WillowTree
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- Sep 15, 2008
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Nearly three days on, the debate over Wanda Sykes's speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner continues to rage. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), rather than taking an golden opportunity to seize the moral high ground on the issue, it seems the Left has simply decided to double down on her hateful rhetoric.
Here are some representatives responses from the Left. Adam Serwer of the American Prospect justifies the "jokes" on the grounds that Rush Limbaugh has said some distasteful things. Bill Anderson thinks we should all just "lighten up" because Sykes is a comedian (would we say this if a "comedian" made a racist joke?). Alana Kelly even suggests that "maybe if Sykes was a wealthy white man her comments would have been better recieved (sic)".
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that "there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy - I think there's no doubt 9/11 is part of that". Most Americans would probably agree with that, though it's my personal view that there are no subjects that are out of bounds for humour.
Ben Smith at Politico suggests this is White House hypocrisy because of Joe Biden's campaign joke about Rudy Giuliani's campaign message being "a noun, a verb, and 9/11". I thought that was a pretty funny crack.
And just after 9/11 "The Onion" wrote a classic spoof story headlined "Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell" - which made some feel it was OK to laugh again despite the horrific tragedy the United States was experiencing.
Really, Gibbs's answer was an artful dodge. The problem with Sykes's "jokes" wasn't that they were merely about 9/11. You can divide what she said into two distinct categories: 1. she called Rush Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor who should be water-boarded and 2. She wished his kidneys would fail.
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Here are some representatives responses from the Left. Adam Serwer of the American Prospect justifies the "jokes" on the grounds that Rush Limbaugh has said some distasteful things. Bill Anderson thinks we should all just "lighten up" because Sykes is a comedian (would we say this if a "comedian" made a racist joke?). Alana Kelly even suggests that "maybe if Sykes was a wealthy white man her comments would have been better recieved (sic)".
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that "there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy - I think there's no doubt 9/11 is part of that". Most Americans would probably agree with that, though it's my personal view that there are no subjects that are out of bounds for humour.
Ben Smith at Politico suggests this is White House hypocrisy because of Joe Biden's campaign joke about Rudy Giuliani's campaign message being "a noun, a verb, and 9/11". I thought that was a pretty funny crack.
And just after 9/11 "The Onion" wrote a classic spoof story headlined "Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell" - which made some feel it was OK to laugh again despite the horrific tragedy the United States was experiencing.
Really, Gibbs's answer was an artful dodge. The problem with Sykes's "jokes" wasn't that they were merely about 9/11. You can divide what she said into two distinct categories: 1. she called Rush Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor who should be water-boarded and 2. She wished his kidneys would fail.
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