In Cruz race, press turns even “tofu” humor sour

Pratt on TexasHere is how bad it is with the state’s cadre of political press writers emblematized by a story in the Austin American-Statesman by their main political watcher Jonathan Tilove.

The story on the Beto Pancho versus Rafael Edward race has a serious and critical of Ted Cruz headline: “Searching for new wedge issue, Cruz says O’Rourke will ban barbecue.”

The piece begins by explaining how, with a group of PETA idiots outside Cruz’s rally at a barbecue joint in Columbus giving away tofu, the senator said: “If Texas elects a Democrat, they’re going to ban barbecue across the state of Texas.”

“Cruz’s words may have been in jest — the suggestion that O’Rourke, an El Paso Democrat, is an enemy of barbecue is clearly a straw man made of tofu — but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have the serious purpose of further planting an image in voters’ minds of O’Rourke as a candidate outside the mainstream of Texas values,..” Tilove wrote in a minacious manner.

image: no humor allowed or understoodBegrudgingly, it seems, Tilove admits it “may have been in jest” when we all can understand from the context that Cruz was making fun of the present situation, no “may” about it and Tilove’s headline does not convey the joke present. Instead it tries to make it appear that Cruz is so desperate for a “wedge issue” (always negative to the press) and is stretching to the ridiculous to find such.

How bad is the desire to write stories to tilt in a negative toward Cruz when all you have is a humorous extemporaneous statement to work from?

Tilove goes on with a lengthy piece which includes a section titled “Tofu’s actually bipartisan”  (really!) And he adds quotes liberals like the empty-headed Matt Angle at the Lone Star Project saying: “His ‘BBQ will be illegal’ line is another great example why he’s so deeply disliked — even by many hardcore Rs who will hold their nose & vote for him.”

It is not that Rush Limbaugh is right and liberals have no sense of humor, they do. It is just that to be funny to the Left, jest must be vulgar, crude, hateful, or have some other objectionable item to give them their signal that something is humor so they know to laugh.

This rubric appears to include some of the state’s press corps members too.

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