Go read Avedon Carol at the Sideshow now.
(uh-oh, have I really veered into over-the-top invective-laden Blogging? I honestly think I make fewer cheap shots per post than, say, Instapundit does, let alone the professional lunatics over at the Corner or Crazy Andy Sullivan.)
Anyway, among the the other things Avedon addresses in a very comprehensive post is the media's "Only Nixon can go to China" syndrome, which pairs nicely with Eric Alterman's latest column.
Alterman discusses the two-fer that "liberal" editors get by hiring minority conservatives - they can silence critics on Left and Right.
Though the phenomenon is an interesting one, I think Avedon Carol's interpretation is more on the money than is Alterman's. I think he errs in calling any of this affirmative action, which both clouds the meaning of the phrase and in my opinion probably misstates the true motive behind such hires.
I think the media proliferation of libertarian lesbians, libertarian blacks, conservative blacks, conservative hispanics, conservative gay men, conservative asians, .... well, you get the idea... has much more to do with the "only Nixon can go to China" phenomenon that Avedon addresses.
For example, there are so few liberal Black voices who get access to the pundit echo chamber, relative to their conservative/libertarian (or was it libertarian/conservative) counterparts. And, this is of course completely out of proportion to the political affiliations of the African-American community. Ditto for gay/lesbian.
For some reason, opinions contrary to expectation are somehow given more validity -- the implication is that by having a contrarian opinion you prove your intellectual independence. This is silly, but not necessarily a problem, except for one thing. Who can provide a similar 'contrarian' liberal opinion? Wealthy white males.
So, in bizarro universe, Black libertarian theocrats like Alan Keyes espouse the Heritage line and E.J. Dionne gets to speak for the African American community.
