I've taken a lot of flack for recognising and pointing out that there is prejudice abundant from the Left towards certain demographics, especially from high-profiled members of the Professional Left.
On Tuesday, Alex Wagner, arguably the most insipid political commentator on MSNBC, revealed that she has a definite prejudice towards Southerners.
Watch the end of the first clip, where Catherine Crier, a Texan, speaks of Elizabeth Warren, from Oklahoma, using her natural Texas accent. Wagner is not only freaked out by the way Crier sounds, she's absolutely appalled, remarking (before she could stop herself), "Did you have to do it in that accent?"
Later, at the beginning of the second clip, she introduces Santorum spokesman, Hogan Gidley, from South Carolina, with a thinly-veiled piece of snark about his Southern accent, which Gidley readily recognises the sarcasm and throws back it back in the face of the ignorant Wagner.
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
It seems that Wagner can just about tolerate Crier and others of her ilk if their accents are toned down or morphed into the now almost universal Valley Girl garble affected by Wagner, who - allegedly - grew up in DC and Krystal Ball, who grew up along the James River in Virginia. (An aside: my British husband walked in on one of these clips and heard Wagner's accent, remarking, "Who the hell is that talking with that plug-ugly accent?") Toned-down Southerners like Crier and Ball scrub up well and know how to eat with forks - plus, they know about dentists because they have all their teeth.
But overt prejudices like this not only heighten Wagner's immaturity as a professional, they denigrate MSNBC as a viable news and information network; and they drive home the fact that some people on the Left cannot address their own prejudices, whilst stereotyping others as bigots.
And as an added bonus and proof yet that British political journalists put our amateur riffraff to shame, the end of the second clip shows the estimable Richard Wolffe figuratively holding a masterclass in Barack Obama the politician and how his words are spun to his disadvantage by people in the same profession as the rest sitting at the table. He veritably hands Wagner, society pundit Katrina vanden Heuvel and Steve Kornacki of Salon.com their collective asses when he points out that, actually, Joe Biden didn't really come out in favour of gay marriage, after all, but did a kabuki theatre dance worthy of any done by Barack Obama up to that point. And he finished by reminding all of them that, although Obama achieved the heretofore inachieveable in repealing DADT, he got precious little, if any, credit from the Professional Left.
Crier's been around the political block, but Wagner's a dilettante sorority girl with a bigotry issue, vanden Heuvel is a lady who lunches whose father bought The Nation for her as a toy, and Kornacki is just an elevated blogger; and they deserved to be served the professional truth in a hefty portion.
I hope they choked on it.
On Tuesday, Alex Wagner, arguably the most insipid political commentator on MSNBC, revealed that she has a definite prejudice towards Southerners.
Watch the end of the first clip, where Catherine Crier, a Texan, speaks of Elizabeth Warren, from Oklahoma, using her natural Texas accent. Wagner is not only freaked out by the way Crier sounds, she's absolutely appalled, remarking (before she could stop herself), "Did you have to do it in that accent?"
Later, at the beginning of the second clip, she introduces Santorum spokesman, Hogan Gidley, from South Carolina, with a thinly-veiled piece of snark about his Southern accent, which Gidley readily recognises the sarcasm and throws back it back in the face of the ignorant Wagner.
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
It seems that Wagner can just about tolerate Crier and others of her ilk if their accents are toned down or morphed into the now almost universal Valley Girl garble affected by Wagner, who - allegedly - grew up in DC and Krystal Ball, who grew up along the James River in Virginia. (An aside: my British husband walked in on one of these clips and heard Wagner's accent, remarking, "Who the hell is that talking with that plug-ugly accent?") Toned-down Southerners like Crier and Ball scrub up well and know how to eat with forks - plus, they know about dentists because they have all their teeth.
But overt prejudices like this not only heighten Wagner's immaturity as a professional, they denigrate MSNBC as a viable news and information network; and they drive home the fact that some people on the Left cannot address their own prejudices, whilst stereotyping others as bigots.
And as an added bonus and proof yet that British political journalists put our amateur riffraff to shame, the end of the second clip shows the estimable Richard Wolffe figuratively holding a masterclass in Barack Obama the politician and how his words are spun to his disadvantage by people in the same profession as the rest sitting at the table. He veritably hands Wagner, society pundit Katrina vanden Heuvel and Steve Kornacki of Salon.com their collective asses when he points out that, actually, Joe Biden didn't really come out in favour of gay marriage, after all, but did a kabuki theatre dance worthy of any done by Barack Obama up to that point. And he finished by reminding all of them that, although Obama achieved the heretofore inachieveable in repealing DADT, he got precious little, if any, credit from the Professional Left.
Crier's been around the political block, but Wagner's a dilettante sorority girl with a bigotry issue, vanden Heuvel is a lady who lunches whose father bought The Nation for her as a toy, and Kornacki is just an elevated blogger; and they deserved to be served the professional truth in a hefty portion.
I hope they choked on it.
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