Overselling the Liberal Media

Washington Examiner's Mark Tapscott responded to a recent post by FF's John Guardiano by accusing him of selling out to the liberal media.

Mark Tapscott replies at the Washington Examiner to John Guardiano's important warning against treating all Islam as the enemy of the United States.

Tapscott's piece is revealing and inadvertently funny. (Not least for its contrast between "Muslims" and "Asians" - apparently forgetful that from Anatolia to Malaysia, with Iran and Pakistan in between, the great majority of the world's Muslims do in fact live in Asia.)

But here's the most curious bit. Tapscott writes:

I understand the drill here: By trashing the Examiner so crudely, you attract the attention of the commentary section editors of various liberal newspapers looking for authors professing to be conservatives who are willing to trash the genuine article.

This line of attack is of course a very familiar one, but no less weird for being familiar. Implicit in the attack is an assumption of conservative cultural inferiority: The accusation only makes sense if liberal cocktail parties are more glamorous, liberal media more prestigious. It's poignant to hear these words from any conservative - but especially poignant to hear them from Tapscott, who after all edits the editorial page of one of the country's leading conservative newspapers. Doesn't Tapscott think it shows courage to risk offending the Examiner - to risk forfeiting the high honor and privilege of writing for his own paper? If I were the owner of the Washington Examiner, I'd feel very offended that my editorial page editor does not believe more wholeheartedly in the importance of the product he produces.