editorial contortions, Chron style
The Chronicle's editors really betray themselves as dull thinkers sometimes.
It's far-Left conventional wisdom that John Ashcroft is an evil man who lives for the chance to lock up innocents and turn America into a theocracy.
His defenders are just as adamant that he's a man of integrity who has effectively used new anti-terror powers bestowed upon his office by an overwhelming majority of Congress, not to mention pursuing those guilty of corporate malfeasance at a time when scandals like Enron and Global Crossing and such were threatening to wreck the economy.
In an editorial celebrating Ashcroft's resignation, the Chronicle's editors of course adopt the far-Left conventional wisdom, accusing Ashcroft of "prudery," "contempt for individual rights," being "delusional," and even scaring away foreign exchange students!
The editorial doesn't get far beyond the name calling, which is fairly typical when the editors are dealing with their favorite "bad guys."
Amusingly, though, the editors offer praise for Alberto Gonzales, who has been nominated to replaced Ashcroft as Attorney General.
They completely gloss over the fact that as White House staff, Gonzales has been one of the President's point men in all legal aspects of the antiterror effort, and has worked closely with Justice on some of those "evil Ashcroft" policies. They do mention the memo he wrote arguing that Al Qaeda detainees should not be afforded traditional protections of the Geneva Convention, but they misrepresent that memo (and Gonzales' subsequent defense of it) to the point of willful distortion in order to prepare the readers for what follows.
What follows, of course, is their endorsement of Gonzales for attorney general. Why? Because the pro-abortion editors of the Chronicle think his position on a parental notification case while serving on the Texas Supreme Court shows he's even-handed:
When he served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales showed he could uphold the law and resist ideological interpretations. In one opinion, Gonzales upheld a state law allowing an endangered pregnant teen the option of getting a judge's permission to have an abortion without informing her parents.
The Chronicle's editorial board can always be counted on to advance its pro-abortion views. It is amusing, however, to see the contortions that result when they want to blast a "bad guy" like John Ashcroft, yet need to find some reason to support a Hispanic replacement who actually has been involved in shaping many of the policies of the "bad guy" they are blasting (not to mention other policies opposed by the editors). One wonders how they will treat Gonzales when his antiterror policies turn out to be just as aggressive as John Ashcroft's.
Finally, one wishes they would drop childish and immature digs like this:
Perhaps because of his regard for law and precedent, Gonzales will not be Bush's first appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, as once predicted.
The slap at the Administration for its alleged disregard "for law and precedent" is childish and unjustified. As we frequently point out, if the Chronicle's editors wish to produce vindictive editorials that are less compelling than the writing on the better left-of-center blogs in the state, that's certainly their prerogative -- but it does make it hard to take the newspaper seriously.
Perhaps the Chronicle editors could learn from the editorial on Ashcroft/Gonzales that appeared in the Austin American Statesman. The editors of that newspaper certainly share many views on the Left regarding Ashcroft (and Gonzales), but they present a reasoned case for their position -- not too much to expect from a major city daily with a circulation the size of the Chron's.
(Update) The metro/state pages wouldn't be complete without similar editorializing from Rick Casey, who also misrepresents the Gonzales position on the Geneva Conventions while slamming Justices Thomas and Scalia as ideologues. Just for the sake of argument, if we concede Casey's definition of "ideologue," could we perhaps balance the Chronicle's staff editorialists (Casey, Clay Robison, and Cragg Hines) with at least one staff "ideologue" located somewhere other than well to the left of center?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/13/04 10:18 AM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.