by Brent Baker
NBC's Matt Lauer feared that Lynne Cheney's children's book on
American history would convey a biased view and would not
be “inclusive.” He asked: “Is this a conservative's view of
American history?” And when she explained that the section on God
featured a drawing with several different types of houses of
worship, he seemed surprised that a conservative would not be
intolerant: “So it's inclusive?”
MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed Lauer's assumptions
about conservatives in Lauer's May 21 interview with Second Lady
Lynne Cheney, author of America: A Patriotic Primer.
Lauer set up the segment: “Lynne Cheney is not only the wife
of Vice President Dick Cheney she's also a senior fellow at a
conservative Washington think tank and a PhD with a lifelong
devotion to American history. Now she's drawing on that background
for her first children's book called, America: A Patriotic
Primer.”
Lauer worried: “I want to talk about some of the specific
pages in a second. Is it a political book? I mean because you are
a very well-known conservative thinker? Is this a conservative's
view of American history?”
Later, Lauer seemed to assume a conservative could not be
inclusive: “G is for God. Your illustrator said that, that was a
very difficult page. How did you handle it?”
Cheney: “Well we drew a main street. It's first about the
pilgrims, you know because the story of our country is about
religious freedom. They came here seeking religious freedom. We
have it today and that makes us a country where people are free to
believe in any way they wish and, and think is right. But there's
a picture of a main street on the page that has every kind of
house of worship you can imagine.”
Lauer: “So it's inclusive?”
Cheney: “That's right.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
