Michelle Malkin: For PC in Defense of GOP

Brian Doherty | May 4, 2006

Radley Balko at the Agitator pulls together some interesting thoughts, inspired by Matt Welch's great Reason piece from our April issue on the return to the partisan mean on the part of the old crop of "warbloggers"--focusing on the rabidly partisan Michelle Malkin's recent defending of Condi Rice's honor from a college professor, at the cost of imposing a further strangling anti-academic freedom PC orthodoxy on the campus in question. As Balko concludes

I doubt Malkin much cares. She got what she wanted -- a public spanking of one of those loony academic lefties. Nevermind that she and her righty blog cohorts stooped to playing the victim card to get it, or that the academic climate at Bellvue is now undoubtedly worse off as a result.

Comments

|5.4.06 @ 10:53PM|#

I doubt Malkin much cares. She got what she wanted -- a public spanking

If the story had just stopped there, it would have been the best Michelle Malkin story ever.

The Owner's Manual|5.4.06 @ 11:26PM|#

I'm surprised to see racist trashing of Condi Rice get a sympathetic hearing among "libertarians."

Uncle J|5.4.06 @ 11:32PM|#

Seriously,

You guys usually stay farther above the muck than this. Malkin is a partisan, but I have no doubts her intentions deserve more respect than Balko offers.

Cordially,

Uncle J

Warren|5.5.06 @ 12:07AM|#

It would be sad if it weren't so hilarious.

HA!

|5.5.06 @ 12:39AM|#

If we don't make eye contact with the crazy lady, maybe she'll go away.

|5.5.06 @ 12:48AM|#

I'm thankful Balko linked to one of Malkin's earlier columns. I remember reading her stuff a few times and agreeing with it; for a while, I thought I was becoming a neo-con.

|5.5.06 @ 12:56AM|#

Good writeup, except for the part about Malkin being a talented writer...

|5.5.06 @ 1:13AM|#

Good writeup, except for the part about Malkin being a talented writer...

I understand where you're coming from, but whatever happened to this Malkin?

|5.5.06 @ 5:20AM|#

If black folks didn't insist on giving their kids weird-ass names like "Condoleeza", we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Jesse Walker|5.5.06 @ 9:15AM|#

I'm surprised to see racist trashing of Condi Rice get a sympathetic hearing among "libertarians."

I used to hear the same sort of thing from the P.C.ers of the left, who as Radley suggests are now effectively indistinguishable from their God-how-I-love-to-be-outraged cousins on the right. It didn't matter how many times I told them I was defending free speech or academic freedom or keeping bureaucracies in check; they insisted I was defending the content of the speech.

|5.5.06 @ 9:17AM|#

I'm surprised to see racist trashing of Condi Rice get a sympathetic hearing among "libertarians."
The prof's math question was harmless and almost semi-funny. I'm surprised that self-described "libertarians" are so quick to buy into modern racial speech 'n' thought taboos.

She got what she wanted -- a public spanking of one of those loony academic lefties.
That's generally a Good Thing. Though the college's response was typically dorky, 'twas nothing more than a little extra icing on the preexisting oppression-though-diversity cake.

|5.5.06 @ 9:30AM|#

It didn't matter how many times I told them I was defending free speech or academic freedom or keeping bureaucracies in check; they insisted I was defending the content of the speech.
"Reason" is quite PC about racial issues; one speech taboo down, one thought taboo to go?

|5.5.06 @ 9:47AM|#

Get it? A black person, and a watermelon? Get it? That's funny!

Whatsamatter, is that taboo? Ooh, Mr. PC doesn't even think jokes about black people and watermelon are funny!

Timothy|5.5.06 @ 9:51AM|#

He should've picked Rumsfeld and a cantaloupe, or Rove and a honey dew.

Tim Cavanaugh|5.5.06 @ 10:46AM|#

I suspect typing the following phrase will cause my IQ to fall by 35 percent, but:

Malkin has a point.

Or at least, she had a point at first, prior to the academic discipline and the hiring of Ken Singleton. Come on: Condoleezza and a watermelon? Last time I laughed that hard I fell off my dinosaur. I'm sure Malkin and her ilk would have ignored this had it been aimed at Rev. Al or somebody, but the professor is still a jackass-not because he's a racist but because he's a shitty joke writer. Anybody who's still making watermelon jokes in 2006 is indescribably pathetic.

|5.5.06 @ 11:09AM|#

Tim,

I think you missed the point.

From Beito's column:

"Jean Floten turned it into an opportunity to expand the power of the administration."

THAT is the point.

|5.5.06 @ 11:25AM|#

I'm 23 and therefore a rough contemporary of these students. When this story originally broke, I had to consult Google University to connect the dots between watermelon and Rice. How likely is it that anyone in that class got it without a similar effort? This stereotype seems to exist only in the minds of elderly Alabamians and PC academics who have memorized a list of sensitivities over which to tiptoe (and Michelle Malkin, apparently). And now everyone has to go to a race-baiting class. Thanks, Michelle. Some stereotypes really are better off forgotten.

|5.5.06 @ 2:55PM|#

SmokingPenguin - indeed, whatever did happen to that Michelle Malkin?

I'm going to guess she realised she could make a helluva lot more $$$ by being a shrill, partisan, hack writer, than going against the grain.

|5.5.06 @ 4:45PM|#

Article - I don't think Malkin had much to do with any of this:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002941348_bcc20e.html

The Prof's groveling apology, despite the threats:
http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/news/announcements/

I had to consult Google University to connect the dots between watermelon and Rice.
Ratener writes (URL above):
"Celebrities like Britney Spears, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Gallagher are among the celebrities who have appeared in test items building kennels, dropping watermelons, and designing gardens. This device works only if the reader is familiar with the celebrity. Students today no longer recognize the name Gallagher. Condoleezza had name recognition going for her; and it's a fascinating name to me. So I substituted that name in the question. Race had nothing to do with it, nor did politics. I should have caught it. And, the responsibility is ultimately mine alone."

|5.5.06 @ 5:07PM|#

This is almost completely irrelevant, but during my fellowship at the White House, I went to a staff party hosted by the Clintons. It was a watermelon party. I don't see racism under every rock, but given their hypersensitivity to race issues, I was mildly surprised--it might've offended someone, after all.

There's a whole back story about Bill saying something about Arkansas having the biggest watermelons to Hillary when they first met, so the whole thing was innocent enough. And watermelons are a big deal in Arkansas (especially around Hope). Though I always wondered whether he really was talking about watermelons.

|5.6.06 @ 2:56AM|#

Though I always wondered whether he really was talking about watermelons.

Well he probably wasn't talking about Hillary's watermelons unless I suppose he was trying to import smaller watermelons into Arkansas. Some kind of agricultural extension project, maybe.

|5.7.06 @ 10:19AM|#

Douglas Fletcher, I note for the record that Hillary isn't from Arkansas.