One standard for the left, another for the right

Nico Pitney raised a great point at Think Progress the other day that I wanted to follow up on.

Nico noted the competing and disparate reactions to Ward Churchill, whose comments on 9/11 I found deplorable, and Jerry Falwell, who offered some equally insane reactions to 9/11.

On one hand, you have Ward Churchill, the college professor who tried to morally justify the Sept. 11 attacks. Since his writings were given national attention last week, Churchill has received pariah treatment in the press, and his incendiary comments were widely condemned by academics and commentators of all political stripes.

On the other hand, there’s Jerry Falwell, who also tried to morally justify the 9/11 attacks. On Sept. 13, he said “pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America” had “helped this happen.”

Exactly. Churchill, who few had ever heard of, was quickly ostracized for his lunacy. Falwell, who nearly everyone has heard of, has suffered a far more pleasant fate.

Despite literally blaming the attacks on Americans, just 48 hours after the Towers fell, Falwell remains just as big a political player as he was before 9/11. If anything, his notoriety has grown. Falwell now has a full-time gig on CNN (insert snarky joke about the “liberal” media here), he routinely chats with powerful players like Karl Rove, and he still gets high-profile Republican guests to speak at his college.

Churchill has no friends left, but Falwell hasn’t suffered at all. Where’s the outrage?

Indeed, Falwell isn’t the only one. Fellow TV preacher Pat Robertson has said, on national television, that he’d like to see the U.S. State Department get hit by a nuclear bomb. For that matter, Robertson also blamed 9/11 on Americans. Has that stopped high-profile Republican guests from appearing on his “700 Club” program or attending Christian Coalition events? Of course not.

I can appreciate the outrage at Ward Churchill’s comments, and I’m sure his career will probably never recover. But, once again, we see one standard for the left and another, more lenient standard for the right. I’m not suggesting Churchill doesn’t deserve the criticisms he’s received; I am suggesting that it’s ridiculous that conservatives who’ve offered equally insane comments haven’t been ostracized by polite society.