Is MS-NBC Biased? Are You Kidding?
After Chris Matthews dismissed Hillary Clinton's political qualifications as limited to her husband's infidelity, her supporters roared until squeezing a very public apology from the MS-NBC talk-show host. Now David Shuster, another MS-NBC on-air personality, will cool his heels for an undetermined length of time for accusing Hillary of "pimping out" her daughter politically, and Hillary may refuse any more debates on the so-called network. Howard Kurtz has the story:
In case there was any doubt, using a prostitution metaphor for the daughter of a presidential candidate is not a good career move.MSNBC suspended correspondent David Shuster yesterday for an undetermined period for making a disparaging on-air remark about Chelsea Clinton. Meanwhile, officials in her mother's campaign raised the possibility of punishing the news channel by boycotting future debates.
While filling in as a host Thursday, Shuster was discussing the 27-year-old's role in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign with two guests when he asked: "Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"
Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, called Shuster's remark "disgusting," "beneath contempt" and "the kind of thing that should never be said on a national news network." Wolfson appeared to suggest that Clinton is reconsidering an agreement this week to participate in an MSNBC debate Feb. 26 in Cleveland, saying: "I at this point can't envision doing another debate on that network." ...
Wolfson noted that MSNBC's Chris Matthews expressed regret last month for suggesting that Hillary Clinton's political success can be traced to sympathy stemming from her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky. "At some point you have to question whether there is a pattern at this particular network," Wolfson said.
What? MS-NBC biased? Oh heavens, could that possibly be? Before the Left gets particularly outraged by that particular idea, let's recall that this is the network that airs Keith Olbermann, who saw Peter Finch's performance in Network and didn't realize it was satire. Their supposed news anchor spends every night ranting about conservatives and Republicans, daily issuing them the title of "The Worst Person In The World", which ignores people like Richard Ramirez, Ali Khameini, Osama bin Laden, the Castro brothers, and so on.
And yet, Republican presidential candidates have regularly appeared on MS-NBC, despite the almost relentless bias against them on the cable channel. They haven't even demanded Mr.Meltdown recuse himself from the proceedings. Apparently, they don't feel as though the pettiness and rancid commentary at MS-NBC can knock them off their stride. Hillary feels differently -- shouldn't that say something about her candidacy?
For the shock, shock! of suddenly discovering the bias at MS-NBC, Wolfson gets the Captain Louis Renault Award. I'd give him the Peter Finch Award as well, but Olbermann wins that as a lifetime achievement award.
As for David Shuster, he deserves a short time in the penalty box for using a prostitution term to describe anyone on a news show. It's not just offensive -- which it is -- but it's intellectually lazy and a lame attempt to sound "down wit' it", something of which we don't need any more from television. The phrase doesn't even really apply to what Shuster meant. Hillary asked Chelsea to call superdelegates, which she did, but apparently didn't want to talk to the press. How exactly does that make Hillary the Pimp Mommy, anyway? Forcing her to talk to the press would have qualified in a way, but then Shuster wouldn't have had anything about which to whine on national TV, either.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on February 9, 2008 5:50 AM | Comments () | TrackBacks (3)
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