Gene Lyons on Why So Many Republicans Hate Obama: A Report from Arkansas

At the National Memo site this morning, my fellow Arkansan Gene Lyon has an important insider report about why so many Southern white evangelicals hate Barack Obama.  As he notes, we Southerners inhabit a landscape in which "a never-ending series of conspiratorial threats and eschatological panics" stalk the land.  Satan worshippers!  Secular humanists!  Barcodes with the Mark of the Beast!  Logos on boxes of laundry detergent with hidden diabolical charms woven into them!  Birth control pills flooding our water supplies!  (No, wait, the latter is from the Catholic world of apocalypto-evangelical urban-legend nutjobbery, isn't it?)

Heat, Drought, Deer Grazing in Cities: Apocalypse Now and Papal Scripts to Turn History Upside Down

That small doe Steve and I saw standing stock-still on the perimeter of a park on 18 June, about which I blogged the following day: we spotted her again on our walk on the fourth of July.  This time, she bounded across the pathway of the park about 20 yards in front of us, heading down into the wooded side of the park that slopes to the Arkansas River, where herds of deer have long lived within the city, grazing along the banks of the river and sheltering themselves in the abundant copses that line the riverside.

Amanda Marcotte on the Newt as the Living Id of the Republican Party: Entitlement and More Entitlement

Amanda Marcotte offers insightful analysis of the double standard used by American conservatives (and the mainstream media and religious right) to assess the sexual infractions of political leaders: if he's a rich, powerful white man with right-wing views, adultery and serial marriages don't matter at all, even if he's mouthing pieties about traditional family values while cheating on a string of wives:

Political Commentary on Southern Themes (and the Newt): Abby Zimet, Ernest Dumas, and Gene Lyons

This report by Abby Zimet at Common Dreams fairly well encapsulates for me what's gone incredibly awry in the political (and cultural, and religious, and ethical) priorities of many Americans today: Zimet notes that while governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky is cutting his state's budget for education and other basic services to the bone, he continues to earmark a $43 million tax break for a creationist-themed amusement park with a honking big replica of Noah's ark.

Newt and Fellow Conservatives: Hardly a Love Fest

How is the current ascendancy of the Newt being received by his fellow conservatives, Gene Lyons asks at Salon?  Not so well.  

The West Memphis Three and the Death Penalty: What Would Texas Have Done?

A little piggyback on my posting yesterday about the response Arkansas journalist Gene Lyons has gotten to a recent posting that messed with Texas: this is Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, writing about the recent deal that allowed the West Memphis three to get out of prison:

Gene Lyons Messes with Texas, Gene Lyons Hears from Texans

Samples from Gene Lyons' email inbox, after he dared to mess with Texas by telling the truth about Rick Perry:

I like feeling superior and more wise than you.  You are a scared little man with no heart ... Just a little wimpy leftist.

Gene Lyons on Mark Pryor and DADT: Determined To Be on the Wrong Side of History

At Salon today, Arkansas journalist Gene Lyons talks about the obstinate determination of many Southern church folks to be on the wrong side of history.  Again.  As we were about the question of slavery.  And then women's rights.  And then the end of segregation.

More Beck: Gene Lyons on Beck's Revivalism as Same-Old, Same-Old

I noted a day or so ago that the United States goes through periodic cycles of religious self-flagellation akin to the one we witnessed with Mr. Beck's big revival rally in D.C. on the weekend.  These cycles tend to return when those who have historically controlled the culture imagine they are losing control: those in the controlling seat having typically been white, heterosexual, Protestant males.  

Media Concerns Again: Gene Lyons on Media's Slippery Connection to Truth

And, finally today, as a gloss on my reflections about the shoddy role the mainstream media played in covering the recent ELCA assembly, I’d like to take note of an here article by Gene Lyons at Salon today.

It’s called “The Media Can’t Handle the Truth.”

I’m struck in particular by Gene Lyons’ final statements in this piece:

Long under siege for "liberal bias," media careerists now find themselves confronted with people they see as passionate amateurs. True, fearless scrappers like my friend Joe Conason have always been around, and somebody like Paul Krugman -- a world-class economist who doesn't care what, say, MSNBC's Chris Matthews thinks of him -- can be very annoying.

But what's really driving these jokers up the wall is economic and intellectual competition from the Internet: people with first-class minds and a passion for truth that some of them can barely remember.

And so I renew the appeal I made to readers of this blog in the Bilgrimage posting to which I link above, to help me hold the feet of the mainstream media to the fire, particularly re: the media’s continued misleading reporting on the churches and the gay community. After reading Christina Capecchi’s here erroneous statement that the ELCA lowered its bar for the vote on ministry by gays in monogamous relationships, I notified the New York Times that Capecchi’s report was incorrect.

I have yet to hear from the New York Times in response to my notice. And I remain very disturbed by the articles that Patrick Condon published for the Associated Press during the conference. The links above will remind readers of what I find problematic in his articles.

The media can and should do better. And if it takes constant stings from citizen bloggers to hold them accountable, then so be it: let the stings keep coming. We have everything to gain as a society when we force the media to report accurately and in depth, and everything to lose when we don’t hold the media accountable.