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The Robertson Doctrine
23 August 2005Even USA Today -- via AP -- can report on Pat Robertson's announcement that "the time has come" for the U.S. assassinate the democratically-elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez without worrying about being accused of picking on poor persecuted Pat. They can play it straight and simple; Pat has done all the work of revealing his bloodthirsty insanity. Or has he? One irony of his remarks missed by the mainstream media is that Pat's invocation of the Monroe Doctrine as a justification (so far, reported only by the conservative WorldNetDaily, which also alleges that the Latin American leader may be part of Al Qaeda) is rather historically apt; only Pat seems to recognize that American history is on his side. The liberal media critics at Media Matters offer video of Pat's Big Idea. Sifting through the reportage in response to Pat's declaration -- sparse so far, with no major media other than USA Today picking up on the AP report -- we came across a sharp little editorial in The Virginian-Pilot: "Thanks to the work of U.S. Sen. [and GOP presidential hopeful] George Allen, as well as U.S. Reps. Thelma Drake and J. Randy Forbes, the new $286 billion transportation bill includes a particularly curious $10.8 million for an I-64 exit leading to City Line Road, which doesn’t exist. Robertson is planning a $300 million collection of houses, shops and offices. It sounds promising, but that’s really beside the point. The behavior of the Robertson Trinity isn’t. Since 2002, they have received $16,000 in offerings from the televangelist..." Just another pork barrel story? Sure. It's also good religion reporting. UPDATE: The NYT runs the AP story with a photograph of an impish, smiling Robertson, apparently imagining that he is crushing Chavez' head between his fingers, a la Kids in the Hall.
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