Maddow Show cable-to-prison watch: Maddow jumps the McAuliffe shark!

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016

Clowns him for doing his job: Did Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe ever receive an illegal campaign contribution?

Did he ever do an inappropriate favor for a donor? Did he ever do an appropriate favor, a favor that an overzealous prosecutor might take to be inappropriate?

We don't have the slightest idea, and everything is always possible! Except, of course, for that last possibility on the Maddow Show, where there are no overzealous prosecutors.

On the Maddow Show, it's always instantly assumed that the accused are guilty. They don't even have to be accused! An anonymous report of a murky probe will suffice!

So it was that, on May 23, Maddow began to snark about McAuliffe's presumed guilt. We've described that first program in recent posts. On May 25, things got worse.

On the morning of May 25, the New York Times reported on the murky reports of a possible probe of McAuliffe. As we noted in this earlier post, the report by Confessore and Saul contained a lot of red flags for anyone who might be suspicious about the possible motives behind such flimsy anonymous claims about an old Clinton hand.

Maddow isn't that kind of person. That night, she decided to clown about McAuliffe again.

No, he hadn't been accused—but the murky rumor of a probe was good enough. Maddow cranked up the Snark Machine and played a favorite old tune.

You can watch her appalling performance here. Warning! You'll be looking at oodles of Snide and at a large dose of Snark.

Maddow enjoyed her favorite play, one she had previously aimed, at least twice, at Governor Robert Bentley. Here's the background:

McAuliffe had conducted some gubernatorial business at a parole office that day. To Maddow, this inevitably meant that Governor McAuliffe looked guilty of a crime. On two earlier programs, similar conduct had meant the same thing about Governor Bentley.

Yes, she really performed this dimwitted play. Warning! Death by dumbness and snark!

MADDOW (5/25/16): This is one of those rules that you should not have to spell out as a rule. This is one of those rules that if you get to the point where you`re in high elected office and you're like the governor of a state or something, you'd think we could assume that you would know this rule. You wouldn't need to be instructed on this being a rule for you as a politician.

But apparently we have to say this one out loud. Apparently this is a rule that a lot of politicians don't know.

Here's the rule:

If you are under federal investigation, if the FBI is investigating you, don't then immediately go do a photo op at a prison.

High level elected officials, particularly governors, they do sometimes have to go do photo ops at prisons, or a parole offices or probation offices. It's part of what they have to do as governor, right?

But if you have one of those photo-ops on the books, if you have a scheduled trip to a prison or a probation office or a parole office, you've got that on your calendar, and then in the interim the FBI starts investigating you and the public knows you're under federal investigation, don't go ahead with the prison photo op. Call in sick. Because if you go ahead with the prison photo op, then photographers will take pictures of you literally behind bars, because you invited them to go with you to see you at a prison, right?

Just in case the people of Alabama couldn't paint a metal picture of their governor in jail, here you go. In case any other governors out there needs a refresher on this rule, there's Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama at a prison commissary, reminding us why this rule is so important.

But apparently that news did not travel all the way from Alabama, where their governor is under federal investigation, to Virginia where their governor is under federal investigation. Because yesterday, in the great state of Virginia, Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe, a politician who's also know being investigated by the FBI, he decided to conduct official state business yesterday at the local probation and parole office.

Why he chose to go ahead with the event at the parole office while he is under very public federal investigation, it's anybody's guess. It did lead to this excellent A.P. photo caption today: "Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe speaks to reporters. McAuliffe questioned about a federal probe of donations to his campaign says he is confident he followed the law."

He's confident he followed the law. If not, the parole officers he just met seemed very, very nice.

We'll be right back.

To watch that pitiful segment, click here. Prepare to wail and gnash your teeth. Prepare to wonder what we the people ever did to deserve this dimwitted corporate entertainment in the guise of "news."

Maddow had a wonderful time this night, snarkily suggesting that McAuliffe may soon be on parole. She plays this hang-em-high game again and again, has done so for years.

Apparently, it's a ratings hit. For that reason, she doesn't get fired.

In Maddow's next segment that night, she clowned around again about Governor Bentley. On at least two earlier programs, she had performed full segments mocking Bentley for having visited an Alabama prison on official business when he knew he was under some sort of investigation.

On May 25, she clowned around about Bentley again. Before she did, she decided to clown around about the soon-to-be-on-parole McAuliffe.

Maddow is so journalistically dumb that she virtually squeaks. It's bad enough when she snarkily pre-convicts Republican governors. Given the corporate team for which she plays, when she does the same to an old Clinton hand, she's being especially daft.

For some reason, Rachel Maddow—AKA The Nun—is very quick to assume guilt in all possible circumstances. She likes to get people thrown in jail. Where possible, she tries to involve the children.

To Maddow, an accusation is the same as guilt—and a murky rumor of a probe is the same as an accusation. On this occasion, Maddow snarked and clowned about McAuliffe, then snarked and clowned about Bentley again in her subsequent segment.

Go ahead—we dare you! Watch the tape in which Maddow snarks about McAuliffe. It's hard to imagine a dumber person having her own nightly program on the entertainment medium known as "cable news."

Have you always thought that Hannity's dumb? Go ahead! Watch that segment!