blatham
 
  2  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 02:36 pm
We really need to clone Margaret Sullivan and have her the media columnist or ombusdman of every paper.
Quote:
Give Chris Matthews partial credit for his apology on his way out the door Monday night. In his abrupt and unexpected farewell, the MSNBC host acknowledged his history of what he called “compliments on a woman’s appearance.”

Such comments were “never okay,” he said, and he was sorry for making them. I appreciated this wasn’t one of those mealy-mouth “sorry if I offended you” apologies — though it still seemed to miss why it’s a problem when a powerful man emphasizes a woman’s sex appeal in a professional setting, the way it diminishes and objectifies.

But this casual sexism wasn’t at the heart of why he had to go. One of the most prominent and well-paid hosts in the cable-news game didn’t listen, didn’t do his homework, and treated politics as a game in which noisy confrontation was a necessity. The problem was less about greenroom boorishness and far more about what you could see and hear on the air — especially in recent weeks, but also going back a long way.

For years, Matthews was a harsh and misogynistic critic of Hillary Clinton — once calling her a “she-devil,” and attributing any of her success in the 2008 presidential primary to the fact that, as he put it, “her husband messed around.” More recently, his comparison of Bernie Sanders’s winning the Nevada primary to the “fall of France” to the Nazis was a horribly offensive gaffe given Sanders’s Jewish heritage and his having lost family members to the Holocaust.

But for me, an occasional member of the “Hardball” audience, there was something worse.

With his reported $5 million annual salary, he wielded enormous influence. For many years, he had the power to sway public opinion on the crucial topics of the day. Not infrequently, he failed the main test of someone in that role. He was ready to offer his own views, but not prepared to hear those of his guests or to bring deep knowledge to the conversation.

Frequently described as “bombastic,” and certainly an excitable yeller, Matthews had a tendency to ask a question, and then, just as his subject was beginning to answer, interrupt, asking it differently or inserting his own opinion.

His interview with Elizabeth Warren last month was a memorable case in point. The topic was whether her rival presidential candidate, Mike Bloomberg, had really suggested to one of his employees that she “kill it,” when he found out she was going to have a baby.

Matthews insisted on arguing the case as if he were Bloomberg’s defense attorney, portraying the episode strictly as a “he said/she said” situation in which — who knows? — either side could be lying.

He interrogated Warren: You really think Bloomberg is lying? Why would he do such a thing? Warren responded, when she could get a word in, that she believed the woman. She pointed out that pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is a real thing.

Matthews, for all his intensity on the subject, was unprepared and seemingly unfamiliar with the well-circulated reporting that included a named eyewitness who backed up the Bloomberg saleswoman.

To wit: “The Washington Post interviewed a former Bloomberg employee, David Zielenziger, who said he witnessed the conversation with the saleswoman. Zielenziger, who said he had not previously spoken publicly about the matter, said Bloomberg’s behavior toward the woman was ‘outrageous. I understood why she took offense.’ ”

That kind of corroboration takes the complaint out of the “who knows?” realm Matthews’s argument depended on.

But the “Hardball” host apparently hadn’t done the reading. He seemed to want a confrontational interview with Warren no matter what the underlying evidence might be.

For NBC brass — whose recent record on dealing with issues related to sexism and misogyny has justifiably come under fire — this was all too much. And Matthews’s becoming a punching bag for comics John Oliver and Trevor Noah in recent days couldn’t have helped. Something had to give.

Was there some other huge shoe about to drop, a huge scandal of some sort? More likely there would have been a constant barrage of other, similar complaints. His resignation puts a pin in that.

I don’t buy the idea that Matthews, 74, had to leave his post because of his age. There are plenty of men and women in the public eye — in media, in politics and many other fields — whose age doesn’t, and shouldn’t, hold them back. (Think, for example, of Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who is 80, or, in Hollywood, the 77-year-old Harrison Ford.)

Mere age doesn’t keep anyone from being informed, enlightened and effective at their work. After all, Mathews is downright youthful compared with most of the candidates remaining in the Democratic presidential field.

No, the problem with Matthews was not about the accumulation of years. It was not purely about “compliments.”

It was about being flawed at the central part of his job — not in the green room but right there on the screen.


0 Replies
 
georgeob1
 
  0  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 02:50 pm
@blatham,
I don't doubt the truth of what you wrote. This is the normal stuff of politics as was the Clinton campaign's investment in a manufactured hit piece on Trump and subsequent efforts to spread the "news around.

I was also intrigued by the statement of Putin's goals in his efforts to use internet sources to disrupt the 2016 election in the title line to your link. Undermining target country confidence and the health of normal political processes has long been the motivation for Russia's and the United States' disinformation efforts directed at each other and at other nations targeted by them. It is implausible to suppose that Putin say any advantage to Russia in the election of Trump per se, rather, he like Hillary expected a Clinton victory and was simply trying to undermine the election process for its own sake.

Had Putin expected a possible Trump victory he would likely have paid more attention to Trump's campaign objectives regarding our energy independence and the exploitation of ,then recent, developments in fracking and directional drilling to vastly expand our production of petroleum and natural gas - the export of which was and is the chief source of hard currency for the Russian economy. In addition Trump declared his opposition to the construction of Nord Stream II, the second of two Russian pipelines under the Baltic directly to Germany, bypassing Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, and imposed sanctions which have halted completion of Nord Stream II - a process that continues today. Both actions strike at the core of Putin's economic interests for Russia.
blatham
 
  4  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 03:34 pm
@georgeob1,
Quote:
It is implausible to suppose that Putin say any advantage to Russia in the election of Trump per se, rather, he like Hillary expected a Clinton victory and was simply trying to undermine the election process for its own sake.
Causing chaos and discord and working to increase distrust in government institutions was clearly a Russian goal. But the Senate Intelligence Committee - a bi-partisan committee it is important to acknowledge - concluded differently re Russian political desires:

Quote:
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released volume two of its Russia investigation report, which concluded that Russians sought "to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin," according to a committee press release.
LINK
0 Replies
 
Brand X
 
  1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 04:47 pm
Gabriel Sherman
@gabrielsherman
·
1h
BREAKING: Bloomberg has been rejecting his own advisers calls to drop out after South Carolina:
0 Replies
 
maporsche
 
  4  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 04:53 pm
Hi all; long time.

What. A. Week. This has been. Loved seeing Biden destroy everyone in SC.

I was a Klobuchar supporter first and Pete supporter second, but now that they’re gone, I’m all in for whomever can beat Bernie, and Diamond Joe appears to be that candidate. Early voting will make it harder, but if he can keep within 200 delegates of Sanders after today then he should be able to close the gap by the convention if not much sooner.

What a difference a week makes.
Sturgis
 
  2  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:00 pm
@maporsche,
Good to see you maporsche. Was wondering the other day of you'd ever return from your(hopefully) shortish sabbatical from here.
hightor
 
  3  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:07 pm
@maporsche,
Good to see you.

Yeah, I didn't have the chance to vote for Klobuchar. With many reservations, I voted for Biden. I'm certainly not looking forward to see him debating Trump, the way I would have with Klobuchar or Warren, and I regret that — either of those women would have demolished the MAGAsaurus. I fear Biden will make me cringe. But if he makes a good show today maybe Bloomberg will drop out and clear a path for him.
maporsche
 
  3  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:12 pm
@Sturgis,
Sturgis wrote:

Good to see you maporsche. Was wondering the other day of you'd ever return from your(hopefully) shortish sabbatical from here.


Good to see you too! Yeah, I ended up staying out of all politics for about 3 months and started getting back into it last summer. I've moved a lot of daily political banter over to Reddit, which has been....interesting.

I gather I'll stick around here again; it's a nicer platform for better discussions (sometimes...there's still a bit of ****-slinging I'm sure).
0 Replies
 
Sturgis
 
  4  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:15 pm
In other news (it's election related if not necessarily progressive), there's a power failure in Los Angeles one of the places where voting is happening today.

www.nbcnews.com/news/usnews/power-outage-hits-los-angeles-international-airport-nearby-polling-places-n1148426
0 Replies
 
maporsche
 
  3  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:15 pm
@hightor,
Good to see you too!

Illinois won't vote until 3/17, if Bernie is projected to win Illionis, I'm prepared to vote for Warren just to get her up to the 15% mark if she's still in the race. Otherwise I'm all in on Joe.

I think Biden will hold his own against Trump. Trump is a basketcase on the debate stage; it won't be hard to look better than that.

coldjoint
 
  -1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:30 pm
@maporsche,
Quote:
it won't be hard to look better than that.

He will do fine if he doesn't talk. The guy is losing it.
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  3  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:38 pm
@maporsche,
Howdy, ma
(this greeting has been cleaned of all viruses)
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:43 pm
This man has such a pure heart. He is a creature of nobility and grace. It shows up again and again with everything he says, touches and grabs.
Quote:
'The Democrat establishment is trying to take it away from Bernie Sanders' — Pres. Trump called out the Democratic establishment on #SuperTuesday


And as we speak, Pence is giving a briefing on the virus. No video or audio allowed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESOEqE5WkAAqZl3?format=jpg&name=900x900
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  4  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 05:47 pm
This week's New Yorker cover

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESOHW9PXkAMW5z-?format=png&name=small
0 Replies
 
oralloy
 
  -1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 06:17 pm
@Olivier5,
Olivier5 wrote:
I think anyone comparing Sanders to the Nazis deserves a) a huge Godwin award, b) a looooong rest, and c) some weeks in rehab.

What's wrong with telling the truth about him? His lies about Israel are breathtakingly appalling.

I am not comparing him to the Nazis. I am calling him a neonazi.

I just got back from early voting BTW. A week from now the pandemic will probably have reached my area, so going out to mingle in a crowd next week is a bad idea.

I voted for Sanders.

I figured there is a small possibility that he is less-bad on the Second Amendment compared to the others. If I'm wrong then he certainly can't be any worse than the others.

I was more interested in voting on the local millages actually. But it was just one more box to check, so I checked the Sanders box.

Sanders will never get my vote in the general election though. We need Mr. Trump to remain president so he can continue to protect the nation from progressives.
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 06:19 pm
Quote:
Steve Herman
@W7VOA
· 49m
#Coronavirus diagnostic tests' costs will be covered by Medicare and Medicaid, says @VP.

God damn socialism! Get the shotgun, Jedediah!
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 07:39 pm
I'm just reading some archaeological research. Interesting tidbit related to our present coronavirus situation...
Quote:
we share twenty-six diseases with poultry, thirty-two with rats and mice, thirty-five with horses, forty-two with pigs, forty-six with sheep and goats, fifty with cattle, and sixty-five with our oldest companion, the dog.

Walt Disney never mentioned this.
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  2  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 07:47 pm
Quote:
5 of 15 #SuperTuesday races have been called so far. The winners?

Joe Biden: VA, AL, NC
Bernie Sanders: VT
Mike Bloomberg: American Samoa


Vox
blatham
 
  1  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 08:48 pm
@ehBeth,
Quote:
Mike Bloomberg: American Samoa

My god. That changes everything!
ehBeth
 
  2  
Reply Tue 3 Mar, 2020 08:55 pm
@blatham,
$500,000,000 to beat Gabbard in American Samoa. Quite a good investment eh
 

Related Topics

Obama '08? - Discussion by sozobe
Let's get rid of the Electoral College - Discussion by Robert Gentel
McCain's VP: - Discussion by Cycloptichorn
The 2008 Democrat Convention - Discussion by Lash
McCain is blowing his election chances. - Discussion by McGentrix
Snowdon is a dummy - Discussion by cicerone imposter
Food Stamp Turkeys - Discussion by H2O MAN
TEA PARTY TO AMERICA: NOW WHAT?! - Discussion by farmerman
 
Copyright © 2025 MadLab, LLC :: Terms of Service :: Privacy Policy :: Page generated in 0.14 seconds on 07/10/2025 at 11:33:08