The Media and Conservative Family Members

27 Apr, 2010 by Kathleen McKinley

Print this article Font size -16+

I am continuing to post on parts of Karl Rove’s book, “Courage and Consequence.” As I have said before, politics is a nasty business. Both sides are guilty. But what struck me about recent years is how the liberal media went after regular people, and not the politicians. From Sarah Palin’s children, to Joe The Plumber, and finally to Karl Rove’s family. These people were not running for office. They were not politicians. They didn’t deserve what the liberal media and the leftwing blogosphere did to them. It was unprecendented and despicable.

When Karl Rove’s father died many liberal journalists took it upon themselves to declare that Rove’s father was gay. First and foremost, it is no one’s business how Rove’s father lived his life. They assumed he was gay because he had gay friends and volunteered for years at the Desert AIDS Project in Palm Springs. That’s it. From there they felt they had some sort of right to “out” him after his death.

The left and the liberal media hated Rove for being against gay marriage. They wrote that Rove was “launching an antigay issues campaign” for Bush’s re-election. The left doesn’t get it. One isn’t “anti gay” just because they are against gay marriage. Just as Dick Cheney proved, one can be conservative and have a child or loved one who is gay, and have a close loving relationship with them. Cheney clearly loves his gay daughter, and she clearly loves him. Being gay does not define someone’s entire being. Most of us accept and love our children for who they are, whether we disagree with the things they do or not. Trying to paint someone as “homophobic” just because they don’t agree with the gay agenda is simply wrong.

What did Rove have to say about his Dad and the possibility he was gay? Just what I expected him to say:

“To this day, I have no idea if my father was gay. And, frankly, I don’t care. He was my father, with whom I had a wonderful relationship and whom I loved deeply.”

I know Rove and Cheney’s obvious love for their family members, who are or may be gay, flies in the face of the false narrative of conservatives that the left tries to portray of us. But that isn’t the point I wanted to make. My point is to ask why has the left come to the point where they go after people who have never run for office and never asked for their personal life to go public?

The liberal media never go after David Axelrod’s family members. They never went after Chelsea Clinton like they have Palin’s children. And their excuse cannot be that there was never a story with liberal candidate’s children. The British press reported on Chelsea’s wild days, but our press never touched it. Al Gore’s son was stopped going over 100 mph with an assortment of drugs in his car. It was reported, but that was it. These are just a few examples. I’m glad the press didn’t go after Chelsea or Al Gore’s son. They didn’t ask to be in the spotlight. I just wish the media would have given the same respect to conservative’s family members.

The media has crossed the line. They need to step back from it. It’s one thing to go after politicians, but leave their family members out of it. In reading Rove’s book, I wondered why anyone would ever go into politics in any way. Who needs this kind of smearing of one’s family?

It’s sad commentary on journalism specifically, and humanity in general.