A Tale Of Two Stupid Remarks..And How The Media Treats Them

Missouri's New GOP Senate Nominee, Todd Akin was asked in an interview whether he supported abortion in the case of rape:

"If abortion could be considered in case of, say, a tubal pregnancy [which threatens the mother’s life], what about in the case of rape?" asked KTVI host Charles Jaco, in a clip that was disseminated by Talking Points Memo. "Should it be legal or not?"

"It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare,” Akin said, referring to conception following a rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."

Aside from the blather from the usual cartoon characters, there's no doubt this was an ignorant remark. Pregnancy from forcible rape does indeed happen, it's not all that rare and it's why many doctors routinely give rape victims a 'morning after' pill to try and prevent conception. One can only imagine the trauma of a woman seeing that kind of horrendous nightmare in her life reflected daily in the face of a child she lives with.

Akin, to his credit, realized what an idiotic thing he said and apologized.

"In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it's clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year", he said.

I consider Akin's remark to be just as offensive and ignorant as Joe Biden's recent remarks in faux black 'dialect' saying that Republicans want to put blacks in chains.

The sole difference is that Joe Biden never apologized, and in fact, the Obama Campaign went out of its way to say they found no problem with what he had said.

Astoundingly, the very left leaning Boston Globe was the only major media outlet who made a public call for Biden to apologize. No one castigated the Obama campaign.

I wonder what the media reaction would be if Mitt Romney and Pauyl Ryan said they had no problems with Akin's remarks? You know what would be going on. Of course, the GOP candidates did nothing of the kind.

Yes, there's a double standard. It isn't exactly news anymore, but a classic example like this is worth pointing out.