My sister often says that if you want to look at an issue fairly change the parties involved from people you like to people you don’t and vice versa.  Then see how your perspective on the same issue changes. I think the media, if it really is interested in being fair, could learn from that nugget of wisdom.

For instance…

What if (and I’m not the first to wonder out loud about this) film director Roman Polanski, the noted film director the Swiss have just refused to extradite to the U.S. to face a decades old child sex abuse allegation, was Father Roman Polanski?  Would the media elite in Europe applaud the decision? Would Hollywood big shots have ever defended him? Would the media outcry against the decision be a tad louder?

Of course, before we Catholics get too high and mighty about possible media hypocrisy, we should avoid being hypocrites ourselves and hold the Church up to vigorous scrutiny regarding its atrocious mishandling of sex abuse cases over a period of way too many years. The anger toward the Church on this issue is legitimate.   

Michael Moore, the director of such liberal POV documentaries as Fahrenheit 911, Bowling for Columbine and the sarcastically-titled Capitalism: A Love Story recently suggested that all Americans who pay taxes face eternal damnation for supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The comment drew little media notice.

But, what if conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh had suggested the same for all Democrats because of their party’s support for abortion? Is it just me or do you think Matt Lauer would be exploring this example of “right-wing intolerance” on The Today Show. Maybe more than once.
 
What if this vile racist rant from a member of the New Black Panther Party was uttered against any group by any member of the Tea Party? It’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t get a heck of a lot more attention from the mainstream media and be cited as evidence of how dangerous the movement is.

For that matter, what if the Bush Justice Department failed to press a case of obvious caught-on-tape voter intimidation directed at blacks in the same manner President Obama’s attorney general has dropped the ball on a case involving two Black Panther intimidators? The media has been largely absent from the story even after a DOJ lawyer quit his job in protest and went on the record with allegations that department investigators are under orders not to pursue voter intimidation allegations made against blacks.

Voter intimidation is alway wrong. Right?

Selective outrage (from the left or right) is not the path to truth or justice.