Jeff Poor spent an April 2 NewsBusters post defending right-wing commentator Erick Erickson, who he claims is the victim of a “witch hunt” by “left-wingers.” Poor complains that the Politico, in writing a story about Erickson, is “taking news tips from left-wing storefronts that have staked out RedState.com founder Erick Erickson’s Macon, Ga. radio show on Newstalk 940 WMAC, to capture any sort of gotcha moment to embarrass Erickson. And all of this seems to have been spurred on by CNN’s announcement last month that Erickson would be a network contributor.”
The “left-wing storefront” term is a reference to Media Matters, which captured Erickson saying on his radio show saying that if a census worker demands that he fill out the long-form American Community Survey, he will “[p]ull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door.” And the act of monitoring someone’s radio show for “gotcha moments” is exactly how Poor’s employer — the Media Research Center, which is a right-wing storefront — operates, so what is he complaining about?
Poor uncritically relayed Erickson’s defense that his statement is being “misconstrued,” though Poor doesn’t explain exactly what is being misconstrued given the straightfoward clarity of Erickson’s statement.
Poor also complained that the Politico “something of continuation of behavior” in Erickson’s statement, “which Erickson has since apologized for on CNN’s March 28 ‘Reliable Sources.'” Poor doesn’t explain why anyone should take Erickson’s apology for past statements (like calling retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter a “goat f***ing child molester”) at face value, since 1) Erickson’s continued employment by CNN likely hinged on the apology, and 2) Poor and his employer would never treat a similar apology from a liberal that way.
Poor then unsurprisingly launches into a double-standard complaint regarding liberal personalities. Of course, as an MRC employee Poor is pretty much the last person who should complain about double standards given the MRC’s refusal to denounce the frequent anal sex references by Rush Limbaugh while criticizing others who make them.