Lucianne.com Laughs At Murder of Journalist

by Bill Barnwell
by Bill Barnwell

Is it something to laugh about when an innocent person is out taking a walk and gets beaten to death by a couple of thugs? Well, many posters over at Lucianne.com seem to think that it is. Yesterday morning it was reported that New York Times editor David Rosenbaum was murdered while taking a walk in a supposedly safer part of his Washington town. He was robbed and murdered. But apparently, he deserved it, according to many in the ultra-politicized compassion crew over at Lucianne.com. Why? Because he worked for a liberal paper and apparently wasn’t supportive enough of the President.

Very occasionally I will visit this neo-conservative news site that posts articles of daily news and allows readers to comment on them. Lucianne.com was founded in the summer of 1999 by Lucianne Goldberg, the literary book agent of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal fame who befriended Linda Tripp and urged her to go forward with her taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky regarding Lewinsky’s affair with Clinton. This made a celebrity out of Lucianne Goldberg and also her son Jonah, who later began writing for National Review and is also now a syndicated columnist.

When I said that Lucianne.com allows posting of news articles, I should have qualified that with saying that they only approve of posting news from establishment news sources. Blogs, alternative news sources, and anything regarded as too critical of President Bush are not allowed to be posted (and for awhile any news articles about Michael Moore or the Dixie Chicks, even from establishment news sources, were not allowed to be posted because those individuals were too critical of President Bush). And like other extreme neocon sites like FreeRepublic.com, posters who do not conform to Bush and Republican worship are usually banned.

Every morning Lucianne.com features "Must Reads of the Day." These are links to columns and articles at the top of their mainpage with cutesy little editorial comments beneath each link. Under the link to the story about the murdered journalist reads, "Dies after street attack. Ldotter says, 'Times should get out now. It's a quagmire'"

Haha. How funny.

When clicking on the link to the "thread" about the article, you can read all the compassionate statements from the Lucianne posters. With only a couple exceptions, most posters joked about his murder, implied that he deserved it since he worked for a liberal news paper, expressed anger over the fact that Mr. Rosenbaum’s reporting apparently wasn’t supportive enough of Bush’s wars, or made other politicized statements showing no regard for the loss of life. Only a couple of posters showed any kind of dignity. Here’s a sample of some of the class showed by these enlightened defenders of conservatism:

"How can we ever replace such a vital wordsmith? Who else will be available at the NYT to call the president a liar? Big shoes to fill."

"Sometimes justice reveals itself in harsh ways. Biting lip."

"I think when they catch whoever did it they should just offer some counseling and send him on his merry way after 30 days. That would be the liberal way of doing things and would appropriately honor the liar's memory."

"Look, I agree that someone being murdered should not be cause for joy. But I really can't work up too much grief for him. We reap what we sow…"

"Mr. Rosenbaum is already working on a story that will be entitled, "God works in a bubble and spends too much time on his ranch on cloud nine." Ah! Those liberals. They just won't quit."

"Some how or another, the NYT will blame Bush for this too."

"Good news is that his social security contributions will be available for redistribution."

"...as he sits at the gates of hell looking at his eternity...'If I only had a gun'...."

There’s plenty of more interesting stuff you can read by going to the above link. There are a couple notable exceptions who did not join into the celebration of this man’s tragic death, but not many.

Interestingly enough, the crowd over at FreeRepublic seemed to be a bit more restrained, but not by much. Some of the same idiotic comments can be found over there. They do, however, get the award for the having the dumbest statement published and that is:

"A lot of the suicide bombers in Iraq are hasbands [sic] and fathers too. But the thing is, any one of them probably does less damage to America than the typical New York Times editor does. Tell me, how much care and respect to [sic] you pay the suicide bombers?"

There you have it. This NYT journalist is worse than the suicide bombers and causes more damage to the world. Why? Because according to these guys Rosenbaum wasn’t supportive enough of Bush and conservatism in his articles. All journalists and public figures who are remotely critical of the White House better be put on alert that they are no better than the terrorists!

Now look, I have no love for the New York Times’ liberalism or liberalism in general. And Rosenbaum may very well been a liberal apologist himself. That does not, however, excuse or condone his murder. This is a fact that is lost on people who have been politicized beyond the point of no return. In the world of some of the most extreme elements of political junkies, everything in life is boiled down to politics. Therefore, the lives of "enemies" are expendable. When they die it is a cause for celebration.

It’s no surprise that many on Lucianne’s site and the "freepers" show no human compassion for the loss of life. This has mainly been their attitude during the entire war in Iraq, cheering on every bomb dropped, and justifying every death, even those of U.S. soldiers as being "worth it" (à la Madeline Albright) to bring utopia to the Middle East. But I better be careful here, otherwise the neo-con junkies will be wishing death upon me as well for my dissent.

I’m wondering if war libertarians, who are always criticizing the "Fever Swamp" (mainly directed at antiwar libertarians), will show equal contempt to Lucianne.com and FreeRepublic for their laughing at the death of a man who was tragically murdered, just because he was a liberal.

In actuality, all reasonable people should condemn Lucianne.com for smiling upon the hypocrisy and nastiness of many of its contributors. I normally would just dismiss it as a bunch of extreme crazies not reflecting the views of the sites’ owners, but since Lucianne.com’s editors over at the mainpage seem to get a chuckle at the death of Mr. Rosenbaum, they ought to be called out on it. Especially since Lucianne.com is always piously denouncing and censoring "hateful" behavior on their site (but only when it is directed at neo-conservatives).

Once again, the neoconservatives extremists on the internet show their true colors. In reality, every political movement has their oddball elements in them. But the foaming at the mouth, bloodthirsty neocons shouldn’t be excused for their crazies and their silly statements just because they dominate right-wing media on the web.

…into the Neocon Swamp with them.

P.S. Since this article has been posted, the Memory Hole editors over at Lucianne.com have pulled down their thread celebrating the death of Rosenbaum.

January 11, 2006

Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor in Flushing, Michigan. He spent most of his undergraduate college career studying politics and government before feeling called to the ministry. He has completed a Master of Ministries degree and is currently working towards a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree at Bethel College in Mishawka, Indiana.

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