Hillary Personally Addresses Question Of Whether She Wants MSNBC's Shuster Fired

[babylonsister]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/hillary_personally_addresses_q.php

Hillary Personally Addresses Question Of Whether She Wants MSNBC's Shuster Fired
By Greg Sargent - February 12, 2008, 10:00AM

As you know, the question of whether Hillary's recent letter to MSNBC was implicitly calling for the firing of David Shuster has been a pretty controversial one here at TPM. So I would be remiss if I didn't flag this nugget from an interview with The Politico, in which she addressed the question herself for the first time:

JOHN HARRIS: Two-week suspension, you said that's inadequate for what was said. What would be adequate? Are you looking for a firing or something more?

SENATOR CLINTON: That's not my job, John. You know, that's the job of the people who run the network. But I think that they need to take a hard look.

This is like the third time they've had to apologize. And there are a lot of things that they haven't had to apologize for that might have merited one. So I wish they would take a look at, you know, some of the pattern of demeaning comments that are made on their networks.

[BeyondGeography]

1. She missed an opportunity there to move on

Not good.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. Nope

No candidate hurts him or herself by defending family.

The only people who think she should "move on" are people who already hate her.

[BeyondGeography]

17. It's an objective judgment, believe it or not

She wants to micromanage the network now? It's a losing proposition, pissing off journalists.

[MonkeyFunk]

26. She's not micromanaging it, though, is she?

She says right there in the OP it's not her decision.

She's fighting back against a stupid attack. That's a good thing.

[Enrique]

58. so dem candidates should avoid pissing off journalists?

I wonder how far they should take it? Should they back down every time?

[Armstead]

2. Classic Clintonian non-answer

I'm not threatening, but I know where your family lives.

I wish she had been so concerned about press responsibility in 2002-03 when the media was ignoring or demonizing critics of the Rush to War.

Or in 2003-04 when the media was regularly questioning Howard Dean's sanity.

[godai]

8. Exactly...they'll milk this for all it's worth.

They pounce on any opening to attack. They don't want him fired. That might make them look bad. They just want MSNBC to favor Hillary as much as possible.

[rodeodance]

21. Being asked the question is Milking it!

[godai]

38. Her answer is milking it:

"That's not my job, John. You know, that's the job of the people who run the network. But I think that they need to take a hard look."

Kind of depends on what the meaning of 'hard look' is, doesn't it?

[hedgehog]

43. IMO, this is a classic passive-agressive response from the

same play book as the silent treatment some women use. "If you really loved me, you'd know what I want you to do without asking." Call me sexist if you want to, but I've seen wives and mothers use this technique to make their families' lives miserable.

[rodeodance]

51. What part of it is msnbc's responsibility to clean their own house do YOU not understand??

[IsItJustMe]

49. Or they may want news people to be respect full towards family members. I think it's called

decency. Unless you enjoy the vulgarity of it.

[Hart2008]

19. Right, just like how she explained the conflict of interest when Bill gave her law firm business.

She never really answered that one either, i.e., the governor giving state business to his wife's law firm.

[rodeodance]

33. You will milk everything won't you-throw in the kitchen sink! Give it a rest

[Hart2008]

42. No, the reality is that she is a classic pol who can't give a straight answer n/t

[IsItJustMe]

50. WTF? Why are you so off-the-wall. Are you responding to the post?

[Hart2008]

56. Sixteen years after Jerry Brown first raised the issue in a debate, she hasn't really answered.

I'm still waiting for her answer.

:boring:

[CTyankee]

22. Oh, c'mon! This is her daughter, for god's sake!

If it were my daughter or granddaughter I'd be enraged! They could say the most disgusting things about me, but my kids and grandkids are off limits, especially they didn't do anything wrong, such as what happened with Chelsea.

Don't get me started...

[Armstead]

23. It's her selective outrage that botehrs me

She has every right to be angry about the remark.

But, as with all things Clinton, they only seem to express justifiable outrage when their own ox is gored,or when it is to their political advantage, while ignoring it otherwise.

If they are really so concerned about journalistic standards, why haven't they been opponents of media consolidation, deregulation, and the specific abuses that took place against the public throughout the Bush years, and before.

[rodeodance]

32. Is it her personal respnsibility to bark everytime some Idiot reporter makes

a crappy comment?

Why has not Obama barked up every time??

[Armstead]

41. No -- But it should be in a larger sense

Why weren't the Clintons out there demanding fuller investiugative coverage of Bush's claims about Iraq?

Why didn't they call the media on the carpet when Howard Dean was regularly being called a ranting lunatic?

Has Hillary used her visibility to help raise pressure against the FCC policies and media mergers that are still taking place?

[rodeodance]

54. Is Obama out there "demanding fuller investiugative coverage of Bush's claims about Iraq? " and Bill

in not running--

Why weren't the Clintons out there demanding fuller investiugative coverage of Bush's claims about Iraq?

[godai]

27. It was an inappropriate comment..apology..should be end of story.

But no, apology not enough..no, don't fire. They don't say exactly WHAT they want but it's a tilt toward Hillary that would make them happy.

[rodeodance]

31. The ball is msnbc's park--Its not up to Hillary to make policy decisions for them

[godai]

36. Agree...I like MSNBC and hope they don't change under any pressure from the Clintons

What station is better than MSNBC for political coverage? CNN is my next choice. I've seen a lot of comments on DU to boycott MSNBC, fire Tweety, how dare KO say something not favoring Hillary etc. I hear things I don't agree with on MSNBC, CNN...but I don't attack the station for this.

[rodeodance]

52. clean up the locker room language--is needed on all cables.

[John Q. Citizen]

47. It's so inauthentic. Everyone knows it's Hill's campaign gimmick at this point.

But what else doesn't she want to talk about?

[John Q. Citizen]

3. Hopefully, the press won't have Hillary to kick around soon.

[goldcanyonaz]

4. Yeah, they can move on to Obama.

[MyNameGoesHere]

48. I for one cannot wait till they start kicking his ass

with real questions. I am so tired of this man sliding into a election untested. STILL after a year i cannot for the life of me figure out what he is going to do to make America better other than "change and hope"

[robbedvoter]

30. be careful for what you wish - guess who the next football would be?

[John Q. Citizen]

35. They have Hill wired, they have yet to have figured out Obama. I would enjoy watching

them try.

Hill hasn't wired it yet, that's obvious.

[robbedvoter]

39. You mean. like ou watched them "try" with Gore and Kerry? making up shit

doesn't take a rocket scientist. Big megaphones is all you need. I hope you don't get to see - but past elections should give you a pattern. "invented the internet" "earth tone suits" - they didn't have big sins on Gore - they still managed to make him into a "serial liar"

It's not a function of how good/bad you are - but only how loud your enemies can be.

[John Q. Citizen]

46. Yeah, I'm still pissed at Bill for the Telecommunications Act. It really hurt the party in total.

But Obama seems to have ignited the imaginations of a critical mass.

I have the feeling things are diffent this year. Don't you feel it?

[robbedvoter]

57. Ya know, it was a GOP congress voting that one. And it's you defending MSGOP

[John Q. Citizen]

61. No. I'm not. The GOP never criticised Bill for signing the Telecommunications bill.

They loved him for that.

Not me.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. "Are you looking for a firing or something more?"

What she's looking for is to milk this for as long as possible.



But she never plays the victim, oh, no.

[Saturday]

7. She was asked a question,

How is that "Milking it"????

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. By refusing to accept the apology, and refusing to agree with the

response by the network, she's keeping it in play. She is constantly harping on it as being a defense of Chelsea, when the attack (justified or not) was clearly against HER and her campaign, not her daughter.

So, she's spinning it, and drawing it out --

How is that NOT milking it?

[rodeodance]

37. HEY--light bulb!--The comment was "pimping chelsea"--What part do you not understand?

[RaleighNCDUer]

44. Hey, dim bulb, the verb was 'pimping'.

That puts the activity on the part of Hillary, not Chelsea.

And any HONEST person knows that in this context "pimping out" means "crassly using" and there is NO sexual connotation there. Hillary is just SPINNING it that way to make herself the victim - again. And her supporters are blindly following the leader.

[splat]

9. What's not clear about 'take a look at the pattern of demeaning comments?'

DU seems to have been taken over by bullies, too. Sneers, snark and STFU rule here now.

She says, 'take a look at the pattern of demeaning comments?' and you demean some more?

Is this what America would become under Obama? Thugs beating everybody down who doesn't worship Obama?

We were going to sail into the White House in November, united against a weakened GOP. Now we're the weakened party.

If Obama doesn't urge his followers to be respectful in their enthusiasm, I hope he trips over his own hubris. He's the most divisive Democratic candidate in my long lifetime.

[Independent-Voter]

10. HRC playing the victim, again.

Predictable as the rising sun, and pathetic.

[Saturday]

12. Playing a victim for answering a question? Whatever. n/t

[rodeodance]

16. WHERE is the victim here?

[Saturday]

11. What part of...

"That's not my job, John" do you not understand? Did Hillary ask for 3 apologizes? I didn't think so.

[suston96]

13. MSNBC used to be my favorite cable network - in fact, most favorite of all networks....

I no longer watch it. Keith Olbermann and his lackeys are the worst persons in the world......

And I have erased all Olbermann Special Comments from my computer files.

[rodeodance]

14. What do you mean by "This is like the third time they've had to apologize' ??

[Sparkly]

15. I think that was Clinton, referring to MSNBC. nt

[rodeodance]

18. yes, I see now--i went to the link--It was unclear to me--Thanks

[NWHarkness]

24. Boy, times sure have changed

It wasn't that long ago when Democrats wanted our candidates to fight back against the biased corporate media.

Now, they are supposed to just shut up and take it.

I assume that will change once it's Obama they are smearing. At least I hope it will.

I don't think the Obama supporters realize how they are playing into Clinton's hands on this issue. The more they complain about Clinton fighting with the media, the more Dem voters are going to say "What? A democrat fighting back? Excellent!"

[RaleighNCDUer]

55. Fuck that. You KNOW that's not what's going on here.

If she was interested in actually FIGHTING them she'd be going after the truly outrageous comments by Tweety. But she chose THIS one because she can spin it to look like an attack on Chelsea, even though it was an attack on her and her campaign USING people to go where she can't be bothered to - like Nebraska. If she actually fought the MSM, she'd be confronting attacks on HER - but THAT could have blowback in trying to be the strong candidate who is being picked on, and people can see through that discontinuity. As long as she spins this as an attack on Chelsea, however, she can be both the 'outraged mother' AND the victim.

I hope Chelsea is thoroughly ashamed of her for this posturing.

[robbedvoter]

25. "not my job" = "not up to me". Clean your own house! Great answer in my book

[rodeodance]

29. Yes it was. yes it was

[hiaasenrocks]

28. This is her new-and-improved crying moment. Just another issue in which she can

play the "poor Hillary" card and try to get sympathy votes. This time she doesn't need to cry; she just complains and plays the victim. Similar M.O.

The Clintons will do anything for power.

[rodeodance]

34. Your comment is sick!

[napi21]

40. I think that was a GREAT answer! She DOESN'T have the right

to hire and fire at NBC/MSNBC, but there have been MULTIPLE sexist comments and actions made on that network in the past 6-12 months. I posted a link to MediaMatters yesterday referring to a good article where they detailed several offences by 3 different employees at MSNBC, and I can think of several others that would fall into the "might have merited an apology" catagory. I think the Network should take a long hard look at their TV personalities and issue some stricter guidelines for taking care what words & actions they use on-air. They are NOT partisan radio talk show hosts, but all CLAIM to be non-partisan opinion people (except for David who claims to be a news reporter).

[hedgehog]

45. How many times has the Clinton campaign had to apologize?

I've lost count.

[AtomicKitten]

53. Free David Shuster!

He apologized.
He was suspended.

Enough.

[robbedvoter]

59. Yeay! Freedom of speech DEMANDS we hear "pimp" on the air! DEMANDS IT,

I tells ya! Was he arrested, BTW?

[AtomicKitten]

60. Grow up.

Seriously.