We’ve learned quite a lot about how loathsome a commentator Lawrence O’Donnell is from his “Rewrite” segment on James Hudnall’s and Batton Lash’s “Obama Nation” cartoon.  His hilariously uptight lecturing and blatant hypocrisy have already been documented, but one element of his “Rewrite” that needs more attention is his shocking violation of journalistic ethics.  Not only does O’Donnell make a fool of himself here, but he crosses several lines, going from pompous to downright menacing.

First of all, check out how O’Donnell introduces Batton and Lash to his audience.  The “Rewrite” segment usually includes a comic-style graphic with the title of the segment and, if he’s talking about a right-winger, an unflattering picture of his target next to the word (no picture when it’s a left-winger).  However, this particular instance of “Rewrite” went a step further, pasting each author’s picture in the “Rewrite” graphic as well as their names.  The formatting turns the graphic into a phrase/sentence: “Rewrite James Hudnall” and “Rewrite Batton Lash.”  Am I splitting hairs?  Not as finely as those who called for a “New Tone” because of Palin’s target map.  From the deluge of death threats these men have received in the wake of O’Donnell’s show, these graphics (and the uniqueness of their layout in this instance) clearly violate the rhetorical standards that pundits like O’Donnell haughtily demanded in the wake of Gabrielle Giffords’ horrendous shooting.

The New Tone at work.

Furthermore, O’Donnell divulges the name of Batton Lash’s wife– not once, but twice.  She is a private citizen who had no role in the creation of the cartoon.  That fully constitutes an unwarranted breach of privacy on its own, but he goes even further by naming the city in which she and Lash live, directly asking his viewers to confront them in public about Lash’s cartoon– in effect, commanding them to personally harrass a private citizen.

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[Michael Ramirez]

Question: While the media and grassroots conservatives were adversaries these last two years, do you think the media’s admitted hatred of all things non-left will be an unintended tool for conservatives looking to keep the GOP in line once they assume power? Or, do you think that the battle with media will be as it ever was, except this time with grassroots fighting an increased media spin looking to paint GOP as bigger obstructionists than before? Will the roles be redefined?

As you may know, I do a cartoon on Big Hollywood every Sunday with Batton Lash called Obama Nation. It gives us the opportunity to lampoon the WPE* since few others seemed willing to do it when we started. But Big Journalism offers the opportunity to mock the “mainstream media” which constantly fails to report the facts or deal with reality. So I called up another friend, comics veteran and fellow libertarian, Val Mayerik to enter the fray and have a few laughs.

The strip we’re doing is called “Useful Idiots.” A term coined by the Soviets as the pet name they had for Western Lefties who believed any lie they were fed. It will feature a cast of familiar characters you may have seen on TV while changing channels. For the sake of storytelling we’ve put them all at the same network which we call BSN. And we focus on showing how the so called infotainment world provides neither. Info nor entertainment. Just a lot of partisan noise dressed up as “news” or “commentary”.

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