The Twin Cities freebie tabloid City Pages and its blog Babelogue has long harbored the worst of Twin Cities reporting, even surpassing the bloviation and pomposity of Nick Coleman -- which represents a fairly high threshold. Their primary means of financial support appears to come from selling scads of classified advertising to local sex workers, which as a more libertarian sort doesn't bother me but does point out the fringe appeal of the publication. The tone always tends towards the hysterical and overwrought, which is why I almost always avoid it, even at the price offered.

Unfortunately, someone pointed out a Babelogue post which goes too far even for the ethics-challenged staff of the City Pages. Molly Priesmeyer attended the Center for the American Experiment's sendoff of Dan Rather Wednesday night, hosted by Power Line's John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, and attended by Mitch Berg and the Fraters Libertas fellows. (I couldn't make it due to work and family considerations.) Understandably, Priesmeyer may have found the celebration not to her taste, but instead of defending CBS or Dan Rather with coherent arguments, she instead decided to smear the entire event and its participants as racist:

Is it really white in here, or is it just me? En route to the Power Line/Center of the American Experiment Dan Rather retirement party, I rode in an elevator filled with white men in suits who made observations like "I can’t wait" and "This oughtta be good." These were received with hale-fellow-well-met white-guy laughter that abruptly stopped when the elevator doors opened to reveal a group of young black men in Roc-A-Wear gear who were apparently not attending the same event. Then the elevator doors closed and took the bunch of us back to 1952 for an event that felt like a dinner at a segregated country club in the days when Perry Como ruled the airwaves.

That’s not exactly correct: Inside, I spotted a total of three non-caucasians, and one of them was hunched behind a television camera recording the event for history's sake.

She also manages to toss in a not-so-subtle McCarthy reference in as well, practically a requirement for publication in the City Pages these days:

Apparently, "hero" now means anyone who savages the president’s many detractors. Then again, this is 1952, and those commie bastards deserve it.

Here we have an event that was open to anyone who wanted to buy a ticket, held in a public place with plenty of notice, and obviously used no particular barriers to entry other than a ticket-taker. The issue of the evening had nothing to do with race. Dan Rather, obviously, is white. So are Les Moonves, Sumner Redstone, Mary Mapes, Bill Burkett, and everyone associated with the topic. The only person talking about race in relation to the Rathergate debacle appear to be Molly Preismeyer -- which says a hell of a lot more about Molly's state of mind than anyone else's. It also reveals the character of Babelogue that they would reprint such a transparent smear, such a vulgar non-sequitur, such disgusting tripe.

As for the McCarthyism, accusing a roomful of people of being racists without providing the least bit of evidence for such except a headcount at a well-publicized event that was open to anyone with $35 (as Preismeyer's own presence demonstrates) is a sterling example of the practice. Preismeyer and City Pages prove themselves to be disciples of McCarthy in their smear of political opponents with unsubstantiated and vile allegations. If they consider themselves journalists, they are deluding themselves. The City Pages has sunk to the level of parody, except no one's laughing at their hatred.

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