More Adventures in False Equivalence

So Howie Kurtz writes another one of his standard both-sides-do-bad-things columns about nasty comments on the internet. (The examples given are comments at HuffPost and LGF, the former wishing Dick Cheney had been killed by that bomb, the latter wishing an assassination plot against Carter had succeeded.) Just your standard bit of journalistic false equivalence.

And so who should complain about this false equivalence but (of all people) Charles Johnson:

There’s no comparison between the levels of profanity and hateful venom you’ll find at left-wing sites such as Huffington Post and the comments posted at Little Green Footballs. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at Howard Kurtz’s lame attempt at moral equivalence though; it’s what mainstream media does, whether the topic is blogs or “terrorism” or the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Here's comment #13 to that post:

Besides stealing cars, sheep, beehives, whatever they can get their hands on, from their Jewish neighbors, the palestinians will uproot Jewish fruit trees and plant olive trees there. The Jews hesitate to cut them down, the army declares it a military zone, and the arabs steal Jewish land.

And you can tell they're on their best behavior there. Here's another, more representative thread:

I am beginning to see where some of the folks around here are starting to wake up. However, we do have an incredibly large Persian population. As well as just a very large muuslim population. So we better be WIDE awake.
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I agree. Saudi Arabia intends to absorb the Black Muslim movement lock, stock, and barrel. Using money and the untrue, but apparently tempting, theory that American Blacks were Muslims before being forcefully indoctrinated in Christianity. 3 million native born terrorist. Just like Britain with their Pakistanis.
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this war isn't going to be won on small 'intelligence' victories.

It will only be won by killing, killing, killing, killing....
[to which another commenter adds:]
/Iranians, we need to get to the root of the problem
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Why do we have to tolerate these jackasses that want to spread Islame the death cult by hook or crook. It is a sick cult where the religious train there followers from a very young age to give them hugh amounts of power. These bastards should be horse whipped and run out of this country unless they are citizens. I am fed up with them. In Boston In Minnesota The Flying Imams why don't they fly there goat smellin butts back to the burning sands and leave us the hell alone.

Memo to Howie: there's a difference between wishing harm on a particular politician¹ and wishing harm on entire races and religious groups.

I'm just saying.


¹I would argue that there's even a difference between wishing harm to a politician in office because of the things he's doing, and wishing harm to a retired politician because of the things he says. Both may be reprehensible, but there are degrees of reprehensibility.