In a Jan. 2 NewsBusters post, Noel Sheppard is upset that NBC’s Andrea Mitchell made the entirely accurate observation that Iowa can be viewed as not representative of the United States because it is “too white, too evangelical, too rural.” Sheppard declared this to be “using the race card,” then played his own race card: “Nice way of the NBC Nightly News informing viewers that much as the media did in 2008, the race card will be played whenever possible to assist Barack Obama in getting reelected. Can you imagine any state in the union being referred to as ‘too black’ or ‘too hispanic?'”
Of course, the very next day, Sheppard’s NewsBusters colleague Matt Hadro did pretty much that. Hadro bashed a “provocative segment” on CNN in which “CNN’s Soledad O’Brien hit Republican candidates for not campaigning in Iowa’s first majority Hispanic town.”
That’s right — he’s playing the race card attacking a town for being too Hispanic. (Not to mention being too small and too Democratic, having “voted heavily for Barack Obama in 2008.”
Will Sheppard criticize his NewsBusters colleague for doing exactly what he criticized Mitchell for supposedly doing? Don’t count on it — after all, Sheppard is an MRC team player, and a master of the double standard to boot.