BRACE YOURSELVES - AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  For some politically correct journalism.  First, the president speaks at Notre Dame today.  He is being politely protested by a number of committed Catholics who feel it was wrong for a Catholic university to honor a pro-choice president.  Some in the press, though, cannot restrain their contempt for the protesters.  As often happens, the best commentary comes from Britain, in this case from Damian Thompson of the Telegraph:

This is how Time Magazine chooses to begin its coverage of Barack Obama's humiliating PR problem at Notre Dame. "At the rate things are going, Pope Benedict XVI may find his next trip to the U.S. dogged by airplanes overhead trailing banners with images of aborted fetuses."

This grotesque purple flourish serves as the introduction to a thoroughly biased article by Amy Sullivan which dismisses the unprecedented Catholic opposition to Obama's commencement address as the work of, wouldn't you just know it, "a small but vocal group of conservative Catholics."

"Small but vocal group" is the the media's code for a protest that offends them. You rarely see small but vocal groups of liberals described thus. Then there's this gem: "Among those most eager to drive a wedge between the President and rank-and-file Catholics are Catholic Republicans."

That says it.  Who are these people who dare to exercise their First Amendment rights?  Why, haven't they ever heard of politeness, of respect?  Attitudes like that are coming from the same people who, a little while back, gave us BushHitler and similar constructions.

Now, also, the prime minister of Israel arrives in Washington today for talks with President Obama.  Brace yourselves again, for you are about to be bombarded with...

1) the term "hard-line."  It will be everywhere.  It will be in almost every news story.  The leads will read, "Israel's hard-line prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu..."

Now, the president of an entity called Palestine is a man named Mahmoud Abbas, who wrote in his doctoral dissertation of " "the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed."  Mr. Abbas will soon be visiting Washington.  Try to find a single news source that will introduce him as "Palestine's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Abbas..."  He will be called a "moderate."  It's the way of journalism.

Be on guard.

May 16, 2009