Sunday, October 19, 2003

Easterbrook

I was a fan of TMQ and think his firing is a wildly outsized punishment for his mistake.

The American Mind: "Easterbrook has no history of anti-semitic comments, writes for a magazine run by a Jew, and he gets canned."

Feaful Symmetry: "Let's be blunt here: everybody who said Gregg Easterbrook was a racist or an anti-Semite in reaction to his post got the man fired. Roger has apologized, but he's not the only one who went over the top during the attack on Easterbrook. "

"Roger Simon may be shocked about the whole situation, but his comments look like they're running 9-1 in favor of Easterbrook being fired. These little sessions of two-minutes' hate are making a mockery of fighting real anti-Semitism."

He has a good point there: The comment threads at LGF and Roger Simon were eye-opening. Too many of the commenters seemed to model themselves after Mao's Red Guards-- eager to hunt down thought crimes and determined to force abject capitulation from those who offend them.

Deas Esmay: "This man now has a career forever smeared by people who say he got fired for "saying anti-semitic things," the kind of stain that follows someone forever, like the claim of being a rapist, a sexual harasser, a racist, or a wife-beater. I can't say I'm surprised, given the way the PC police work these days, but I am utterly appalled."

Colby Cosh:"Simon says "I don’t think anybody who attacked Easterbrook wanted to see him fired". Well, gee, Roger, if you shot him, would you be surprised to see a new hole suddenly appear in his head? Anti-Semitism is no longer remotely acceptable in polite North American society, and is a capital offence for someone who has a media career. And this is as it should be. But since we don't have a litmus test for Jew-hatred, or a useful concept of due process that is applicable to inquiries into it, and since we don't expect people who are hostile to Jews to be up-front about it, such an accusation ought to be made in the expectation that it will, at the very least, cause pain and embarrassment. "

All of these posts deserve to be read in full.

No comments: