Comic relief continues apace!

MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2016

Cable star's memory loss: Why did we ever start our series of posts on comic relief?

Granted, they're award-winning posts. But why did we ever start them?

Oh yes! We'd been struck by the inanity of much that we see on the Maddow Show. Last Friday night, for example, the program's host made the highlighted statement below.

We take these words live and direct from the Nexis transcript. Maddow spoke with Dan Rather about the previous night's speech, the address by Khizr Khan:

MADDOW (7/29/16): Joining us now is Dan Rather, who has covered more than thirty conventions in his career, including this one, this DNC in Philly.

Dan, it's great to see you. Thanks for being here.

RATHER: Thanks for having me, Rachel.

MADDOW: I was struck by what you wrote about [Khan's speech]. But also, what you wrote about it, given your perspective, and how many of these you've seen, a singular moment.

I was so moved by that moment—I'm still moved by it now, watching it for about the sixth time. But I was so moved by it in the moment last night that I couldn't talk for the rest of the segment that we were on TV at that point. I was absolutely gripped by that.

Briefly, the analysts stopped their incessant complaining about Maddow, who they sometimes regard as less than obsessively honest and perhaps as a bit of a con man.

Apparently, Maddow hadn't been able to speak during the segment after Khan's speech! That's how moved she had been by Mr. Khan's address.

Even the analysts had to admit it; Rachel had been willing to acknowledge some real moral greatness. We could see that they'd begun to rethink their nightly caterwauling about the orange-shoed cable star.

And then, it happened again! Another youngster entered the room and played the actual tape of the actual segment from the previous night. This is what we all saw:

At the end of Khan's speech, Brian had thrown to Nicolle for comment. She said the Muslim ban had been the one proposal by Trump which most offended conservatives. As an example, she mentioned the way Lindsey Graham had apologized to American Muslims for what Trump had proposed.

At that point, Rachel piped up. However gripped she may have been, this is what she said:

MADDOW (7/28/16): The other person who rebuked Donald Trump for that was Mike Pence, his running mate, who's now decided, since he's Donald Trump's running mate, that he's all on board with the Muslim ban.

It was a good clean shot at Brother Pence. Rachel shot and scored!

Brian threw to Gene Robinson next. After Robinson stated his view, you-know-who piped up again:

MADDOW: I have to say, watching Khizr Khan, I just wept through the whole thing. I could barely—I mean, I'm not, I'm—that will be all I say, because that was so affecting, I couldn't get through it.

At that point, Matthews took his turn. Then General John Allen began his growling, Pattonesque speech, so Brian ended the post-Khan segment and aired the events on the stage.

The segment had lasted three minutes total. Rachel spoke two times, once more than anyone else.

In real time on Thursday night, we were told that Maddow wept through Mr. Khan's whole speech, so greatly had she been moved. One night later, we were told that she hadn't been able talk for the rest of the segment, so absolutely gripped had she been.

The second statement wasn't true. You can decide on the first.

As for the analysts, their faces fell as they watched Maddow pipe up during the Thursday night segment. "Good people will sometimes have memory loss," we expertly said.

Tomorrow: Even more comic relief