The other morning, Justin Higgins gave me a heads-up on a post he wrote criticizing Breitbart's Pelosi/Brown poster. Rightly, Higgins called the poster “classless and grotesque.”
By mid-afternoon, it was being Tweeted, cited by Mediaite, Politico, and USA TODAY, among other national publications, and generally treated as the world's most awful image by the Outrage Industry (AKA most liberals — the same ones Matt Lewis notes were not offended by similar or possibly worse treatment of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on SNL).
There are several reasons this poster should never have reached the publication stage. First, it really is a classless, disgusting image that offends the eye.
Second, it comes at a strategically bad time for Republicans and conservatives. Even before this poster came out, Republicans and conservatives were being assailed for blocking so-called “equal pay” legislation in Congress, for standing against President Obama's two Executive Orders on “equal pay,” and for other imagined attacks against female equality. They were also getting tied to former CIA Director Michael Hayden's alleged sexism regarding Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Now, “outraged” liberals are putting the GOP and Breitbart under the same umbrella with the poster — as though the GOP leadership has any influence over Breitbart's leadership team — and it is being repeated in media outlets across the nation. So if the goal of the poster was to garner attention for the launch of Breitbart's California, as Lewis hypothesized, the effort was a success. But if it was to increase the Breitbart website's importance in the conservative movement, and getting America back on the right track morally, fiscally, and otherwise, the failure is pretty complete.
Third, its imagery makes no sense. For those who haven't seen the poster, it shows California governor Jerry Brown with the physique of a body builder, and House Minority Leader Pelosi's head on the “twerking” (whatever that means; I still refuse to watch the Miley Cyrus video) body of Cyrus. Somehow, the viewer is supposed to get the impression that Brown is a powerful individual who is standing over a sexualized Nancy Pelosi. But given that Pelosi is the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, and Brown is the governor of California, they are part of very different branches of our federalized republic — which means the imagery has no basis in reality.
Unless the people at Breitbart want us all thinking about how sexy Nancy Pelosi might have been in her younger days, and imagining Jerry Brown as a body builder when he was a young man.
Finally, Breitbart's writing staff has defended Sarah Palin on many occasions from awful treatment at the hands of the left. Breitbart's Editor-in-Chief, Ben Shapiro, even went out of his way to attack feminists for not defending Palin against what he called Martin Bashir's “misogyny.” And that same morning, Breitbart went after Democrats for putting Bachmann in a sexualized poster, in an attempt to justify what it put out earlier this week.
So, in addition to being tactically unwise, generally classless, and lacking a logical connection to reality, the poster is also a sign of hypocrisy at Breitbart.
Again, Lewis points out that if the goal was to gin up attention for the launch of Breitbart's California branch, the organization has done a great job. However, the imagery itself violates the standards conservatives have long upheld, of decency and prudence in our treatment of others, as well as caution regarding what we want our viewers to see.
Breitbart should pull the poster and offer an apology for its crassness and inappropriateness. And both should happen soon, for reasons of public prudence and tactical common sense.