Alexander Cockburn Dislikes Some Examples of Racism

Okay, okay, we admit it: We, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” were eagerly taking in “Ho Industry Whores: Imus and the HeeHaw Racists,” an article by Alexander Cockburn. Mr. Cockburn, for those of you blissfully unaware of his feculent ravings, is a Stalinoid anti-Semite who runs Counterpunch, the unhinged radical “website.”

Frankly, dear reader, we aren’t terribly proud to mention that we actually read Mr. Cockburn’s vile nonsense: It’s kind of like informing folks that you watch ultimate fighting on television, or, maybe, “The View.” Still, we found ourselves strangely curious as to Mr. Cockburn’s view on the Affair Imus.

We barely made it through the article. And no wonder: It contained little but unsubstantiated guilt-by-association. Everyone but Counterpunch lunatics, you see, is a knuckle-dragging racist.

Ah, but, in a few places, Mr. Cockburn’s putrid effusions were unintentionally revealing. First, in mentioning Mr. Imus’ history of dubious remarks, Mr. Cockburn asks rhetorically: “It was suddenly news that Imus shored up his ratings with racist cracks at blacks and Hispanics?”

As is well known, Mr. Imus’ offensive comments often referred not only to blacks and Hispanics, but also to Jews. How curious that Mr. Cockburn left that out of his list of Imus sins.

Or perhaps it’s not curious in the least: After all, Mr. Cockburn and his dubious Counterpunch comrades have publicly pondered the possibility that 9/11 was an Israeli hit job. And, of course, their “website” routinely offers slanted, vitriolic, and propagandistic takes on Israel, Zionists, and Jews.

It seems reasonable to suggest, then, that Mr. Imus’ anti-Semitism isn’t an example of the “HeeHaw racism” Mr. Cockburn so despises. Rather, to him it’s an entirely acceptable prejudice.

And this leads us to our other point regarding Mr Cockburn’s arrant nonsense. During the course of his ravings, he criticizes “blacks paid by whites to dump on other blacks like Cynthia McKinney.”

To which we respond: Uh, Mr. Cockburn, your “website” Counterpunch routinely pays Jews to dump on other Jews like Alan Dershowitz. Or, for that matter, any Jew who would like to see Israel continue to exist. Why doesn’t that little instance of venal ethnic self-hatred trouble you? Especially since support for the existence of Israel is far more mainstream than plumping for the radical nutter McKinney.

Overall, Mr. Cockburn offers a wonderful example of what opinion journalists should not do: If you—like Mr. Cockburn—are a racist, you ought not to excoriate others for their prejudices.