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Obama Jokes Forbidden, but Boston Globe Can Joke About Killing Boehner
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On January 14, 2015 @ 12:24 pm In The Point | 29 Comments
A rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask was denounced by everyone from the lieutenant governor on down who demanded that the people responsible be held accountable.
The rodeo clown got actual death threats. He was banned for life. The man who hired him was forced to resign. The Kansas City Star suggested that the Secret Service should investigate the event.
The NAACP demanded a federal probe.
When a parade float featuring an outhouse as the Obama presidential library happened, Democrats claimed that it crossed the line and was unacceptable.
None of these were assassination threats, even though the left had openly trafficked in Bush assassination fantasies before Obama. But even crude jokes like these were considered off limits.
The double standard still exists because assassination jokes about Republicans in the form of the Boston Globe’s Boston.com column by one of its assistant editors are just fine.
The story, written by Boston.com associate editor Victor Paul Alvarez and posted on the website’s “Top News” section last evening, was headlined “Would Anyone Have Noticed if Bartender Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?”
“The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years. His drinking inspired a blog called DrunkBoehner, and in 2010 he brought booze back to Washington,” the story read. “Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.”
“It’s hate speech,” wrote one commenter. “If a commenter said this about Obama, the FBI would be at their door.”
There was also backlash on Twitter.
“Imagine a plot involving the assassination of Obama getting this sort of treatment from the media,” wrote one tweeter.
Not only would this be considered ‘un-sayable’ about Obama, but even far milder jokes result in threats of Federal probes. People get fired over them.
Whatever you may think of Boehner, the problem here is a double standard. Obama jokes have to be as mild as possible. But you can casually joke about killing Bush or Boehner or Cruz because that’s just good comedy.
That’s not free speech. That’s the ISIS version of free speech in which they’re allowed to post severed heads on Twitter, but no one is allowed to mock Mohammed.
It’s time for the media outlets pretending to defend free speech in France to admit that they don’t believe in at home.
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