Something completely new happened last night!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2014

Hayes panel defends Wendy Davis: Something happened on cable last night, something that’s very new.

Down in Texas this Sunday, the Dallas News reported a few misstatements by Wendy Davis, the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful. The report was written by Wayne Slater, a very major, very mainstream Texas reporter.

(On balance, Slater actually tilts liberal. On cable, we would say he even became a bit tribal during the last White House campaign.)

Davis has always told an inspiring story about her personal background. As it turns out, a few of her claims have perhaps been slightly inaccurate. You could also say that she has created a slightly inaccurate picture of certain parts of her life, especially the part that began with her second marriage when she was 24.

At least for us, Slater’s report in the Dallas News presented some new information and helped create a fuller picture. That said, Wendy Davis is now getting battered wherever conservative batter is sold.

Last night, something very unusual happened. Not too many years ago, it could never have happened:

On MSNBC, a panel of scribes pushed back hard in defense of Davis, Chris Hayes in the chair.

In our view, some of the pushback was a bit unbalanced. But in the not too distant past, no such pushback would have occurred, balanced or otherwise.

Consider:

In March 1999, the mainstream press corps fell to the task of making Al Gore a liar. The line of attack started with three charges:
Al Gore said he invented the Internet!
Al Gore said he inspired Love Story!
Al Gore said he grew up on the Tennessee farm, but he really grew up in D.C.!
The first two claims would live forever, sending George Bush to the White House. (In December 1999, they would be joined by another groaner: Al Gore said he discovered Love Canal!)

That third claim, concerning the Tennessee farm, resembles the claim now being made against Davis.

Al Gore said he grew up on the Tennessee farm, but he really grew up in D.C.! In reciting this scripted attack, pundits claimed that Gore had distorted the basic outlines of his personal story.

Out on the trail, Gore had made a few accurate statements about his youth on his family’s Tennessee farm. Again and again in the previous dozen years, mainstream reporters had reported the basic facts concerning Gore’s general background.

All the pundits knew these facts—but now, a war had started. As a result, major pundits pretended they didn’t understand those basic facts—the basic facts they and their colleagues had stated in the past.

This behavior was worse than what is being done in the case of Davis. But so what? Cable news rocked with the “farm chores” attack, concerning the way Gore had lied.

In the end, the “farm chores” attack was so absurd that even the press corps couldn’t sustain it. That said, Gore was hammered with this charge for months. In the process, a punishing narrative turned to stone:

Al Gore is the world’s biggest liar, just like his boss, Bill Clinton.

Not a word of pushback emerged from the career liberal world. In those days, such pushback simply wasn’t permitted.

When such pushback did occur, it was uniformly ignored. Once again, we’ll refer you to Gene Lyons' important book, Fools for Scandal.

Last night, instant pushback occurred in defense of Wendy Davis. In 1999, nothing like that happened or was allowed.

For the full skinny on the farm chores attack: See Chapter 2 of our companion site, the incomparable How He Got There.

42 comments:

  1. "The first two claims would live forever, sending George Bush to the White House."

    May be they did, may be they did not. Anything's possible, we have no way of knowing.

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    1. You don't recall whether George Bush was elected?

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    2. I think W's Christian faith sent him to the White House and Jesus Himself told him to smite Iraq.

      We have no way of knowing.

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    3. We have ways of knowing some things but not others. That is part of the point of this blog -- knowing that is essential to critical thinking.

      You do understand that ridiculing an argument is not the same as rebutting it?

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    4. And you think we can know the effect Dowd, Mathews et al. had on the outcome of election 2000 ?

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    5. So if the first two claims live forever and sent Bush to the White House, how come we spent most of this dang post on the third? How is being a teen mother living in a trailer park related to Gore growing tobacco?

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  2. "The first two claims would live forever, sending George Bush to the White House". Right, it was all because of the "script" and not because he never bothered to campaign in states he considered "safe" (including his own). Never mind the dirty tactics and confusing Florida ballots -- or that the election was decided by a bunch of reactionary supreme court justices. Never mind that Gore himself CONCEDED before a recount was ever done.

    Talk about scripts. Someone here is attached to one!

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    1. None of those other things would have mattered if the race hadn't been so close. It was closer than need be because the press was against Gore, right from the start. Press matters -- that's why campaigns work so hard to court it.

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    2. You know it's too damn bad the press couldn't finish off Gore in the primary like they did Clinton eight years later.

      President Bradley never would have sent our boys and girls to Iraq. Then what issue would some liberals have used against Hillary in '08?

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    3. You clearly do not remember why Bradley was knocked out of the primary.

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  3. The pushback for Wendy Davis is so cute. Those dastardly Republicans are responsible for Wendy misrepresenting her life story. They made her lie about her sugar daddy who paid for her education and took care of her kids.... a man 14 years her elder who she likely cheated on and divorced after her college bills were paid.

    I'll bet you that the Democratic and Republican voters in Texas won't hold it against her that she abandoned her children to pursue her career... particularly the mothers.

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    1. Try this link: Attacks on Wendy Davis Follow Classic Sexist Playbook

      http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/01/21/3184391/sexist-wendy-davis-attacks/

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    2. The sexists made her misrepresent her past. Misogyny is responsible for her story not being tight enough. Yeah, ok...

      Wendy Davis is Texas toast. She will never be governor of that state.

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    3. This is not a conservative blog and you will find little sympathy for your attitudes here. Your belief that this will gain traction is about as likely as that Somerby will quit blogging because of troll comments. Look at the way they tried to torpedo Elizabeth Warren by attacking her claims about her background -- that didn't work out so well, did it?

      You are midjudging voters of Texas if you think Hispanic, college age, and working class women will not be sympathetic to her situation and be repealled by the kinds of statements you have been making here. Women won't judge her harshly because they know there is truth behind that old cliche about wives putting their husbands through grad school, then being divorced just when their "investment" was about to pay off. Isn't there a nice men's rights webpage somewhere that is missing your comments?

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    4. You're too stupid to recognize that Texas isn't Massachusetts and that Wendy Davis is behind in the polls. You're not comparing apples to oranges... you're comparing apples to cucumbers. They aren't even remotely similar... other than someone saying something bad about the candidate you like.

      And I'd be more than happy to talk about Demographics in Texas if you'd like. It is still a red state. Mitt Romney won there. Granted there is a growing Hispanic population and the state is becoming more liberal. But it is not there yet. And don't forget that a lot of those Hispanic voters are Catholic and do not support abortion rights.

      So GFY with your personal attacks and straw man bullshit. You are clearly a moronic, troglodyte who uses binary thinking. And be sure to think of me laughing in your general direction when Wendy loses by 20 points.You can blame sexism while you're crying into your espresso.

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    5. Dare I add that Warren's claims about her background are true? Perhaps that's why the "attacks" didn't work?

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    6. Anon @ 2:42

      Great post. Loved you putting that person in their place.
      The espresso zinger for folk of her ilk was icing on the cake.
      I will think of you laughing as you clean and fondle your hangun on election night.

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    7. LOL @ Anon 3:22

      Sadly I'll have to fondle something else on election night since my wife won't allow firearms in the house. She worries that our kids (who live with us in our house) will shoot each other if they have access to guns. I gotta visit the range if I want to clean or fondle anything.

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    8. Divorce the bitch. Dang kids need to understand first hand what it means to be a man. And if that means they lose a finger or two handling their piece, so be it.

      I mean if she just insisted you keep the guns locked up while she's home schoolin the little ones, that's a lesser matter.

      Son. what's the point of ruling the roost if you only get to be a rooster out on the range?

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    9. I tend to agree with my wife. Living in a safe suburban area, I see little need for a firearm in our home, particularly with young children living there. And anyway, my wife is a flaming liberal gun grabber type. But I still love her.

      BTW, my wife can't under how any woman could choose her career over her children. Not a Wendy Davis fan.

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    10. It is invariably the case that on a board where the blogger is being accused of hating Maddow or Dowd, other people are quick to reveal that they hate entire demographics of people.

      And are proud of it.

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    11. It is invariably the case that on this board when you comment it is in defense of Somerby even when he isn't even mentioned in the thread.

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  4. And in what low esteem he must hold the readers of the NY Times - which endorsed Gore - that they were swayed by Dowd's caricatures rather than the endorsement of the paper itself.

    And "How about Dingell-Norwood" WAS funny. Dukakis driving a tank WAS funny as was "I was for it before I was against it". But people don't vote based on things like that.

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    1. I don't think any of that stuff is funny.

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    2. Did you think Bush in his flight suit on the aircraft carrier was funny?

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    3. "Mission Accomplished."

      I'm sure that still gets a laugh out of the families of the thousands of soldiers who died in Iraq after that.

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    4. I found Bush on the flight deck inspiring. I just wish those stupid sailors hadn't put up that banner.

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    5. Yes, amazing how being at sea all those months they were able to produce such a professional looking banner.

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  5. 'the Dallas News"

    Its actually the Dallas Morning News (the website is Dallasnews.com).

    Mote, Beam etc.

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  6. Bob is following the MoDo script to the letter. When under attack for unrelenting hostility to women, feed them sexist attack on feminist candidate. Of course his right hand kept twitching throughout and made him type Al Gore against his will.

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    1. Did you not notice that this post was about Chris Hayes and his panel, not Wendy Davis? Only clueless commenters have been interested in the sexist attacks on Davis.

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    2. No. I missed it entirely. Now that I look back I find they were mentioned.

      "Last night, something very unusual happened. Not too many years ago, it could never have happened:

      On MSNBC, a panel of scribes pushed back hard in defense of Davis, Chris Hayes in the chair.

      In our view, some of the pushback was a bit unbalanced...."

      To engage in one of Bob's favorite activities, lets do a word count.

      45. I get 45. Is that what you get?

      Now count this:

      "That third claim, concerning the Tennessee farm, resembles the claim now being made against Davis.

      Al Gore said he grew up on the Tennessee farm, but he really grew up in D.C.! In reciting this scripted attack, pundits claimed that Gore had distorted the basic outlines of his personal story."

      We picked this quote because it is the first time since our first quote that either Davis, the benficiary of the pushback, or Hayes and panel, which you say the post is about, has been mentioned since last we stopped counting.

      How long is this piece about the third, count 'em, third charge rehashed already in this post that is about Hayes and Co. but not Davis?

      50. I count 50 words. Just to introduce part three. But the farm tale doesn't stop there. It goes on for four more paragraphs.

      I wondered why none of the charges against Davis were aired. I wondered why none of the pushback was detailed, just dismissed somewhat derisively.

      Thanks for all you help. This wan't about Davis. It wasn't about Hayes & panel. It wasn't really about Gore and the press corps war.

      This post was about Bob. Read my unpublished book!!!



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    3. Unpublished? Don't forget unfinished. More than 13 years later.

      What a desperate cry for attention for a "book" that even Bob himself admitted abandoning because no one was interested.

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    4. The charge that Bob abandoned his book resembles the charge now being made against Davis.

      Bob said he grew up in an Irish household, with a family which adored books. Stop me if you've heard this before...

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    5. Unfortunately, the problem isn't that these sorts of gaffs, polemics, faux pas, scandals...whatever... are covered.

      The problem is that they're the only goddamn thing that's covered.

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  7. No tears for Wendy Davis here. The truth about her backstory was compelling enough. But she "embellished" it by both commission and omission.

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    1. This post isn't about Wendy Davis, true, false, blonde or brunette.

      This post is about mano a mano press wresslin. About time those piddle pushers began kickin, bitin, and buggerin their own selfs for a change.

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    2. Yes, and according the the Rules de Somerby, when a "liberal" candidate is attacked, it is the responsibility, nay, the duty of the "liberal" press to defend her.

      Anything less would be, dare I say the word, "tribalism."

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    3. Your snarky attack on the Rules de Somerby will enrage and perhaps engage the Rubes de Somerby. You know, the one on the left and the one on the right?

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    4. Davis' (embellished) story wasn't tight enough.The liberal press needs to help her harden the charade and put the blame squarely where it belongs: On Republicans. And maybe the press needs to spend a little more time on exaggerated injuries and frivolous lawsuits filed by her paraplegic opponent who couldn't possibly know what it's like to walk in her shoes.

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  8. MSNBC featured Wendy Davis in one of their lean-forward-brave -new-world network promos.

    I guess some push-back on her behalf would be in order.




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  9. Oh goodie, a whole new group of super ugly conservative trolls have discovered this blog.

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