David Streifford: An insult culture

Why do conservative reporters resort to ad hominem remarks when they dislike what someone says or does? Is an insult or name-calling the best they can do?

Regarding the June 4 news article “National conservatives critical of Wake’s plan to drop valedictorians”: Readers learned that the Wake Cournty school board members are “wussies” and “hippies” because of this decision. Rather than explaining their point of view, Kathryn Timpf, a reporter with the conservative National Review, and Eric Bolling, a Fox News commentator, prefer to sling questionable labels and slurs. Hippies? Wussies? Are we really talking about the school board?

Sound familiar? It should, for this style of commentary is exactly what Donald Trump does nearly every day. Trump routinely calls people dumb, stupid and ugly and sees absolutely nothing wrong with these insulting remarks. That’s only what I’ve come to expect from Trump, but from journalists?

One might expect and certainly hope for something better.

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "David Streifford: An insult culture."