Political Correctness - Right-wing Political Correctness

Right-wing Political Correctness

Accusations of political correctness, in the sense of enforced orthodoxy, have also been directed against the political right. For example, the intense backlash against country band the Dixie Chicks, for remarks critical of President George W. Bush onstage in London in 2003, was described by newspaper columnist Don Williams as the price for freely speaking political views disapproved by supporters of the Iraq War. Williams went on to say, “the ugliest form of political correctness occurs whenever there’s a war on. Then you’d better watch what you say.” He noted that Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly called the remarks in question "treasonous".

Bill Maher's show Politically Incorrect lost some of its main advertisers after remarks he made about the 9/11 hijackers including that the hijackers were not cowards but that it was cowardly for the United States to launch cruise missiles on targets thousands of miles away. He later apologized. White House press secretary under President Bush at the time, Ari Fleischer stated, "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do". Fleischer later stated that this referred to both Maher and remarks against Arabs by Representative John Cooksey that were considered disparaging. Two journalists lost their jobs soon after the 9/11 attacks for statements critical of the president.

Linguistic examples of right-wing adjustments to language criticized as examples of political correctness include renaming French fries “Freedom fries”. In 2004, then Australian Labor leader Mark Latham described conservative calls for "civility" as "The New Political Correctness".