October
4, 2005
The Bennett Libel Divides the Decent Left from
the Indecent Left
By Dennis
Prager
A few years
ago, when Hillary Clinton was attacked as anti-Semitic, I wrote
a piece for The Wall Street Journal defending her against the
charge. As a Jew, an author of a book on anti-Semitism and a conservative
talk show host, I had credibility to do so.
It is time
now for people with integrity on the Left -- and liberal opinion
pages -- to show their integrity and defend Bill Bennett against
the libel of being a racist who advocated the abortion of all
black babies.
For make
no mistake: This is as pure a character issue as one can imagine.
Bill Bennett is not a racist and said nothing that even remotely
came close to advocating the abortion of all black babies. This
is the dividing line between the decent and the indecent on the
Left. The indecent make these charges; the decent will defend
him against them. It's as simple as that.
Article
Continues Below
What happened
is easy to summarize. In response to a caller who said that America
"lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last
30 years," Bennett made the point that one cannot argue against
abortion by pointing out anything theoretically positive that
could come from either allowing or outlawing abortion. For example,
he went on to say, "You could abort every black baby in this country,
and your crime rate would go down." And he immediately added,
for the sake of those who might distort his meaning, that aborting
all black babies would be "impossible, ridiculous, and morally
reprehensible."
But talk
show host Ed Schultz, whose syndicated radio show is aired on
liberal Air America, heard these remarks. He alerted fellow leftist
David Brock, who then put the transcript of the Bennett dialogue
on his website.
The Left
and the world's news media picked up the dialogue and then announced
that Bill Bennett had advocated the abortion of all black babies.
This lie
is as intentional as it is complete. Sometimes lies contain a
kernel of truth; this one has none. In fact, the irony is that
if Bennett's social policies were followed, no black babies would
ever have been aborted; they are aborted in great numbers thanks
to left-wing social policies.
On his show,
Ed Schultz said the following:
"Racism
is not a virtue; and this is the guy who wrote the book on virtues!"
"The Christian
right in this country considers abortion murder; this is not about
abortion -- this is about extermination."
" . . .
He's out there advocating the murder of all black babies so that
we can bring down crime."
And finally,
Schultz compared how Bennett views blacks to the way Nazis viewed
Jews.
Leaders
of the Democratic Party, such as Senate Minority Leader Harry
Reid, have demanded Bennett apologize, and some demanded that
the Salem Radio Network fire him. (In the interest of full disclosure,
Salem also syndicates my national radio show.) Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., said, "I'm not even going to comment on something that
disgusting." And Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, called Bennett's
comments "reprehensible and racist," and announced he would introduce
a resolution in the Senate condemning the comments.
The president
of the NAACP declared: "In 2005, there is no place for the kind
of racist statement made by Bennett."
Huffington
Post blogger Bob Cesca wrote: "What he seemed to imply was that
all black babies will one day grow up to become criminals."
Because
of the controversy, Bennett postponed his scheduled speech at
the University of Cincinnati. The university's College Democrats
president told the Cincinnati Enquirer: "I think it's horrible
to say that an entire race of people shouldn't have been born."
Newsday
columnist Ellis Henican wrote that Bennett "is quickly getting
famous for a bold new approach to cutting crime. Abort the black
babies!"
The lead
sentences in the Austin American-Statesman editorial on the issue
read: "Aborting black children is an effective way to reduce the
crime rate. We're not surprised that kind of racist drivel is
being peddled over the public airways, but we are stunned by who
is doing the peddling: William Bennett."
Taking their
cues from the American left, the world's news media now reports
the Bennett libel as news.
For example,
The Hindu, India's national newspaper, reports that "United States
President George W. Bush has distanced himself from comments made
by a leading Republican crusader on moral values who declared
that one way to reduce the crime rate in the U.S. would be to
'abort black babies.'"
And the
headline in the British newspaper The Guardian read: "Abort all
black babies and cut crime, says Republican."
Now you
know how the combination of incompetence, leftism and sensationalism
drives the world's news media.
Here is
a chance to find out if your liberal brother-in-law is a leftist
without integrity or simply a decent guy with different values.
Just ask him, "Will you condemn the libel of Bill Bennett?"
©2005 Creators Syndicate
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