The Washington Post Fans The Flames
Posted on June 12, 2009 by andrew
On each of the last two days, the front page of The Washington Post has been dominated by the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. Articles on various aspects of the attack have appeared in almost every section of the paper, thanks to the local nature of the crime. In the opinion section of today’s paper, one columnist ponders the question of anti-Semitism while another questions the right-wing establishment’s seeming willingness to allow extremism to flourish in its midst. The paper’s daily editorial cartoonist also makes the latter point, albeit more emphatically.
Meanwhile, on the very same page, Charles Krauthammer writes the following:
“And the Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters”
– Genesis 1:2When President Obama returned from his first European trip, I observed that while over there he had been “acting the philosopher-king who hovers above the fray mediating” between America and the world. Now that Obama has returned from his “Muslim world” pilgrimage, even the left agrees. “Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world. He’s sort of God,” Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said to a concurring Chris Matthews, reflecting on Obama’s lofty perception of himself as the great transcender.
Not that Obama considers himself divine. (He sees himself as merely messianic, or, at worst, apostolic.) But he does position himself as hovering above mere mortals, mere country, to gaze benignly upon the darkling plain beneath him where ignorant armies clash by night, blind to the common humanity that only he can see. Traveling the world, he brings the gospel of understanding and godly forbearance. We have all sinned against each other. We must now look beyond that and walk together to the sunny uplands of comity and understanding. He shall guide you.
Charles Krauthammer has used The Washington Post to quite explicitly accuse our president- already the target of paranoid and racist fringe elements who see him as an embodiment of all their fears- of possessing a messiah complex. There is, as Krauthammer certainly knows, a history of that fringe element leveling the exact same charge against Barack Obama and using it as one of the central pillars in the conspiracy theories they’ve erected around the president.
I wouldn’t expect Charles Krauthammer to recognize the irresponsibility of running this column at this moment in time; his past performance indicates that he lacks much sense of decency. However, I very much wish I could expect better from The Washington Post. They displayed remarkably bad judgment in publishing this column today, and I would hope that it gives the editorial staff cause to seriously rethink their current direction.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under Charles Krauthammer, Holocaust Museum shooting, The Washington Post, the media, wingnuts
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