Lipton Liberals

Jay Nordlinger (NRO) writes of the continuing use by the liberal media of the term "teabaggers" to describe anti-Obama protesters. The epithet was first used by by that esteemed and respected CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper.

Nordlinger quotes David Shuster of MSNBC, a real class act.

“For most Americans, Wednesday April 15 will be Tax Day, but . . . it’s going to be Teabagging Day for the right wing, and they’re going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals. They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending.”
Shuster said that Fox News personalities were “looking forward to an up-close-and-personal taste of teabagging.” Etc., etc., etc. And, all the while, MSNBC had on the screen “TEABAG MOUTHPIECES.”
Shuster’s performance “was mellow compared to Rachel Maddow’s April 9 program.” Maddow is another MSNBC figure. “Air America radio contributor Ana Marie Cox, who also appeared on that program, and Maddow teamed up to use the word ‘teabag’ at least 51 times in a 13-minute-long segment.”

Nordlinger names George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Gwen Ifill of PBS, Sam Tanenhaus, Paul Krugman, both of the New York Times, as users of the term as well as Democratic politicians and of course, Hollywood types.
(Remember that Ifill was the "neutral" moderator of the Vice-Presidential debate who somehow failed to ask any questions regarding energy policy, Sarah Palin's area of expertise).
Some of the perpetrators are news correspondents, not just opinion journalists like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly. Not that those three Fox News commentators would ever stoop as low as the likes of Ifill, Stephanopolis or Anderson. To think of Fox News correspondents like Carl Cameron, Bret Baier, Wendell Goler or Jim Angle using the crude, vulgar language of the liberal media is beyond imagination. Yet Fox News is targeted by the President (the President!) as a biased, opinionated organization, not worthy of being called serious. A letter writer to the WSJ noted that the best left wing commentary is to be found on Fox News since liberals can't getting away with talking the way they do on the other networks. Pundits like Bob Beckel, Kirsten Powers, Lanny Davis and Juan Williams need to defend their positions rationally without resorting to name calling.

Nordlinger suggests a good response to someone using the term "teabagger" is to ask him (or her) to describe the practice.