UPDATE!  See images of real campaign-inspired hate by clicking here. 

Reading the New York Times and expecting the truth is like going to a brothel and expecting to find true love. 

Reading NYTimes columnist Frank Rich and expecting anything other than dishonest, partisan hyperventilating is even dumber.

But when it comes to a serious issue like allegations of death threats against Sen. Obama, I'd like to think that Rich or his NYTimes editors might have some sense of journalistic responsibility.

That's how much of a Pollyanna I am.

In his column today, Rich writes about fears of assassination attempts against Sen. Obama and the decision of the feds to give Obama Secret Service protection earlier in the campaign season than any other candidate (well skip the fact that the primary season started earlier than any previous election year and Super Tuesday was almost in January and let Rich's point stand).  Then Rich writes:

At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of "Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill Him” and “Off With His Head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

Now, a trusting reader would assume that these cries are all directed at the same person, Sen. Obama. The reader would also assume that the last two are direct calls for violent action against the Illinois senator.  But Frank Rich and his editors know they aren't.  Nobody yelled "Kill him" about Barack Obama.  It didn't happen.

As John Leo points out, the shout "kill him" was directed at Bill Ayers.  That doesn't make it right, but it does make the story--and Rich's column--entirely different, if you know the facts. (The NYTimes is counting on its readers only knowing what they report, and in which case the facts can be ignored without fear of contradiction.)

Leo also notes that only one reporter, the notoriously unreliable Dana Milbank, reports the "racial epithet" allegedly shouted at a Palin rally.  Nobody else covering the rally reported it.  And it should probably have been mentioned by Frank Rich that the alleged shout wasn't directed at Obama but at a member of the media--a slightly significant fact in a column alleging that the McCain campaign is whipping up dangerous anti-Obama sentiment, don't you think? (For the record, if any idiot did shout a racial epithet at anyone, he's a despicable jerk)

Not only that, but the shout of "Off with his head" was in reaction to Sen. Obama's tax-raising proposals. Is  it a call for a jihadist-style approach to politics, or an ironic reference to King George III and the tax issue that help found this nation? 

And even the shout "terrorist"--which isn't a call for violence but just an editorial opinion--was greeted with laughter from the audience. They didn't perceive it as a threat, but as a joke. 

And this is the evidence upon which the charge is being made of "the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies."  The Partisan Press have used (to quote Joe Biden) literally one confirmed shout from one person to create a story out of whole cloth that McCain supporters are jackbooted thugs ready for a "Jim-Crow flashback" in America.

Barack Obama's campaign representative in charge of Muslim outreach met personally with representatives of two Muslim groups that have supported Hezbollah and Hamas.  One of those two men, Nihad Awad, is on the record announcing his support for Hamas and the PLO.  If I wrote in this space that this proves the Obama campaign is inciting anti-semitic violence or his supporters are a bunch of Israel-hating extremists, I would be accused of a racist attack against Obama.

This attack on McCain supporters is a slander and a slur targeting every American who won't drink the Kool-Aid and support Sen. Obama.  And by the way--they're factually incorrect.  Not that anyone in the Partisan Press cares anymore.