Why is the Media Ignoring Hagee?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is probably wondering what the rest of us are: why isn't the media scrutinizing John Hagee, or McCain's acceptance of him and his endorsement? Speaker Pelosi spoke up recently and called on McCain to reject the man and his mythos, and I wholeheartedly agree: Hagee is one truly frightening dude.

But you wouldn't know much about that from the natonal media. Bribe-B-Q's costarring former Texas senator Phil Gramm aside, the media does really seem to take a shine to McCain. So I am not exactly surprised that they haven't told you much about John Hagee and what he stands for.

For instance, he thinks slavery is amusing:

Mr. Hagee also upset black leaders. To help students seeking odd jobs, his church newsletter, The Cluster, advertised a "slave" sale. "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone," it said. "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." Mr. Hagee apologized but, in a radio interview, protested about pressure to be "politically correct" and joked that perhaps his pet dog should be called a "canine American."

That quote is from a longer piece about one of Hagee's projects in July 2006:

Last week, as Israel's armed forces pounded Lebanon and worries of a wider conflagration mounted, Mr. Hagee presided over what he called a "miracle of God": a gathering of 3,500 evangelical Christians packed into a Washington hotel to cheer Israel and its current military campaign.

Standing on a stage bedecked with a huge Israeli flag, Mr. Hagee drew rapturous applause and shouts of "amen" as he hailed Israel for doing God's work in a "war of good versus evil."

One of the more confusing aspects of John Hagee's activities is that, while he regularly gets plenty of play as being ardently pro-Israel, he also has a history of blaming the persecution of Jews on the Jews themselves due to their "disobedience and rebellion", as Max Blumenthal asked about in this famous clip:

The part where Blumenthal questions Pastor Hagee is at around 7:45, but the entire clip is worth watching. Bonus: it begins with an interview featuring Tom DeLay.

This piece at Daily Kos examines many other tenets of Hagee's writings and statements that indicate his tendency towards Holocaust revisionism. And Speaker Pelosi is probably curious how John McCain, in light of Hagee's references to the Catholic Church as the "great whore" and as a "cult" (and numerous other examples), could not oly accept Hagee's endorsement but also say that he is "...very proud of the Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people."

But that still leaves the question of why the media is largely ignoring this, and didn't start paying attention until the highest ranking Catholic in the federal government reminded them about it. Some days it seems that the media's love affair with John McCain is quantifiable and invulnerable.