Our Own Mullah Omar

For any of those sad souls out there who still maintain that NPR leans even gently to the left - or has a balanced approach to the news, consider the death of the one of the founders of the the American Taliban - Mr. Falwell, our own Mullah Omar. Over the past two days NPR has given extensive coverage to the passing of Falwell. So far I've heard only from supporters (Paul Weyrich and fawning students at the laughably named "Liberty University"), critical supporters, and NPR's own journalists. What I never heard was a spokesperson such as Gary Leupp or Chris Hedges who would explain the very real Christo-fascist tendencies of Jerry Falwell and his contemporary crop of clones like James Dobson. There was some mention of the "hatefulness" of some of his remarks, but I never heard any one journalist or commentator remark on how shocking it is that a religious extremist leader who championed the assault on our country's precious tradition of secular government founded by secularists is praised by most of the contenders for the Republican nomination. Disgraceful...