NewsBusters Asks: Is Bank Robber Wearing An Obama Mask Racist?

For those not familiar with NewsBusters, it fancies itself as a conservative media watchdog whose mission is “Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias.” It is a subsidiary of the uber-rightist Media Research Center. And it is also one of the most prolific apologists for radical right-wingers and racists like Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan.

Last week they outdid themselves by posting an absurd item about a bank robber in New Hampshire who wore a mask of President Obama during the robbery. NewsBuster’s Noel Sheppard made the Olympian leap from that incident to the Missouri rodeo last month when a rodeo clown wearing a similar mask went on a racially offensive rant.

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This is a perfect demonstration of how clueless right-wingers are about their own racist tendencies. Sheppard clearly has no idea how offensive it is to perform an allegedly comical routine before hundreds of spectators that calls for grievous harm to befall the president of the United States. His organization ran numerous columns defending the rodeo buffoonery, just as racists of a previous era defended black-face performances.

However, where Sheppard really steps off the plank is when he attempts to draw a comparison between an obnoxious and insulting rodeo act and the criminal behavior of a bank robber. Sheppard seems to think the media has some responsibility to analyze the mind of the criminal for racial insensitivity. The problem is that Sheppard is apparently too stupid to grasp that the crook wasn’t making any kind of a political statement. He was merely trying to conceal his identity (in a spectacularly dumb way). Contrast that with the rodeo clown’s routine that openly baited the crowd to cheer for the President getting gored by a bull.

So what does a bank robber wearing an Obama mask have to do with a brazenly offensive performance by an entertainer? You’ll have to ask Noel Sheppard, because no one in their right mind could possibly connect those dots.

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11 thoughts on “NewsBusters Asks: Is Bank Robber Wearing An Obama Mask Racist?

  1. “…their own racist tendencies…”

    Lie.

    • Don’t waste your time Scott, this is how they make themselves feel superior to all others. If you’re not one of them, you must be racist, we’ve all heard it before…no one really buys it, but it makes him feel better.

  2. There is a strange new-ish obsession in right-wing world, with them trying to find a counterpoint to any story that the left has latched onto. But they REALLY suck at analogies, or discovering the nugget that made the original story blow up in the first place. Their efforts to find a yin to the yang of the Trayvon Martin story for instance, has been scattershot, and WAY out of left field.

    And this (hello, Scott) is where the cluelessness right-wingers have about their own racist tendencies comes in: they can’t seem to pinpoint WHAT constitutes racism. Whenever they insist that Obama or Sharpton or Jackson aren’t commenting on some random crime by a black person, they show that they don’t understand at all what the furor over the Martin case was about. And clearly don’t get the thing about the rodeo either.

    • Nonsense. This is nothing more than assuming that conservatives are automatically racist – and when they actually don’t exhibit racist behavior, simply proclaim that they are too stupid to know they’re racist. This is nothing but Janeane-Garofalo “logic” on steriods.

      • It is true that not all conservatives are racist. But it is also true that most racists are conservatives. Or maybe it’s fairer to say that they reveal themselves more often. Go and read the comments on FreeRepublic and compare them to Democratic Underground, combing through only for allusions to race. You’ll see what I mean. Hint: count the times a black criminal is referred to as a “thug.” And see if that term is EVER applied to a white criminal. Things like that.

        • “Democratic Underground”? Dude, seriously?

          When Ronald Reagan died, Democratic Underground unleashed a whole thread actually celebrating his demise. The commenters all joined in on the fun. The late Elizabeth Edwards got on that thread and, to her credit, chastised all of them for their bile-filled reactions. A few commenters agreed, but most of them just ignored her.

          And did you sleep through all the bigoted crap that was flung at Condeleeza Rice last decade?

  3. By Shepard’s logic, I could start screaming about why Fox News doesn’t cover this because Robbers who wear president masks pick presidents that they oppose- Regardless of which way they vote. If this guy picked an Obama mask, he’s probably a Teabagger.

    Come on, Fox News…

  4. Ronald Reagan used to remind us constantly he didn’t have a racist bone in his body. It was usually right after he did something racist.

    • What was the racist thing he did? he disagreed with you? That’s the bar set by the progressive crowd.

    • Exactly. In right-wing world, the “welfare queen” that Ronald Reagan spoke of just happened to be black. That she reinforced vicious stereotypes and in fact didn’t even exist was just a (lucky) coincidence.

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