Monday, January 2, 2012

Will MSNBC Own Up?

It might be harmful to your health supporting the President. Already his supporters have been identified as the dumbest motherfuckers in the world by Jane Hamsher, GOP trolls paid by Andrew Breitbart by Joan Walsh, and now it seems, according to Glenn Greenwald on Twitter, supporters of the President would even excuse his rape of a nun on television.

I can live with being one of the dumbest motherfuckers in the world, and I'm still waiting for my big cheque to come from Big Breitbart, but as a woman, a Democrat and a supporter of the President, I take exception to the last accusation. And so should everyone who reads this vile piece of slander passed off as a cross between a joke and an analogy.

The Chirpstory of the entire conversation which resulted in this remark, can be found here.

Meanwhile, Zerlina Maxwell, writing in The Grio does an excellent dismantling of Greenwald's repugnant analogy, done, he reiterates, to make a point. You should really read it in its entirety, but this hits home particularly hard:-

Rape should never be employed to make a point -- any point -- no matter how noble the intent. It is not a tool to be leveraged as a metaphor. Rape is a vicious crime, and the casual nature in which Greenwald condoned the use of rape to attack those who have a different opinion from his own is deeply disturbing.

And Imani Gandy, the blogger and lawyer with whom Greenwald had the altercation on Twitter and who also writes for The Grio added this in the same article:-

"Leveraging rape in that manner is unconscionable," Gandy told theGrio. And there are certainly racial overtones to the comment, considering the historic narrative of black men being sexually aggressive and even accused rapists in the Jim Crow south. For the first black president to be disparaged in this way is wholly unacceptable.

"All [Greenwald] had to do was apologize," said Gandy.


But Greenwald won't apologise, anymore than Joan Walsh won't apologise for resenting black people, anymore than Bill Maher won't apologise for his "President Sanford and Son" quip, anymore than Michael Moore won't apologise for voting for the President because of the colour of his skin.

They won't. They never do.

For Walsh, a woman, who rails continuously in a prolonged feud with fellow MSNBC political analyst, Pat Buchanan, against Buchanan's racism, which she finds offensive, this is particularly insidious. Greenwald writes for Salon, where she holds the quango'd title of Editor-at-Large; and Greenwald is a frequent contributor to MSNBC, as she is.

That she cannot condemn his obvious misogyny in treating an horrific crime against a woman, if not admit the racial overtones surrounding it, then she's a traitor to her gender and needs seriously to address her issues about race and, in particular, about men of colour.

If Rev Al Sharpton can call out the racism of Pat Buchanan when Buchanan referred to the President as "your boy;" when Gretchen Carlson can call out the perfidious remarks of Hank Williams Jr, when Williams referred to the President as "Hitler" and "the enemy," when Fox News can do that to someone on their side of the political equation, is it superfluous to ask if MSNBC or Salon can do the same?

But they won't.

Refusing to apologise or to accept responsibility for any untoward lie or slander is part and parcel of Goebbels's Big Lie propaganda technique. Ignoring the obvious is another part of the same.

As Greenwald is still writing today, promoting a Ron Paul candidacy as viable for Progressives instead of supporting the President, I suppose such people at MSNBC, like the neophyte Chris Hayes, who creams his knickers at the mention of Paul's name and studiously ignores any reference to his racism, will be comfortable in the big tent with the Klan members, the Stormfronters and the Truthers, amongst others.

But then, Hayes, who does a passable imitation of the smartest kid in the class but the one with the least common sense, commands a seven-figure salary from MSNBC, in addition to the six-figure one he receives from The Nation. He'll never suffer under a President Paul, and his earnings will ensure one day that the newborn daughter on whom he dotes will either have sufficient trust fund accounts or enough name recognition to command any sort of job which attracts her interest.

But the poor bastards who watch Hayes big up Ron Paul every Saturday morning might not think their Social Security or their right to determin their own reproductive rights is worth the right for Chris to enjoy a legal spliff at his local Starbucks.

Perhaps these people belong with Ron Paul's Storm Troopers.

2 comments:

  1. Shabby article in that the out of context comments and over the top blame to MSNBC especially bringing up Chris Hayes daughter. You have a point that could be well made, but you missed that mark altogether to be emotional.

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  2. you continue to rock. thanks for this

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