Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Playing to the race baiters

Brent Bozell:

A major news event follows a very routine pattern. First, we get the hard news phase, where reporters relate the unfolding dramatic facts. In the second phase, those same reporters become analysts, commentators passing moral and political judgment on the story. By its nature, the first phase tends to be devoid of bias. But the second phase often comes loaded with politicized gotchas and predictable liberal editorializing.

Hurricane Katrina and its flooding aftermath in New Orleans is a good example. No one can fault reporters' emotional statements as they eyewitness the tragedy. Nor is it inappropriate for them to ask the tough questions about the government's -- local, state and federal -- wholly inadequate preparation and response. But viewers should be tiring of the Monday morning grandstanding, particularly the rush to judgment when so many facts are still as murky as the standing water in New Orleans.

But a truly deplorable aftermath of Katrina is the far left's attempts to stir up racial divisions and the news media's fanning of those flames. Both should be roundly condemned.

One of the unfortunate "facts" to many blacks is that every misfortune and setback is attributed to race rather than mistakes and bad luck. This becomes a way to avoid responsibility for ones own circumstances. It is a self defeating attitude, that holds them back much more than perceived racism.