Any updates on Jeff Greenfield's little "joke" about Obama and the Iranian president?

[yellowcanine]

In December Jeff Greenfield compared Obama to the Iranian president based on his attire of shirt and coat with no tie - a comparison that seems a real stretch, given that George Bush, as well as many other politicians have been known to lose the tie on the campaign trail, but yet little Jeffie never saw fit to compare any of THEM to the Iranian president. Perhaps it is because Obama has an "Islamic" sounding name? How funny is such a "joke"?

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Greenfield can eat shit...

...Exhibit A:

All sporting the Ahmedinejad look.:D

[yellowcanine]

4. All WHITE also, I might add. Maybe it is only when a BLACK man loses the tie that Jeffie's sense of

humor gets activated.

[twilight_sailing]

2. Greenfield plays to the stupid

and there are a lot of them.

[MADem]

3. You mean THIS Jeff Greenfield? The one with shirt, coat, and NO tie?

What was the context? Was he being a smartass, or was it just a dumb remark? He's no fan of the GOP, FWIW....

[yellowcanine]

5. Context was the "Situation Room" here.....

Original remarks..... scroll down - last piece.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0612/11/sitroom.02.html

and Jeffie's "defense" when called on it.....
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/12/greenfield.obama/index.html

[Wickerman]

6. Oh yeah, his apology was crap

he tied all the threads together for his brain dead audience:

GREENFIELD: Now, it is one thing to have a last name that sounds like Osama and a middle name, Hussein, that is probably less than helpful. But an outfit that reminds people of a charter member of the axis of evil, why, this could leave his presidential hopes hanging by a thread. Or is that threads?

then howls when he is busted for it:

Most of what happened here, I think, is a demonstration of the hair-trigger instincts that have grown up among some of the bloggers (not to mention the need to fill all that space every day, or hour, or 15 minutes).

--snip--

For a few moments, I thought about testing this notion by updating under my name Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal," in which he suggested solving Ireland's overpopulation and famine issues by using babies as food.

Surely, I thought, even these folks would get the joke ... right?

Don't hold your breath waiting for that one, friends.

[MADem]

7. I have followed Jeff for years, and he is not a conservative by ANY stretch

He is also quietly snarky. Because he isn't outrageous in appearance or language, and looks a bit like the dork you knew in school, people sometimes don't appreciate that aspect of his personality.

I think your second link isn't a 'defense,' it's how he actually viewed the situation, and his lousy joke was his way of responding to Ed Rogers, that asswipe GOP clown who kept mentioning Obama's middle name. http://www.wonkette.com/politics/barack-obama/barack-hussein-obama-democrat-217999.php

That story preceded this one, and Ed Rogers persisted in his "Husseining" for some time, until a couple of people called him an asshole (Tweety, actually, was one). But context is everything, and context is easily discarded at times.

I'm a little surprised that Joshua Micah Marshall chose to flog the matter...slow news day? Or did he actually miss the nuance?

I guess we're in a no-snark era, these days. Bush has elevated the 'immediate high dudgeon' reaction to an obigato response.

FWIW, I don't think Jeff meant it as anything but a goof on Rogers...but that's me.

[yellowcanine]

8. Jeffie should know that a joke that ties someone's name to Islam is not going to play well.

Sorry, I can't give him a pass. I think at best it was insensitive. Plus, it gave play to the Republican meme of the month of Barack HUSSEIN Obama. As a journalist, he should have known better.

[MADem]

10. He's really more of a commentator than a journalist, but, whatever

He does analysis for CNN, and that includes opinion. In his younger years, he used to be a speechwriter for RFK. I like the guy.

Well, you aren't forgiving him, but I am. I don't think he meant it like some are taking it. YMMV.

[yellowcanine]

17. When he sincerely apologizes and loses the "some people can't take a joke" mode I might

reconsider...But for now, he is like everyone else caught making an insensitive remark - blame the people who were offended for being offended so easily. Journalist or commentator, he should know better.

[MADem]

19. If you've ever heard him on Imus, it's clear this kind of snark isn't new to him

I find it amazing that so many people bought the remarks as serious, because it's clear he's not like that at all. This isn't the first time he's done this sort of deadpan thing. But there's no fathoming where and when and how people will take offense I guess...I guess Joshua Micah Marshall has a new pelt for his wall....

[peacetalksforall]

9. He is a corporate news network all mouth marionette.

[MADem]

11. He was RFK's speechwriter, but, hey...whatever.

He also worked for Mayor Lindsay after he switched to the Democratic party.

[peacetalksforall]

12. As we've seen with Tweety, it doesn't seem to matter who they

worked for in the past. They all passed the morph test.

I don't think I've ever heard Greefield incessantly repeat who he worked for like Tweety. Greenfield is much more articulate and less gossipy than Tweety - on the screen. i.e., more professional.

[MADem]

13. Tweety worked for Ed Muskie, too...but he has the same problem that Timmy Russert has

They both were 'touched by the less than noodly appendage' of that rat bastard Jack Welch. He gave those two a come to Jesus speech about getting rich and going along and getting along, and those bastards bought it hook, line and sinker. Jeff never got that talk, having not worked for that outfit.

Now that Jack is off to the side, Timmy and Tweety seem to be trying to come back into the light. No doubt they're also sweating their guest lists, too--they have to wonder how many times they dissed a Dem who wanted ten minutes to state their side of the issue, and they denied the request....and if grudges will be held....

Stephanopolous has gotta be thrilled, though. He shouldn't have any trouble getting good guests!

[peacetalksforall]

16. I don't see it quite the same as you do. I believe

the NBCs, CNN, FOX, ABC are equal in cheating us of coverage and ramming their stuff down our throats. CNN lagged for awhile, then caught up after their honcho (Walter Isaacson?) went to the WH and asked what they could do to get in good graces. The right wing never caught up with the corp morph and partnership with the WH and some still call CNN liberal, by design or slowness.

I see no difference between GE/Microsoft, TIme-Warner, Murdoch, Disney Viacom intervention as WH partnership enablers. It wasn't just Jack Welch. And it isn't just GE. The only one that has highs and lows of light is CBS, not so often anymore

We have no representation as a people who own the airwaves - these corporations and the WH guys they get their orders from have ruined news and neutrality. But, then there is the Olberman phenonmena. Still don't understand why they let him get a pass through the wall.

[MADem]

18. I am not suggesting that CNN is a paragon of virtue, but they aren't "in it" for the dough in the

same way as the GE crowd was. My issues with CNN have more to do with their willingness to work too closely with the See Eye Eh and the DoD, and that ruins their credibility on the international scene.

Olbermann gets 'the pass,' FWIW, because he is a good friend of Dick Ebersol, who got him the job and ensured that he kept it, and because Dan Abrams is on the same page as he is, on the big issues, anyway. Actually, it was Dick who got KO away from Fox, by convincing them to sell his contract outright when he went to work with him at NBC Sports ten years ago. Alot of the "Fox sucks" stuff KO does goes back to that shitty business practice they pulled with him, by paying him and NOT playing him --which can be a career ender for someone in broadcasting.

Olbermann was supposed to be a talking head for the Olympics, which NBC had the rights to in Greece, but then, Jerry Nachman got cancer and was on his deathbed and KO took the slot that Jerry used to fill as a favor and as a bit of a lark. When they gave him free rein, he liked it. His friendship with Ebersol ensured that he was able to keep the gig. There was concern that KO might not keep his job when Ebersol's plane crashed, killing his son Teddy, if you remember. Of course, Abrams wasn't running the division back then.

I don't wait for the TV to feed me my news in any event. It is a useful tool, nothing more, particularly for images but half the time the newsreaders don't know what they are talking about. Analysis has been lacking for years, and context, we can forget about. For least spin, Jim Lehrer is probably the best thing on TV, but that's an event that has to be programmed, because you can't get the likes of him 24/7.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

14. True

But Jeff Greenfield could emerge from whatever souless well of the damned they keep him in under CNN headquarters tomorrow with a full "McCain '08" body tattoo and spend twenty minutes of his segment viciously tongue kissing every member editiorial staff of the National Review, and it wouldn't matter:

90% of the people who watch cable news already have an opinion. The other ten percent are bored in the departure lounge of LAX. Anyone stupid enough to have their view of Obama changed by a statement that retarded isn't going to be voting for him anyway.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

15. But still

If I saw him on a street corner, I'd kick him in the testicles on general principle.