Peabody Envy
Among the certainties of today's American conservative movement is the hostility towards objective truth and the scientific method. As I wrote in "The Potemkin President", the Lysenkoism of the Right requires an attack on any finding that runs counter to its policies or ideology.
The Right's same fierce denial, it appears, also applies to journalistic and artistic merit. Throughout the conservative blogosphere, foaming-at-the-mouth contrarians like Michelle Malkin and Powerline are up in arms over the Pulitzer prize selections for photography. The photos, they claim, at best only show the violence and chaos of Iraq and at worst, reveal photojournalists in cahoots with the insurgents. Instead, these bloggers want to see awards going only to those images reflecting American heroism, courage, and beneficence. The same Michelle Malkin who offered three cheers for World War II internment of Japanese Americans even provides a scorecard of virtue for the photographs.
Their Pulitzer rage still on the boil, we can expect more overheated conservative bloviating with today's announcement of the Peabody Awards. Why? Because CBS News with Dan Rather won a Peabody for its coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal in a segment produced by conservative Memogate villain Mary Mapes. And Jon Stewart and the Daily Show were honored for their 2004 election coverage. Don't be at all surprised to hear Bill O'Reilly weigh in on the matter. Among his staggering record of lies is his fraudulent claim, as Al Franken pointed out, to have won two Peabody awards of his own.
With each day, the eery parallels between the conservative ascendancy and Stalin's USSR grow more disturbing. Their shared disdain for science enshrines mythology over truth in the realm of public policy. And apparently, they each share guidelines for what constitutes acceptable art. Socialist Realism, meet Conservative Surrealism. Or maybe it should just be called Peabody Envy.
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