dagblog - Comments for "Why Martin Bashir's Apology Should Have Been Enough"

Just a lame joke. Sorry!

Peter Schwartz — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 04:15:38 +0000

In reply to Huh? I always was what?

Just a lame joke. Sorry!

Huh? I always was what?

CVille Dem — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 21:33:11 +0000

In reply to You always were CVille.

Huh? I always was what?

I just watched a clip of

A Guy Called LULU — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 19:24:23 +0000

In reply to Why Martin Bashir's Apology Should Have Been Enough

I just watched a clip of Basir's monologue. Until then, my only knowledge of the incident had been what I read here. I had been thinking about the simple fact that the gross crudity of his suggestion would have been plenty enough to merit firing for most of my life and I was curious to see it for myself in its full context.
I did not object one bit when he called Palin an idiot. But it seems to me that there had been some heavy duty research done to find an example that made slavery look not just wrong as we all agree it was, but to find a particularly perverted and particularly disgusting example and then to suggest that Palin deserved the same perverted treatment because she used the word even though she was talking about a very different kind of slavery
I am not at all familiar with Bashir, maybe if I was I would have seen enough good stuff so as to be inclined to cut him more slack. But I haven't and I don't.
All I will say is, fuck Bashir, it wouldn't be appropriate to tell him to eat shit and die.

Bashir says Palin has earned shit in her mouth because of her profound ignorance about slavery and suggests that if she wasn't so ignorant she would never have said what she did. That suggests Bashir has a mouthful of ... ignorance. Did Palin really make a non-valid analogy?
There are millions of people in the world today which are legitimately considered to be slaves because of the economic situation they are bound to. The word 'Slavery" has so far not been narrowed in its application to one particular form suffered by one particular group in one particular place, as Bashir's criticism requires, so that its use in any other way is out of line. Palin is an idiot in a hundred ways but even though her analogy of a current policies leading to economic slavery was hyped up and overblown for the purpose of stoking fear about the future of our economy, in fact it is a possibility that a lot of people worry about, and it is a prediction of a possible future that a lot of people have been scared into expecting and is also one we cannot at this time be certain is wrong.

You always were CVille.

Peter Schwartz — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:09:45 +0000

In reply to OK, I'm chiming in late and

You always were CVille.

But I think there's another

Peter Schwartz — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:07:29 +0000

In reply to The way I understood it, it

But I think there's another nuance to this that "double standard" doesn't quite capture.

She IS going strong, not as strong as she once was, perhaps, but still strong. Why?

I don't really know how to put this, Ramona, but here's a crack at it: They're playing a different game than we are.

It's not exactly that they get a pass when they're wrong; they are playing a different game or at least according to different rules. They use the word "wrong" in a different way. It means something different.

You can see it in their "Ooops! Made a boo-boo. What's next?" approach to journalistic integrity.

Maybe it's this: For them, journalism is simply a way to purvey ideology. Even when an ideological attack gets some facts wrong, it's never wrong per se. Shep and Chris and Britt are in there to fog up the picture.

For us, journalism is an attempt to get close to the facts, whatever they happen to be. Of course, ideology enters into it and no one is without bias, but there is a reason that Rather and Bashir got toppled for one mistake and Doocy and Carlson can rattle off doozies day in and day out without any repercussions.

I know that's not very enlightening, but I think it may be key to understanding what is going on.

Corporate America is in

Beetlejuice — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:02:54 +0000

In reply to Why Martin Bashir's Apology Should Have Been Enough

Corporate America is in charge and eveyone "must" do as they're told.

Huffington Post suddenly "decided" if you don't have a FaceBook account, you can't comment anymore ... off-the-wall comments are a part of the internet experience since day one ... to cut them off is censorship ... especially if one has to submit your personal info to a social network, is similar to being a Jew and being tattoo'ed by the Nazi's.

The irony of Huffington Post and MSNBC is this week they all "honored" Nelson Mandella, yet failed to comphrend he was a nonconformist to the status quo ... just like anonymous posters.

Corporate America is making the internet their turf and the public has no choice but to accept their terms unconditionally.

Excellent points, Cville.

Ramona — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 03:22:24 +0000

In reply to OK, I'm chiming in late and

Excellent points, Cville. What kills me about all this is that Palin comes out smelling like a rose. She is now the injured party. Damn.

I don't believe for a minute that Martin should have lost his job, but man, could he have given Palin and the Right a bigger gift? Why, why, why didn't he see where it was going--and how it might possibly end?

You're right about the apology, but he had to do what he had to do. It should have been enough to save his job, but as usual the Right has a lock on self-righteous indignation and the Left has a lock on punishing those who forget their manners. We're hopeless.

This is well put Cville. Miss

Richard Day — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 01:50:26 +0000

In reply to OK, I'm chiming in late and

This is well put Cville.

Miss ya.

OK, I'm chiming in late and

CVille Dem — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 01:46:28 +0000

In reply to Why Martin Bashir's Apology Should Have Been Enough

OK, I'm chiming in late and so no one will probably read this, but here goes:

DeeDee Myers said Bashir should be fired because Imus was and also Alec Baldwin lost his show. Theresa said this was equivalent to Rush Limbaugh calling Fluke a "slut."

Imus made disparaging comments about college basketball players; Baldwin made a gay slur against a photographer. Ms. Fluke was testifying in a court hearing. Martin Bashir made a crude and unprofessional attempt to show Sarah Palin what slaves actually went through after she had made a crude and unprofessional comment about our President (not her first).

Does anyone see a difference here between the injured parties? College athletes, a (not well-known) photographer, a college student who was asked to testify in court,

a public figure who puts herself out there on a daily basis saying the most outrageous things she can imagine.

It seems to me that the standard here ought to be similar to that of slander -- people making statements about public figures can get away with all kinds of outrageous lies and absurdities without fear of being called to account.

Yes, Martin Bashir offended a lot of people and he missed an opportunity to make his point in a more nuanced way. However, I think he was a victim of a skewed standard that would never have been applied to someone on the right saying similar things about...say, our President. Is what he said any more offensive than the posters of a half-naked Obama with a bone through his nose?

Yes, I viscerally dislike Sarah Palin. I think she is an idiot who got herself rich by appealing to the basest instincts of fear and hate. I admit it is hard for me to be objective, but I also truly believe that Martin Bashir should have apologized to his audience because of the lousy way he worded his attempt at educating Sarah about slavery rather than apologizing to her.

He should not have lost his job.

OMG no wonder it's so damn

tmccarthy0 — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:43:31 +0000

In reply to Specifically, why are we

OMG no wonder it's so damn cold outside right now... did we just agree on something?