Mediacrity spots more softballing of Louis Farrakhan, this time at Time magazine.

Hiawatha Bray e-mailed with an answer to the question I asked about Farrakhan yesterday:

It’s perfectly obvious why Farrakhan’s nonsense gets a pass. Racism.
Yes, once again a black man plays the race card! Tiresome, isn’t it? But think about it. When Pat Robertson says something retarded it’s front-page news, because he’s a powerful white guy, and the words of white people matter. They have weight; they shape the destinies of nations. But black guys–even one as influential as Farrakhan — are still regarded as not quite “for real.” They’re black, members of an oppressed group. So lots of people pull their punches, supposing that they’re showing compassion for a victimized people. They’re actually showing contempt — a barely-suppressed belief that guys like Farrakhan really aren’t to be taken seriously. He’s just mouthing off for the benefit of his followers, and those followers are generally regarded as “poor, uneducated and easy to command,” as a Washington Post reporter once said of evangelical Christians.
Mind you, when these poor, uneducated masses are white, the press views them with curiosity, or perhaps suspicion. After all, white folks matter. But when they’re black… well, you know how those people are. They’ll show up for a Farrakhan rally, whoop and holler and go home, and nothing much will change. So let them believe any nutso conspiracy theory that rolls down the levee.
If American journalism had any respect for black people, they’d drop the hammer on every idiotic remark Farrakhan ever made. Newspapers would splash his comments on their front pages, and reporters would confront him at press conferences, demanding to know how he can claim to speak for anyone this side of the nearest psycho ward. But that doesn’t happen. And now you know why.