Hypocrisy from the left -- but is anyone surprised?

A month ago, the media was filled with discussion and debate about whether or not Sarah Palin was responsible for the attempted murder of Congressman Giffords of Arizona due to Palin's chart posted on her website seven months earlier that included Giffords' district among those with targets on them (to show which seats were being targeted for pickups by the GOP). Every show on MSNBC went on at length about the terrible rhetoric of Palin and the GOP. The main networks also covered the story seriously and pushed the view that angry rhetoric from conservatives was the cause of the attack. Of course, when it turned out that the shooter was a leftist and crazy (close to the same thing), some of the media toned down the attacks on conservatives, but others like MSNBC just continued on as if the actual facts did not matter. Even president Obama chimed in about the need for civility in his speech in Arizona.

Of course, that was a month ago. Now we have a new big news story: the disputes between public employee unions and state governments in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. Let's be clear, this is an economic dispute. The issue is not freedom. The issue is not religion. The issue is not life or death. The issue is whether or not workers will have to pay for part of their healthcare and pensions and whether or not such things will remain subject to collective bargaining.

In the course of this economic dispute, the Democrats and the unions have villified the Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio in very nasty and uncivil language. The Wisconsin governor is "Hitler" and a "Nazi". He is to be "targeted" with union mobs showing up to menace his family. Anyone who shows the facts of the dispute is to be drowned out by shouting. Yesterday, a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts told the union demonstrators to get "bloody". A few reporters have been attacked by the mobs.

So where is the outrage? After the call to get "bloody", I cediced to watch MSNBC to see if there was even a whiff of condemnation for this blatant call for violence. Not surprisingly, there was nothing said. Sarah Palin's seven month old chart listing target seats get blamed for encouraging a leftist who never saw the chart to attack a congressman, but a Democrat congressman who explicitly calls for violence does not even merit a mention.

Much has also been said of the differing treatment of the signs held by the union protestors compared to those of the Tea Party rallies. The media searched in vain to find racist or threatening signs at the Tea Party rallies and discussed such signs even when they could not find them. When the union protesters hold signs that threaten their opponents and use violent imagery nothing is said.

I would never expect anything else from the media. Most of it exists to promote the agenda of the Democrats. Nevertheless, it is fair to ask where Obama is. After his speech in Arizona, we have a right to expect him to condemn these actions by his allies. Given that he has found it hard to even condemn the genocide of the Libyan dictator, however, I guess we should not expect any moral courage from Obama.