Maddow watch: You actually aren't your neighbor's keeper!

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016

Don't take a neighbor to lunch:
It's hard to believe how bad it can get when Candidate Kasich starts talking.

Five years ago, in a split-second encounter, he mistook a young guy's girl friend for the young guy's mother. And dear God! When he won the Ohio primary last month, he stooped so low that he was caught making these remarks in his victory speech:
KASICH (3/15/16): Now, I want you to know the campaign goes on, and I also want you to know that it's been my intention to make you proud. It's been my intention to have young people all across this country watch somebody enter into politics—even though I labored in obscurity for so long—people counting me out, people in Ohio saying, "Why don't they ever call on him?" Okay? We get all that. But we put one foot in front of the other.

And I want to remind you again tonight that I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land...We can go to Washington in the first 100 days and fix these problems with a shock and awe agenda that can pass. I think we can rally the people in Washington because I'm going to remind them that, before we're Republicans and Democrats, we're Americans. And we have an obligation to our children. But I really, really, really believe this and want you to know this.

And maybe in many respects, this is why I have been given a chance to stand here tonight and have earned a victory. You know, the lord has made everybody here special. I have been telling people this all across the country. Nobody, sir, has ever been made like you before, and no one will ever be like you again. And young lady, you're here a moment in time, and your job is to find that purpose that you have. Your job is to live life a little bit bigger than yourself. Your job is to be a center of healing and justice and hope in whatever way we can.

If we're a schoolteacher, we give up money to change lives. If we're a nurse, we work 15 extra minutes, when we're dead on our feet, because we want to assure a family that things are going to be okay. And if we are a neighbor, that means that widow, who was married for 50 years, who no one calls any more—you want to change the world? You take her to dinner on Saturday night. She'll wear that dress she hasn't worn in six months. I trust you to do it.

See, what I learned as a boy, what I learned from my mother and father, is that the spirit—it doesn't rest in a big-time politician and a big-wig. You hired us to do the job. To create an environment of economic growth and opportunity. But that's not where our spirit is. Our spirit is in us.

Believing that through our efforts—that in whatever part of the world that we live, that we can change the world, that we can carve out a better future.
For CNN's transcript, click here.

It's hard to believe that a person would stand up in public and actually say things like that. That he would praise teachers and nurses. That he would actually tell the public to care for an elderly neighbor.

Luckily, Rachel Maddow called Candidate Kasich to task for those remarks in the opening segment of her April 15 program. Sadly, Maddow didn't have time to "decode" all the ugliness in Kasich's speech. And so, she pulled out one short chunk, letting the ugliness of that remark stand for all the rest.

This is the short chunk Maddow played. She aired videotape of this chunk of that speech, edited down like this:
KASICH: And if we are a neighbor, that means that widow, who was married for 50 years, who no one calls any more—you want to change the world? You take her to dinner on Saturday night. She'll wear that dress she hasn't worn in six months. I trust you.
That's the chunk Maddow played. Weirdly but rather typically, it seems that "I trust you to do it" even got edited down to the slightly puzzling "I trust you" stub, which made the remarks sound stranger.

To watch Maddow's full segment, click here.

Why did Maddow play that chunk of Kasich's speech? She included it in "our child's treasury of John Kasich engaging with women voters," the seven-part parade of alleged horribles which was accompanied by this chyron:

KASICH'S LONG HISTORY OF CONDESCENSION TOWARD WOMEN

As it turned out, Kasich's advice about that elderly widow was part of his "long history of condescension toward women!" That's why our own multimillionaire corporate hustler decided to show it that night!

In fairness, let's include a bit of context. Earlier in the segment, Maddow's viewers had been warned about the "incredibly awkward things" Kasich had been "accumulating almost a reputation for saying." Apparently, Kasich's ugly remark about the elderly widow was one of the many examples which prove that Kasich is "a statewide elected official who says stuff that you can't believe he's actually saying. Sometimes he's offending women. Sometimes he's just being radically offensive."

Apparently, Kasich's comment about the widow was an example of this troubling behavior! So was his utterly pointless mistake when he thought, five years ago, that somebody's girl friend was, instead, his mother.

As we watched, we couldn't help forming a question: How long could Kasich's "long history of condescension toward women" actually be? If these were the most offensive examples Maddow and her horrible staff could find, just how awful could Kasich have been during his long career?

How offensive has Kasich been? How rich in condescension? Maddow's "child's treasury" contained only seven examples. In one example, Kasich was urging people to be their neighbor's keeper. In another, he made an embarrassing but pointless mistake about the identity of a person on whom he had never laid eyes.

This left only five more examples of his "long history of condescension." With a thirty-year career to choose from, Maddow came up with other underwhelming examples, including one time when Kasich had dared to ask a woman if she'd ever been on a diet.

Through skillful editing, Maddow staffers kept viewers from seeing the point of Kasich's query; Kasich went on to compare the way we tend to backslide on diets to the way a government can fall off the wagon when it comes to disciplined spending. In his extended comments, Kasich seemed to suggest that he had fallen off the wagon once or twice when it came to dieting. But in the increasingly crazy Empire of Maddow, he had uttered another condescending remark, illustrating a crazy new rule:

Can we talk? In the crazy Empire of Maddow, men and women are no longer allowed to mention the practice of going on diets! Does any reactionary religious regime practice separation of men and women to a greater extent than this? In the increasingly crazy Empire of Maddow, it's now an example of condescension if a man dares to speak to an unclean woman that way!

How long is Candidate Kasich's "long history of condescension?" The history didn't seem very long by the time Maddow had finished playing tape of these stupid examples—examples which said more about her unpleasant heart and dishonest mind than they said about Kasich.

Rachel Maddow has become a dishonest, self-absorbed person. In its relatively short history, cable news has produced a few genuine demagogues. For our money, the worst to date have been Sean Hannity and the ugly version of Chris Matthews which did so much harm from 1998 to 2008, until Matthews reinvented himself in line with changed corporate policy.

Bill O'Reilly can be crazy too, but he doesn't rise to the level of Hannity, or to the level of the Matthews who did so much harm by running errands for his corporate owner, Jack Welch. That said, we'd have to say that the increasingly dishonest Maddow is rapidly finding her way into the Hannity ranks.

She has almost totally lost her way, helped along by her stooges and staff. Like Hannity, Maddow now seems to be devoted to making her viewers dumb and tribal, apparently to serve the end of her own massive profit and fame.

Is there anything worse than a corporate multimillionaire who toys with her viewers this way? That said, it turns out that you aren't your neighbor's keeper! A self-obsessed person who's lost her way was happy to tell us that night!

Judged by journalistic standards, Rachel Maddow ought to be off the air. Her program is rapidly devolving into a weeklong con. It seems to us that something has perhaps gone "wrong" inside her devolving head. But her conduct on that show has become fake and faux and ugly in its desire to help us learn how to loathe.

In our view, Maddow is sliding in the direction of the all-time worst in cable. Are Hannity and the former Matthews actually the worst of all time?

Mugging and clowning and pimping herself, a less than obsessively honest hack is moving up on the inside.

For the record: Much more was wrong with that Kasich segment. In its essence, Rachel Maddow's TV show has become both dumb and dishonest. Trusting viewers serve as her marks.

We've seen this very bad movie before. We've seen it done by Rush and Sean. We've seen this game played Over There.

41 comments:

  1. Would somebody please take the crotchety old bachelor, who has been unmarried for fifty years, who nobody calls or comments about anymore, out for dinner? He'll wear that jacket me hasn't worn since he worked a nearly empthy comedy club in a strip mall decades ago. I trust he'll Tivo the Maddow Show if you take him out during her time slot.

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    1. LOL!

      He'll Tivo the Maddow Show and two weeks later, he'll get around to writing about it.

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    2. The club was empty of empathy.

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    3. I would regard Somerby a hero in that he watches Maddow's program so I don't have to. Seriously, have you ever sat through one of her programs?

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    4. Why would you have to if he didn't?

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    5. An excellent question, 10:18. And if she is that terrible, why does anyone have to watch her?

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    6. Being the highest paid and with the choicest time slot on the only liberal political news program she is arguably the most prominent liberal in corporate media. I think it's important to know how my political views are being represented by corporate suits. In Maddow's case not very well.

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  2. Kasich the Moderate | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee |

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBF3K5X6XE4

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  3. In the examples you're giving here, he's not so much being offense as just cringeworthy. He makes that widow sound pathetic. Someone who was very attuned to human feelings, someone like Obama, would never phrase that the way Kasich did.

    But to take another example, the teenage girl (age 16 or 17) who asked if Social Security was still going to be around when she retired. He asked her, "Did someone tell you to ask that?" That is very offensive. It's disgusting, really. The subtext is "you are too young, too stupid (maybe even too female" to be wondering about a policy issue like Social Security. Maybe Kasich was basing his answer on his own teen daughters. Maybe a thought about policy never would have entered their heads. But as a candidate you have to treat everyone's question with respect.

    Plus all the references to "co-eds" just make him seem like a relic from the Eisenhower era. Maybe it doesn't bother you, Bob, but maybe it should.

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    1. Did somebody tell you to write this comment?

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    2. "Did somebody tell you to write this comment?"

      Look who's talking.

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    3. anonymous 4-29-2016 @ 9:02 PM. He drew you offside. Stop it. His snap count NEVER changes. Always Hut 1. Bob used to comment a lot on how bad the comments sections are bad elsewhere... THEN THOSE LOSERS CAME HERE. Like David in Cal, who has been bombing [not entertaining] around here for awhile. Sorta like Rush is just an entertainer. They're both just miserable. Consistent and miserable.

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  4. It's interesting that Rachel has taken to using "white men" as a pejorative term.

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    Replies
    1. It's interesting that you troll a 5-year-old Newsbusters meme here.

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    2. Have never read Newsbusters.

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  5. My life became devastated when my husband sent me packing, after 8 years that we have been together. I was lost and helpless after trying so many ways to make my husband take me back. One day at work, i was absent minded not knowing that my boss was calling me, so he sat and asked me what its was all about i told him and he smiled and said that it was not a problem. I never understand what he meant by it wasn’t a problem getting my husband back, he said he used a spell to get his wife back when she left him for another man and now they are together till date and at first i was shocked hearing such thing from my boss. He gave me an email address of the great spell caster who helped him get his wife back, i never believed this would work but i had no choice that to get in contact with the spell caster which i did, and he requested for my information and that of my husband to enable him cast the spell and i sent him the details, but after two days, my mom called me that my husband came pleading that he wants me back, i never believed it because it was just like a dream and i had to rush down to my mothers place and to my greatest surprise, my husband was kneeling before me pleading for forgiveness that he wants me and the kid back home, then i gave Happy a call regarding sudden change of my husband and he made it clear to me that my husband will love me till the end of the world, that he will never leave my sight. Now me and my husband is back together again and has started doing pleasant things he hasn’t done before, he makes me happy and do what he is suppose to do as a man without nagging. Please if you need help of any kind, kindly contact Happy for help and you can reach him via email: happylovespell2@gmail.com

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  6. I virtually never watch MSNBC. The other night I saw her do a segment on the new Military Offensive in Iraq. It's the sort of reporting that should be on all the time, and the kind of reporting Bob has never displayed any interest in. Here, Maddow shamed Somerby.

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    1. What was good about it? How did she shame him?

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    2. Yeah, and more from the bitch that husband put him out. Yes, I meant HIM!

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    3. Bob should cover what Greg tells him to.

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    4. Up yours, douchebag.
      As to Anony at 11:42. The story was about a proposed new assault by troops in Iraq which includes Americans, even though we are supposed to be out of Iraq. It was informative and to that extent put the event in context. And since no one much covers these things anymore, it was good on that level. Bob does not seem to understand that to really care about poor black children, he has to be interested in where about half of our tax dollars go. That would be Military and Defense Spending, in which he has no interest, and or no interest in how they are covered. So to that very real and clear extent, Maddow shames him. When She does serious or laudable work and Bob deliberately insults her and insists all She does is crap, She shames him again.

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  7. Speaking of all that, Trump is now claiming that Hillary is playing the "woman card" so that he can introduce Bill Clinton's infidelities into the campaign. He is saying that when Hillary and her surrogates accuse him of sexism, it is OK for him to defend himself by pointing to Bill's sexist behavior (womanizing) and her "enabling" of it. If Trump were merely to go after Bill without that kind of justification, he might appear to be attacking the personal life of a woman who was sinned upon by her husband. So there needs to be the justification that others are calling Trump the sexist.

    I don't know who Trump thinks this logic will appeal to. It won't be convincing to women, even Republican women. In general, women aren't going to forgive Trump any sexist behavior no matter what Bill Clinton did. And everyone has already heard all the stories circulating among Republicans. They've never looked for an excuse to tell those stories before. But Trump seems to think that tit for tat excuses his own bad behavior. Very juvenile thinking but remarkably similar to the reasoning that if Somerby can be shown to have done the same thing he is complaining about, then others are excused for whatever they did.

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    1. Logic? This is a tv show brother. Logic has nothing to do with it.

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  8. Gail Collins tries to match Maddow is nastiness and negative spin, but she's no match for the master. See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/opinion/the-one-thing-worse-than-trump.html?_r=0

    Collins says Cruz is a horrible person because his children appeared in a political ad! And, he sometimes has them on stage with him!


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    1. I feel sorry for them, and not because of Collins' article.

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  9. Joseph Cannon in today's Cannonfire has researched the funding of Salon.com and suggests that it is being run to benefit Wall Street investors, including the cofounder and head of the defense contracting arm of Adobe Systems. He says Salon has been supporting Trump all along and playing progressives for fools by using Bernie supporters to attack Clinton. Now they are running articles suggesting that Hillary is a neocon (loved by Rove & the Kochs) when all of the real neocons are behind Trump. He discusses the people providing foreign policy advice to Trump -- people Trump hasn't wanted to name.

    Cannon is a fan of Somerby. I don't know if the feeling is mutual but it ought to be.

    http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/

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  10. There was a really weird Maddow moment the other day. Talking about Richard Schweiker, "the patron saint of the pancreas," first she pretended to be confused about where the pancreas was. Then she made pains to mention that we viewers should be clear: the pancreas was not the same thing as the placenta.

    You know, like people do.

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    1. An interesting example of combing through and cherry-picking an entire segment for something to ridicule Rachel Maddow with.

      Of course, the context was Ted Cruz's "Hail Mary" of choosing Carly Fiornia as his running mate, well before the convention.

      The last time that was done was 1976, when Ronald Reagan hoped to woo delegates not locked in by choosing the very well respected and even "liberal" (certainly by today's GOP standards) Schweiker before that convention. And it didn't work.

      The whole "patron saint of the pancreas" was part of her contrasting Schweiker to Fiorina. Schweiker worked hard in both the House and Senate to increase federal funding for research into diabetes, and I'll bet there are a lot of people alive today who are more than happy he did.

      Meanwhile, Fiorina is best known for nearly running Hewlett Packard off a cliff and into the ground.

      The segment was about how it didn't work in 1976 with a highly respected, popular and accomplished Senator and how it is certain to fail now with Fiorina.

      But never mind that. It was really all about making a one-line joke about the pancreas and placenta that you didn't like, wasn't it?

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    2. 6:50 - How does the placenta fit in? Fiorina is a female?

      I'm telling you if you want make jokes, hire some comedy writers. If you want to be sharp and witty, hire writers that are.

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    3. I was fairly clear about my criticism. I am not cherrypicking at all either. I didn't object to the story, or the juxtaposition of Patron Saint of the Pancreas and Fiorina.
      As you say, there's a thread there.

      But why does she feel the need to tell us not to mistake the pancreas for the placenta? At best, it's lame humor. At worst, it comes off as downright insulting.

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  11. Whatever Somerby might be doesn't change who Maddow is.

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  12. Maddow is a award winning cable host who can get interviews with Hillary Clinton. Bob is a jealous bigot whose soul is being consumed by his hatred for a successful woman.

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  13. An award-winning, dishonest self-absorbed cable host.

    We've seen it. It's unbearable. For exactly the reasons Somerby mentions.

    Demonstrating that fact brings out the name-calling from her fans. Big surprise.

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  14. Maddow hates Kasich because he had the audacity to tell women they risk getting raped if impaired and if they do, they won't be able to prove it in court where the rapist will enjoy the benefit of the doubt. The left thinks facts are mean, like the fact that drunken men are at low to no risk of being raped while drunken women are.

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    1. He told women not to go to parties where alcohol is served. He might as well have told them to wear burkhas and stop driving cars, and never ever go anywhere without a male guardian.

      We are not a society where women cannot fully participate in college life, including going to parties. Alcohol is not only for men. Self control and obeying the law is for both sexes. There is no excuse for rape -- being drunken is not an excuse to commit a crime.

      Drunken men are at risk of car accidents, theft, damaging others property, being beaten up, being taken advantage of in any number of ways (including being accused of something they didn't commit), and committing stupid acts up to including killing themselves by jumping or falling off things or drowning. We should lock up the men and keep them away from alcohol too, dontcha think.

      Maddow thinks attacking Kasich is stupid ways will enhance her ratings. Beyond that, she clearly doesn't think much.

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    2. One of the saddest examples of this is Jeff Buckley, who got drunk, went swimming in the Mississippi River and drowned. Every year a few young men fall out of frat house windows while drunk. Countless numbers drink to the point of hospitalization. Heaven forbid we ever tell those young men to avoid parties with alcohol.

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    3. Dumbledown StrunkMay 2, 2016 at 11:59 AM

      "being drunken is not an excuse to commit a crime."

      Getting drunk was once made a crime because some thought being drunk caused one otherwise able to exercise judgement and self control to commit additional crimes...like rape.

      But hey, if some women think it is sexist to remind women that alochol enhances sexist behavior in some men to the point of criminality, then let those women also be stupid enough to mistake preventative advice for excuses of criminal acts.

      Our advice is to also avoid stupid people.

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    4. It is sexist not to address the rape problem at the source, the men who do the raping.

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  15. Only unbearable to old conservative white guys like Bob who are threatened by an intelligent, empowered gay woman.

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