LA Times Columnist Rosa Brooks: "I Saw Nothing Uncivil About the Remarks" At King Funeral

Newsbusters.org ^ | 10 February 2006 | Dave Pierre

[infoguy]

The latest op-ed piece by liberal Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks is called, "When crass is called for" (Friday, February 10, 2006). It begins with the eye-opening line, "It's time to take a stand against civility, decency and appropriateness."

The rest of the column is essentially a defense of the tasteless remarks by Rev. Joseph Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter at the funeral of Coretta Scott King on Tuesday. At one point of her piece, Brooks unbelievably declares, "I saw nothing uncivil about the remarks made by Lowery and Carter."

And in her concluding paragraph, Brooks shrugs (emphasis mine), "And if Bush was offended by Lowery's and Carter's remarks? Tough luck."

"Tough luck"? Brooks' article comes on the heels of a similar February 9, 2006, op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That piece begins (emphasis mine),

"The funeral of Coretta Scott King was a wonderful thing, and not least among its wonders was the controversy stirred by comments from the Rev. Joseph Lowery, former President Jimmy Carter and others."

A "wonderful thing"? In his Talking Points Memo on last night's episode of The O'Reilly Factor (Thursday, February 9, 2006), Bill O'Reilly hit a bull's eye with respect to this whole issue (audiotape on file) (emphasis mine):

"Let's turn it around. What if President Bush had used the funeral to make political points himself? What if the President had said this: 'It was a terrible thing that Mrs. King and her husband Martin were wiretapped by the Democrat Kennedy administration in the 60's. That was awful. But that illegal operation has nothing to do with allowing the NSA to listen to conversations that may involve terrorists who want to kill all Americans. I'm sure Mrs. King would have understood the need for security, because she saw first-hand what hate-filled violence can do.'

"Ladies and gentlemen. Can you imagine how the Atlanta newspaper, the rest of the left-wing media, Al Sharpton, and Jimmy Carter would have reacted to those words. Can you imagine? Do you think the AJC [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] would call them 'wonderful'? ...

"Once again, the hypocrisy on the far left is staggering. It's fine for them to throw bombs, even at a funeral. But does anyone believe they would hold the same point of view if conservatives used the same tactics? C'mon."

O'Reilly is right-on. And I'm sure Rosa Brooks would not have written, "I saw nothing uncivil about the remarks by President Bush," and then said "tough luck" to any offended parties.

H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y. Hypocrisy.

[goldstategop]

Its time to spit on the dead and and defile their memory. For you see, in the eyes of the Left, funerals are are another vestige of Judeo-Christian morality. And they intend to erase all religious significance from it just as they have systematically blotted out the presence of the numinous from every other aspect of existence. So their behavior was in keeping with their attitude about faith and piety: reflection on eternity and humbling oneself before God takes a backseat to worldly self-introspection and the pursuit of the world's pleasures.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[hershey]

They know what this country would be like if Islam won, but if they take over in '06 and '08, they'll loot the US treasury and high-tail it to Bimini. It's all about power and greed.

[mewzilla]

Anyone else catch FNC this morning? They said something about Carter being caught out and a hypocrite since it turns out that Carter authorized two warrantless wiretaps in 1977, which were later upheld in court, to catch a couple of Vietnamese spies.

[solitas]

Who is scheduled to be the NEXT racial-equivalency doodah to croak, so we can listen to this [crap] all over again at THEIR funeral?