Coverage of Ferraro’s death offers a reminder of the JournoList tactics in 2008

Consider this: 

On the one hand it was acceptable in the 2008 Democratic primary for Jesse Jackson, Jr., national co-chair of Obama’s campaign in a sexist rant to accuse Hillary Clinton of using tears, etc., to win the New Hampshire Primary and for the PBS News Hour’s  liberal pundit Mark Shields to claim Clinton won due to her gender.

But on the other hand, Geraldine Ferraro, even after her death, continues to be smeared as a racist for simply stating a fact: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.”

This week, the coverage of the first female vice-presidential candidate’s recent death by the AP, the online News Hour, Salon, and all across the web includes Ferraro’s quote cited above.

The media, of course, fails to mention that 08 was the era of the JournoList, that happy band of liberal journalists who, above all else, wanted Barack Obama to win the nomination. One of their strategies was to support the Obama camp’s efforts to label as racist anyone who dared say anything negative about their candidate.

Due in part to the success of their combined efforts in smearing Ferraro and both Clintons as racists, Obama won 90 percent of the African-American vote in the primary and in the general election. 

Not many Democratic party leaders or liberal pundits in 2008 or in the recent coverage of Ferraro's death have pointed out that the records of Ferraro and the Clintons on human rights are impeccable.