MRC’s Toto Tries To Defend Aaron Rodgers’ Smear Of Kimmel Through Whoopi Goldberg Whataboutism

We’ve shown how the Media Research Center largely ignored how NFL quarterback smeared ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel with the insinuation that he was a pedophile by suggesting he might be on a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients — then went on the attack against Kimmel. Christian Toto offered up his own take on the issue in his Jan. 20 column, trying to defend Rodgers by playing Whoopi Goldberg whataboutism:

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers can read a defense, but he recently got caught flat-footed by journalists.

Whoopi Goldberg sings from the far-Left hymnal, so almost anything she says will be accepted or ignored by the very same press.

Almost.

The difference couldn’t be more striking. It’s also terrible given our divided times, and it fuels our unsustainable, two-tier society.

Rodgers, whose refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine caused an uproar during the pandemic, often defies media narratives. He leaned into that spirit during a Jan. 2 chat on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”

The subject? The Jeffrey Epstein files.

Rodgers, whose NFL season ended on Week One after rupturing his left Achilles tendon, referred to the list’s potential release on McAfee’s show.

“A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said.

Stop the presses!

The media went into overdrive, skewering Rodgers for his fact-free suggestion that Kimmel should be personally worried about the contents. Story after story. Outlet after outlet. Kimmel joined the fray, and understandably so, knowing the media machine had his back and he had been personally besmirched.

It shouldn’t be news when someone is accused of being a pedophile (which Toto failed to explain was what Rodgers did to Kimmel)? Toto eventually admitted Rodgers’ critics had a point, while still trying to dismiss the importance of his words as coming from a mere quarterback:

Finally, McAfee vowed to cut ties with Rodgers following the media melee. One comment from a quarterback caused all of the above.

And, ultimately, Rodgers was wrong. He misused his media pulpit although the punishment hardly fit the “crime.” Even if some of his recent statements were more accurate, that initial comment deserved scrutiny.

Then the whataboutism fully kicked in, as Toto examined “what Goldberg has said in recent days, some of which he linked to the MRC’s professional hate-watcher of “The View,” Nicholas Fondacaro. Then he ranted:

It’s unprofessional, uncivilized and, coming from an august platform like ABC with a news division, wildly inappropriate. Plus, it makes the political divide in this country worse.

Except the media heard it all and yawned. No response. No outrage. No fact-checks.

Nothing.

Rodgers endured a week-plus of condemnation. Goldberg gets a pass.

Some conservative media outlets rightly reported on it. They didn’t demand Goldberg be censored for her rant. That’s not the point.

Free speech matters. So does free debate. When a major media figure says what Goldberg did it should be called out, corrected or at the very least addressed.

Not in a two-tier America, which we have at the dawn of 2024.

MAGA-friendly protesters are thrown in jail for modest offenses. Christians get dragged from their homes while their kids watch in horror.

Meanwhile, Toto cited no right-wing media criticism of Rodgers, either for his smear of Kimmel or his anti-vaxxer activism — or that any right-wing outlet holds their own accountable to the same extent that they criticize the likes of Goldberg, who routinely says provocative things that right-wingers routinely get apoplectic over. And Toto is being disingenuous by claiming that censorship is “not the point” of right-wingers’ criticism of Goldberg when he knows full well that his fellow right-wingers would dearly love for Goldberg to be censored in the form of losing her job at “The View.” Of course, if that happens, right-wing outlets would lose a reliable source of clickbait. In other words, right-wing media is being as disingenuous as Toto accuses other media of being — but he won’t call it out because he too is a part of that same right-wing media.

Toto concluded by whining:

The Goldberg vs. Rodgers divide may seem modest by comparison, but the implications are profound. Just imagine 10+ months of Goldberg’s rhetoric on the body politic, and much worse coming from MSNBC and CNN and other far-Left media outlets.

Now, consider an improbable Trump victory on Election Day. What happens next? Do you want to end up in a “camp?” If not, what’s the next logical step?

Those “mostly peaceful” protests circa 2020 may seem quaint by comparison. The media giving Goldberg a pass will play a role in that nightmare scenario.

In fact, the vast majority of protesters ih 2020 were, in fact, peaceful. And Trump has made clear his fascist leanings by lionizing violent protesters at the Capitol riot (incited by his discredited rhetoric about election fraud) and has vowed to use the legal system against his critics if elected. It’s also laughable that Toto is calling MSNBC and CNN “far-left” when he would never accuse outlets like Fox News or Breitbart of being “far-right.”