On bombing the NY Times

Atrios makes a point about how the mainstream media (in this case, Chris Matthews' Hardball) give airtime to a debate over blowing up the New York Times and jailing its employees, as if this was a serious debate:

Torturing people, jailing journalists for treason, the president being allowed to disobey the law at whim... The mainstream media has made all of these things a part of the normal conversation. They've allowed "two sides" to all of these things to be debated on equal footing. Left wing bloggers on the internets complain about the media and they get ignored and accused of "blogofascism." Conservatives call for the New York Times to be blown up and their reporters and editors jailed and they get treated seriously on MSNBC's flagship political talk show.

There's a problem here. You've been playing this game for years, letting these people control the terms of the debate. This is where it has brought you. Congratulations.

I might add, what do you suppose would happen to us liberals if we were to encourage the same treatment of our political enemies? What would happen if we proposed bombing the White House and lynching the President? That's right, we'd instantly be whisked away to never never land. (And, probably rightly so.) Meanwhile, Ann Coulter (along with many others) is out there proposing that Murtha be fragged -- that means killed -- with total impunity. Aren't there laws against threatening Congressmen?