I was commenting on your assertion about Rightist humor - joke about watching 70 million die. Side splitting. and showing how "leftist humor" is very often more hate-filled and personal than "rightist humor." With the anti-Americanism that's so prevalent in Europe today, you'd be very unrealistic to think Americans aren't going to reply in kind.

"Did you know there's a White House dog?"

Rush apologized several times for that, which he claimed was a production screwup where pictures got out of order. No one gives him credit for apologizing for an admittedly terrible thing to say, but they want credit for apologizing when they wish a lifetime handicap on him. Typical double standard.

As for Eric Alterman, he's a journalist. Clicking on the bio hotspot on the page shows the following:

Eric Alterman currently writes the "Stop the Presses" media column for The Nation and the "Altercation" web log (wwww.altercation.msnbc.com) for MSNBC.com. In recent years, he has been a contributing editor to, or columnist for: Worth, Rolling Stone, Elle, Mother Jones, World Policy Journal, and The Sunday Express (London). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award. He is also the author of Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy, (1998) and What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (forthcoming in February 2003) and When Presidents Lie: Deception and Its Consequences, (also forthcoming). A senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at New School University, and an Affiliated Faculty Member in the magazine journalism program at New York University, Alterman received his B.A. in History and Government from Cornell, his M.A. in International Relations from Yale, and his Ph.D. in US History from Stanford. He lives with his family in Manhattan.

His most recent book is What Liberal Bias?, a question Andrew Sullivan addressed quite well.