THE MISSING INGREDIENT
THE DEATH PENALTY’S “FINELY TUNED DEPRAVITY CALIBRATORS”; Fairness Follies of Fairness Phonies Fixated on Criminals Instead of Crimes
The assertion that capital punishment is unfair long has been a rallying cry for champions of duly convicted depraved murderers whose guilt is not in doubt. The notion that the death penalty is not and
GETTING IT WRONG ABOUT “GETTING IT RIGHT”
Repeatedly in writing, Thomas and Scalia have questioned the integrity of their colleagues; and accused them of arrogance, lawlessness, license, illegitimate abuse of power, basing decisions on no more than their own personal values, contempt for the Constitution, sowing confusion rather than providing clarity, hypocritically pretending to defend the weak against the powerful while actually favoring the powerful at the expense of the weak, protecting “inconsequential” expression while disdaining the “heart” of the first amendment (the right to criticize officeholders), poisonous and pernicious racism and sexism, belief in black inferiority, placing at risk the lives of good innocent people in order to save the lives of the most vicious and depraved, placing the welfare of terrorists above the lives of soldiers combatting them, mandating “infanticide” (the barbaric killing of “human children”), and numerous other sins.
Pro-Murderer Mindset of The New York Times
A stunning 7,900-word New York Times article paints a murderer as a sympathetic victim, with little concern for murder victims and their loved ones. The pro-murderer movement hits the big time.
A recent 7,900-word New York Times article singularly illustrates the huge gulf between victims of barbaric crime and the zealous rationalizers of their victimizers. Strongly suggesting that a prisoner’s being “sorry” for the premeditated murder of both his parents should be “enough” to free him, the article would likely repulse most survivors of violent crime, including loved ones of murder victims and others who care about them.
Repulse, but not surprise.
The New York Times’ Broccoli Attack
Because, in a sense, the broccoli example is a reductio ad absurdum ridiculing ObamaCare’s overreach, the Times, using typical media bias techniques, disingenuously attempts to ridicule this legitimate ridicule.
The New York Times recently ran a sarcastic 2,300-word front-page article denouncing the use of broccoli to illustrate why the ObamaCare individual mandate is unconstitutional. As the reasoning goes, if the government can force individuals to buy health insurance against their will, it can force them to buy anything, including broccoli.
Linda Greenhouse’s Hatchet Job On Justice Scalia.
In a vitriolic column employing the very style for which she attacks Justice Anonin Scalia, Linda Greenhouse repeats the old banal “bad-boy” narrative of a long hostile media. This unanswered charge is misleading in the extreme.
What Greenhouse Wants Readers To Believe
Greenhouse asserts Scalia utterly lacks “pragmatism,” is “angry,” “enraged,” “furious,” “inflammatory,” “bomb-throwing,” “intemperate,” “self-indulgen[t],” “bullying,” and prone to “insults,” “put-downs,” “lashing out,” publicly “thrashing…a junior colleague” and, indeed, “undermin[ing] the court’s … legitimacy.”
The One-Sided Media Coverage of Justice Stevens.
Last April’s retirement announcement by Justice John Paul Stevens occasioned an outpouring of adulation: Champion of the Powerless. The Greatest Justice, etc. His absence from the new Supreme Court term renewed the love fest, evoking honor and award for his “open mind.” Liberal judicial activists depict him as an authoritative hero and saint (most recently: 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley and The New York Times’ Adam Liptak).
The Subversion of Capital Punishment
What they lack in popular support, death penalty opponents more than make up in tenacity, skill – and success. When a one-per-27 minutes, 36-year, 707,000 homicide holocaust results in 1,136 executions (0.16%), capital punishment has been all but abolished. What remains is a costly and agonizing farce, with a token few murderers served up to fool the public. The United States Supreme Court and other courts have played a major role, enormously aided by the media in suppressing critical information.
The New York Times Again Cries Wolf – Parts 1 and 2
“The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.”
— Judge William A. Fletcher, quoted with approval, NY Times, Aug. 14, 2009
“This Man Might Be Innocent. This Man Is Due to Die.”
— Time cover, May 18, 1992
“Virginia Executes Inmate Despite Claim of Innocence”
— New York Times headline, May 21, 1992
“The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder.”
— Justice Harry Blackmun, Jan. 1993, citing Virginia execution as example
Death penalty supporters have long been frustrated by the brazen deceit of opponents on the courts and in the media. An Aug. 14 New York Times front-page putative news report featuring a May 11 decision provides what nowadays would be termed an illustrative “teaching moment.” This 1,117-word story uses just 40 perfunctory words contrary to its agenda after complaining that an order upholding Kevin Cooper’s death sentence was only 80 words.