Attacks on Obama's wife exemplify poor journalism

It began when they questioned Michelle Obama's patriotism after she said her husband's success was making her really proud of her country for the first time in her adult lifetime.

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News made a hideous comment about not wanting to join the "lynching party" for her yet after one caller described her as a "militant." E.D. Hill of Fox News lost her job and had to apologize for suggesting that an affectionate knuckle bump between the Obamas could have been a "terrorist fist jab."

If a fist pound is a terrorist gesture, then we all should be afraid, very afraid. Millions of Americans and other people around the world have given one another knuckle bumps for decades as a way of saying hello or "that was a good one." Budweiser even made fun of it as being passe in a 2007 Super Bowl commercial.

Hill is being replaced by Laura Ingraham, who once said about Al Sharpton visiting the White House: "I hope they nailed down all the valuables."

Then there was the headline on Fox News referring to Obama's wife as "Obama's baby mama." Baby mama or baby daddy is slang for the person with whom an unmarried person has one or more children. The expression was popularized by young black people and reflects hard facts of life for them.

It does not apply to the Obamas. They have a strong, vital marriage. That is something to be commended, not disparaged in a stupid headline that violates every basic rule of journalism.

The attacks on Michelle Obama are reminiscent of the assaults that a lot of black women face at some point in their lives.

This case is worse than usual because it is a direct statement that no matter what we do - graduate from good colleges, give of ourselves to the community, work hard for professional accomplishment, raise our children to be good people, support our husbands in running for high office - it doesn't matter to some people.

The message these attacks send is this: You are not fit to be a lady, much less the first lady; we will not acknowledge your marriage, your family or your culture. We can "joke" about lynching you and then turn around and accuse you of being racist against us. We will condemn you for everything - and nothing at all.

Both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have told people to lay off.

The candidates' wives "should be treated with respect, and if there's any disrespectful conduct on the part of anyone, those people should be rejected," McCain said.

It should not be too much to ask.