Not surprisingly, MSNBC's Martin Bashir's apology to Sarah Palin is not good enough for Bill O'Reilly. Not only that, O'Reilly used the situation to portray the vicious Palin (whom even O'Reilly has little patience for) as a conservative martyr, attack MSNBC, take a racial swipe at Oprah Winfrey - and, as the piece de resistance, tell media critic Howard Kurtz that personal attacks are not countenanced on Fox News.
In case you missed the brouhaha, Bashir reacted to Palin's likening of the national debt to slavery by suggesting she be subjected to one of the punishments for slaves, having s*** put in her mouth. Since then, he has apologized.
Over the line? I think so. But, as predictable as clockwork, Fox News cued up the GOP Special Victims Unit to play up the incident for maximum political gain - and maximum demonization of liberals. O'Reilly said:
Perhaps no politician in the country has taken more verbal abuse than Sarah Palin. And it has nothing to do with her skin color. Somebody tell Oprah. It has to do with her conservative belief system.
Oh, really? Then how to explain this 2012 comment from Republican Steve Schmidt, chief strategist for the John McCain campaign when asked if he thought Palin had a future as a nation GOP leader?
“I hope not,” he said. “And the reason I say that is because if you look at, over the last four years, all of the deficiencies in knowledge, all the deficiencies in preparedness, she’s done not one thing to rectify them, to correct them. She has become a person who I think is filled with grievance, filled with anger who has a divisive message for the national stage when we need leaders in both parties to have a unifying message. . . . The lack of preparedness was a bad thing and the total disinterest in being more prepared and rectifying that is something that disqualifies.”
In fact, even O'Reilly complained during the segment that Palin had refused to come on his show that night because "she doesn't want to mix it up... She wants to give a speech and nobody gives speeches here." So instead, he had media critic Howard Kurtz. Kurtz fell right in with the Fox line. He called it "stunning" that Bashir hasnt been suspended or fired.
However, Kurtz did say that the "culture" of cable television "reward(s) harsh personal attacks by all sides."
O'Reilly interrupted:
Let me stop you. On this channel, I'm not aware of that happening. Nobody has ever been suspended for doing it. I mean, once in a while it gets rough but not very much. You go, Baier, Greta, O'Reilly, Kelly, Hannity: five hours straight. None of those people are known for personal attacks. So how can you make that comparison?
Really, Bill O'Reilly? Really? Either you're losing your memory or you're outright lying.
How about Glenn Beck calling President Obama a racist with a "deep-seated hatred" for either white people or white culture? Did anyone at Fox ever apologize for that disgusting remark? Au contraire, I remember Sean Hannity validating Beck on that score. I don't recall O'Reilly calling out Beck, either. In fact, he and Beck had a road show going on afterward. In June 2012, after Beck left Fox, O'Reilly consulted him about President Obama's outreach to African Americans.
And how about Fox host Andrea Tantaros telling her radio show listeners, "Do me a favor" and punch an Obama supporter "in the face?" That's arguably worse than anything Bashir said. But I haven't heard a peep of apology from her or anyone else at Fox News about it. Have you?
Plus, there's Ann Coulter. She went even further and "joked" about murdering Meghan McCain on Fox. Not only was it tolerated, she appeared on Hannity tonight to discuss Bashir. I didn't have the stomach to watch her but if she wasn't held up as a legitimate critic, I'll send someone a free News Hounds t-shirt if they send me the proof.
I could go on and on but I think you get the picture, even if O'Reilly and Kurtz don't.
Kurtz went on to complain that there was no outrage from the "mainstream media" the way they would have if a similar remark had been made about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
"I see a double standard here," Kurtz said at the closing of the segment.
Me, too, Howie, but not the one you had in mind.
Hannocchio’s tv show will eventually end. He may quit the network and move to Florida, or he could continue by becoming a Fox “News” political analyst/contributor and broadcast from his Florida home.
He will continue his radio show probably from his Florida home. The condo’s rooms are large enough to setup a small radio studio.
We hope Merri Jill does not stick around and moves back to Atlanta to resume her writing career.
This is an excellent read on educated slaves http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/history2.html.
Princess Palin knows very little about slavery. Her only expertise is opening her big mouth and spouting off nonsense.
She is as dumb as a box of rocks.
He’s always had this thing about NBC, for several years, every time he trashed Ed Schultz (one of his major nemesis), he never mentioned Schultz by name. Even if Schultz had said something on his radio show (not connected to NBC News, only broadcast from 30 Rock), Hannity would condemn NBC News and Brian Williams, e.g., “Does Brian Williams know about this?”
Either he is being disingenuous, or he really can’t make the distinction because he’s missing a good portion of grey matter. Probably the latter — after all, we don’t call him Slanthead without good reason!
The difference is they usually get applause form the right for doing so.
Sadly, this is the state of much of cable talk these days — trying to outdo the opposition and fire up the ignorant part of their base.
It gets headlines … and lose friends in the process … very time.
Well, the telling people to shut up, anyways. He still calls them pinheads, and he still runs slanderous personal attacks. To extents that I wanna say are only surpassed by The Five.
And to weigh in on Bashir’s comment- Yes, it was rude and stupid. But it also came with a point: Conservatives can’t compare themselves to plantation slaves, indentured servants, rail workers or internment camp detainees with a straight face because not only is it like comparing their “Annie” level of critique against them to the “Sin City” level of brutality the people they’re comparing themselves to faced…
But if I looked, how many of them would turn up descended from the people who ran those operations? Among the minority GOP, how many of them would turn up to have had “Uncle Tom” ancestors? I’m not saying this to troll or try being controversial… I really am curious about that.
Now obviously both sides can point out the hypocrisy that happens when they step in it. For example, the way Fox News supported Rush after he called Georgetown University Law Center student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute”. Rush’s apology was delivered on a Saturday on the internet after pressure from his advertisers. He was not sincerely sorry but only sorry that his comments were costing his employers money and it was forced after he spent three days continuously attacking a citizen who did not have the means to respond, which Palin has.
Bill and many others at Fox knew that Rush’s comments were undefendable so to help rescue him they turned it into demonizing Miss Fluke to turn the conservation to make her the villain.
Antoinette, while I understand what you’re trying to put across, do you really think that Slave Sarah would be any more likely to have a book in her possession than Real Sarah? (I’m not sure if it’s wrong, but I kind of think—perhaps with a bit of wistfulness—that Slave Sarah would be the rest of the slaves’ scapegoat. If massa did find a book in her possession, odds are that one of the other slaves would’ve planted it there.)
I wonder if that prevails across Fox, as “homicide bomber” and “government slimdown” overnight miraculously became the only terms used on Fox.
Well, now let’s wait just a minute here. Wouldn’t an “outrage” suggest that a large number of people are watching MSNBC? And aren’t FoxNoise and its pinhead hosts always trumpeting that “no one” watches MSNBC, except for “far-left liberals that no one listens to?”
There is one bright side to this whole incident. Sarah “shit-for-brains” Palin cancelled an appearance on the Today Show—you know, on NBC—because she’s so offended by what was said by a host of a show on MSNBC. (Yes the two networks are part of the same corporate family but, as I understand it, they operate under separate editorial policies.)
Wow, really?! Let’s go over what YOU, Glenn Beck, Hannity and Ann Coulter have said about…. Oh just name some one not a person in lock-step with Rupert Murdock. Hell they, on Faux News, attack the President on a daily basis. I remember when Bush was president that they, Faux News personalities, said you don’t criticize the president during war. They say it is anti-American, but I guess not so much anymore.
Yeah, Coulter can be very clever, and it’s not easy to get Slanthead to splutter incoherently. But defending Baldwin is probably a choice topic to accomplish this, as Baldwin get under Hannity’s skin like no other. All Alec has to do is breath, let alone say mean and stupid things, and Slanthead’s cojones will be in a major uproar!
BTW, I sort of broke my self-imposed ban on listening to this jerk’s radio hatefest. But I caught a little of it today and Slanthead was in a “tender” mood. Saying how much he admired Trey Radel, he still threw the Fla. rep. gently under the bus, insisting he should resign.
A few minutes later, he told a caller that he will eventually move permanently to his Southwest Florida home.
Why not NOW Seanny boy? You can certainly set up a “remote” studio for your sinking radio show, and then you won’t ever be seen going way, way downtown to WOR. The teevee you phone in anyway, it seems.
Hannity said he’s reaching the age where he needs the warm weather all year round. And just think, your boy Patrick will be able to take outdoor tennis lessons all year (… why couldn’t he be a football beast… like a real Amerikan!)
We don’t need you here in NYC. The North Shore will be glad to see you leave. Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice will be glad to see you leave, and let the Naples police catch you speeding — but wait, you won’t be bringing your fleet of armor-plated Escalades with you, since you have the little sissy Vespa that Jill forces you to drive down there on vacations.
Does anyone know whether Slanthead has a condo or a full house down there? Antoinette?
He’ll need a large house if he plans to bring his whole arsenal, the two Glocks and three AR-15s (more on the way), plus ammo and other munitions. And just think Seanny, down in Florida, you won’t have Gov. Andrew telling you can only load 7 rounds at a time. Good thing… gotta stand your ground somewhere. And your pal George Zimmerman is too far away to defend you.
A large house with lots of storage closets will be required also for Slanthead’s two years worth of freeze-dried food, courtesy of one his major radio sponsors (http://www.foodinsurance.com/hannity?gclid=COjhvtG89boCFUjNOgodoBwA9A).
Of course until the seas rise and flood all of coastal Florida (via the global warming he insists is a librul plot [see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/us/south-florida-faces-ominous-prospects-from-rising-waters.html]), Hannity will have his choice of at least nine nearby McDonald’s (according to Google maps) at which to stuff his face with his favorite meal: Big Mac, supersize fries — extra salt please — and a 64oz coke!
Black people were tortured, maimed and murdered under the Confederate flag. This is the same flag that the Tea Pots waved in front of the White House a couple of months ago.
If we had a magic wand we would turn her skin black and transport her, via time machine, to the south. Let her experience racism first hand.
Feel the whip on her back from her angry massa after finding a book in her possession; eat the slop from left over pigs; pick cotton in the heatwave, and hope you don’t pass out from heat exhaustion; have your children taken away and sold into slavery; experience the rape of slave women from their massas; live in unsanitary shacks provided by massa; clean the massa’s house and barn, etc.
Comparing the national debt to slavery is an insult to the African-Americans. This idiot should apologize to the American people for her remarks.
NOTE TO PALIN
Educate yourself on slavery, you sorcière. Maybe your spoiled children can enlighten you on the history of slavery.
Yeah… and the moon is made of Muenster cheese!
Give me break….
Slavery has existed in human civilization all over the world until fairly recent times, so I wonder sometimes whether Bashir et al are being quite deliberately obtuse.
Still, I didn’t find what he said particularly obnoxious. He described one writer’s description of slavery, and said Palin should perhaps be subject to the same thing before she invoked slavery again. Ho-hum. The Fox people carefully elide the whole thing, suggesting that Bashir spelled out what Palin should be subjected to, which he didn’t.
And FYI, Hannity’s Coulter interview skipped right past Bashir/Palin and into an argument about Alec Baldwin, whom Coulter defended, much to Hannity’s spluttering disbelief. I loathe the Coulter creature, but anybody who can so easily turn Hannity into spluttering incoherence once in a while isn’t 100 percent all bad.
