Hayes and O’Donnell break the rules!

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012

On MS, a very rare challenge: Liberal viewers get played for fools all night on The One True Channel.

The spinning rarely stops. The discussion can get very dumb.

Last night, an unusual thing occurred. One over-statement was so absurd that it got challenged! Here’s how this event went down:

In the first segment of The Last Word, Alex Wagner was dreaming sweet dreams, helping us liberals sleep a sound sleep. Cookies and warm milk were soon being served concerning a matter of climate:

WAGNER (5/10/12): Again, the polling—the climate in America is one of acceptance of gay marriage. But the problem for the Republicans, as it always—as it is on a host of different issues, is that at the state level, people don’t want to let this go. If North Carolina hadn’t proposed Amendment One, there would be a lot less I think magnetism to the issue of gay marriage.

This is something that at the state level Republicans cannot—it’s a dog with a bone. It is like that on women’s issues, it’s with that on immigration, and again on gay rights.

We believe that whole statement was issued in English—but one part of the jumble was clear. Wagner was painting a pretty picture about the political climate surrounding same-sex marriage. “The climate in America is one of acceptance of gay marriage,” she happily said.

Say what? Two days earlier, the great swing state of North Carolina had adopted a sweeping constitutional amendment which banned gay marriage and gay civil unions! In a state Obama hopes to retain, gay marriage was voted down by 61 percent of the vote.

Will Obama be hurt by his stand on gay marriage? We have no idea; if we had to guess, we’d probably guess no. But good grief! Wagner’s claim was so odd that it actually drew a challenge! First, it was challenged by Chris Hayes, then by Lawrence himself:

HAYES (continuing directly): And let me also say, I mean, I don’t think we should get too far ahead of the polling here. I mean, there is the threshold being crossed. We’re getting polling, it’s been out in the field in the last few days, and we’re going to see where it goes. And if there might be a backlash effect.

The other thing is, you know, I saw Ohio polling today that was pretty bad. That was 35 percent in favor, 50 percent opposed, something around there.

So in key states, this still might bring with it political risk. I don’t think we should understate that in this election cycle there are foreseeable political downsizing consequences.

O’DONNELL: Well, let’s listen to what President Obama said this morning on Good Morning America about the point Chris was just making, how this cuts for him politically.

OBAMA (videotape): I think it would be hard to argue that somehow this is something that I would be doing for political advantage because frankly, you know, the politics, it’s not clear how they cut.

O’DONNELL: Alex, I agree, it is not clear how they cut.

Even Obama disagreed! And this is part of the hero narrative, which the channel is widely selling!

Glumly, Wagner backpedaled from her claim, then seemed to clam up for the rest of the segment.

Very few statements are so absurd that they get challenged on MSNBC. The propagandistic nature of the channel’s programming seems to grow on a nightly basis. We were especially struck by the steaming hot plates of pseudo-liberal BS served by Rachel Maddow last night.

Maddow behaves more like a ward heeler with every passing day. With remarkable skill, she played it dumb last night about the nature of the complaints concerning Elizabeth Warren’s past claims to be Native American. She also played it very dumb about certain aspects of the Romney bullying matter.

In this passage, Maddow was reciting a script which was already standard on her channel. That said, there’s little chance that Maddow is really this dumb:

MADDOW (5/10/12): Mr. Romney himself later said he did not contest that the incidents had happened, but that he didn’t remember anything about them. He didn’t remember anything about them, but he somehow definitely remembers that he did not think the kid in question, who was attacked, was gay. Nor did he think that about another closeted kid he is reported to have bullied, by shouting "Atta girl" whenever the student would say something in class.

[...]

If you don’t remember anything about it, how do you remember that you definitely didn’t attack him because he was gay? How do you remember that you definitely didn’t think he was gay if you don't remember anything about it? You remember that exculpatory thing but you remember nothing else?

There’s little chance that Maddow's that dumb. But she seems to think you are!

Does Romney remember this incident? We have no idea. But here’s what he said: He said he doesn’t remember the incident, but he didn’t think the student in question was gay back in those days. There’s little chance that Maddow thinks there’s a puzzling contradiction there. But this theme was general on MSNBC, so she rattled it too.

Maddow doesn’t have an 80 IQ. Increasingly, she acts like she thinks her viewers do. This channel gets dumber with each passing day—dumber, and more like Fox.

Concerning Elizabeth Warren: For our money, it’s too bad that people are talking about Warren’s claim/past claim to be Native American. But it isn’t hard to explain the complaints which have been made.

Heroically, Maddow discussed the topic for a full ten minutes without explaining these complaints. (To watch the segment, click here.) In part, complaints like these retain their currency because standard liberals pretend to address them in such utterly bogus ways.

This channel gets dumber with each passing day. Maddow played dumb all last night.