Maddow watch: Obama takes the waters in Flint!

THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2016

Maddow forgets to say so:
Yesterday, Barack Obama spoke at a community event in Flint.

Before he spoke at that event, he received a briefing about the state of the city's water. In the New York Times, Shear and Bosman report what happened there:
SHEAR (5/5/16): Mr. Obama had been under pressure for months to visit Flint. White House aides said he had decided to make the trip after receiving a letter from an 8-year-old girl, Amariyanna Copeny, who is known among many in the city as Little Miss Flint.

After receiving a briefing from federal officials who have been on the ground in Flint for months, Mr. Obama urged residents to use filters for their drinking water and to make sure that children received medical checkups. At the end of the briefing, he took a sip from a glass of Flint water after saying, “Filtered water is safe.”
Say what? Obama did and said what?

The Associated Press chose to open its news report with Obama taking the waters. "Sipping filtered city water to show it's again drinkable, President Barack Obama promised Wednesday to ride herd on leaders at all levels of government until every drop of water flowing into homes in Flint, Michigan, is safe to use," the famous news service reported.

In the Washington Post, it was paragraph 2. "Obama drank from a glass filled with filtered Flint water to drive home his message that recovery efforts, slow off the mark, were finally making gains."

After getting his briefing, Obama drank the (filtered) water in Flint to show that the water is safe! In fact, he did so two separate times—at the briefing, and then again at the community meeting.

Obama drank the filtered water to show that the water is safe! Unless you watch the Maddow Show, where that unacceptable conduct wasn't allowed to have happened.

Have we noted that Rachel Maddow has become an undisguised "cable news" demagogue? Last night, she displayed this preference again in the course of her very brief report about Obama's trip to the city she loves and holds so dear.

Near the end of last night's hour, Maddow devoted four minutes to this event. (Earlier, she had devoted roughly that amount of time to pointless old film clips of Lyndon Larouche.)

As always, Maddow built her remarkably short report around attacks on Governor Snyder, one of her most-hated political demons. Along the way, she actually reported part of what Obama said and did.

Below, you see Maddow's full report on Obama. In case you haven't noticed it yet, Maddow has become a reliable propagandist:
MADDOW (5/4/126): When President Obama did arrive, the president spoke for nearly an hour, way longer than we were told to expect.

He told the audience that he had their backs. That the water pipes will be replaced but it will take a long time. He told them that in the meantime they should feel safe drinking filtered water. He spoke to a fear he said he'd heard all day from the people he spoke to, the fear that Flint's kids have been irreparably damaged by the lead poisoned water.

OBAMA (videotape): You should be angry, but channel that anger. You should be hurt, but don't sink into despair. And most of all, do not somehow communicate to our children, here in this city, that they are going to be saddled with problems with the rest of their lives because they will not. They'll do just fine, just like I did fine with a single mom and a lot of you did fine growing up in a tough neighborhood. They'll make it as long as we're there for them and looking after them and doing the right thing for them and giving them the resources that they need. Don't lose hope.

MADDOW: President Obama today, in Flint, Michigan. He headed back to the airport after the speech, back to D.C.
To watch the whole segment, click here. It runs just over four minutes.

Meanwhile, say what? Obama "told them that they should feel safe drinking filtered water?"

Did Rachel Maddow really say that? Did we hear her correctly?

In fact, Maddow's account overstates what Obama actually said; we'll correct her error below. That said, we ask those questions for a reason:

A few weeks back, Governor Snyder told the residents of Flint that they should feel safe drinking filtered water, except in the case of pregnant women and children under 6.

He went to Flint and drank filtered water, saying he thought it was safe. He said he'd drink filtered water from Flint at home and at work for a month.

When Snyder said and did those things, Maddow assailed him for it. She implied, again and again, that his assessment was wrong about the safety of drinking the filtered water.

She called his pledge to drink Flint water "a publicity stunt." She invented several fake facts to paint him in a bad light.

Uh-oh! Yesterday, Obama also went to Flint, where he met with Snyder. While there, he did and said the things for which Snyder had been assailed.

Like Snyder, Obama said that drinking filtered water was safe, except in the case of pregnant women and children under 6. (Maddow failed to mention those exceptions when she reported what Obama said. She runs a very careless show. Her factual errors are endless.)

Like Snyder, Obama made a point of drinking filtered Flint water, just to show he thought it was safe. He did this twice, in fact.

Maddow briefly mentioned what Obama had said. She never mentioned what he did—the fact that he took the waters, just as Snyder had done.

As is always the case when she talks about Flint, Maddow's presentation focused on trashing Snyder. She didn't mention the contradiction between Obama's words (which she misreported) and her previous suggestions that Snyder's assessment had been wrong.

She didn't so much as mention the fact that Obama took the waters. She had trashed Snyder for doing that. Now, the conduct disappeared when engaged in by Obama.

From the start, Maddow's treatment of Flint has been a series of cartoonized attacks on Snyder. She has done amazingly little real reporting on a wide array of events and issues in Flint. A long string of basic questions have gone unasked and unanswered on her propagandistic, cartoonized TV show.

Assuming that she's in control of herself, we don't know if we've ever seen a more cynical cable player than the one Maddow has become. She treats her viewers like absolute fools. They seem to respond with gratitude, just the way Hannity's mistreated viewers have always done.

Maddow should be off the air. If MSNBC was an actual news org, her gruesome behavior would have been stopped long ago.

Drum samples the waters: For Kevin Drum's reaction to Obama's visit, just click here.

Like Drum, we'd like to see a further assessment by a full-fledged water expert. For all her posturing about Flint, Maddow has never bothered to provide this obvious service. Instead, we get handed her assessments, which are utterly useless.

Her program is posturing all the way down. Essentially, the children of Flint serve as tools for our own cable hack's use.

More on Maddow's errors tomorrow. Her program is a rolling disgrace, a classic "cable news" mess.

25 comments:

  1. "If MSNBC was an actual news org, her gruesome behavior would have been stopped long ago." B.S.

    Bob gets top efficiency in asking and answering his own question in the same sentence.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "When Snyder said and did those things, Maddow assailed him for it."

    It was a political stunt from a guy implicated in the scandal. He should be assailed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why isn't the federal government and its chief executive "implicated in the scandal"?

      According to this Detroit Free Press timeline [LINK]:

      [QUOTE] Feb. 25, 2015: EPA Region 5 in Chicago receives a call from Flint resident LeeAnne Walters, regarding high levels of lead discovered in her tap water. The week before, the city tested her water after her child develops skin rashes over his body after bathing. Lead levels are recorded at 104 parts per billion — nearly seven times the federal action limit. [END QUOTE]

      CNN fills in some of the details [LINK]:

      [QUOTE] In the spring of 2015, LeeAnne Walters had been getting the runaround from local officials about the brown water that was flowing from the taps in Flint.

      Her twin boys were getting rashes. One was showing signs of stunted growth. "We had to figure out what was going on," she said.

      So she turned to the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government agency that regulates drinking water. Walters was confident the agency would come in, find answers and fix things -- quickly.

      That's not what happened. This story doesn't end in spring 2015. [END QUOTE]

      Back to the Detroit Free Press timeline:

      [QUOTE] Jan. 5, 2016: Snyder declares a state of emergency in Flint, later mobilizing the National Guard to assist with the distribution of bottled water and water filters and then asking the federal government to declare a major disaster.

      Jan. 16: President Barack Obama declares an emergency in Flint. [END QUOTE]

      Delete
  3. Your condemnation of RM is as great as Dowd, who is far more influential and insidious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bob is exactly correct. Flint's citizens need new plumbing but a proper lead-mitigating water filtration system solves the lead problem immediately, albeit one household at a time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Bob is exactly correct" says one of his expert reader/copmmenters. We agree.
      Millions of fact checkers prove Bob to be exactly correct ginormous amounts of times.

      Plus he has Brother/Uncle Drum to back him up.

      And what does Brother/Uncle say this time, when Bob seems to agree with him?

      "Now, this is cocktail-napkin stuff, and I'm not an expert. All I'm trying to do is give you a rough idea of the magnitude of the problem. Anyone who has better data and knows how to analyze it more rigorously is welcome to set me straight if I've made a mistake.

      That said, it's unlikely that I'm off by a lot".

      Rules of thumb rule their world! Especially when it is their thumb and they make up how to use the rule.

      Delete
    2. Don't forget "rough ideas" which they conflate with "rules of thumb" to come up with "rough rules of thumb."

      Delete
    3. Yep, 5:02. I bet if your state and local government changed your water from unleaded to leaded, you'd just be whistling a happy tune as you purchased a whole house filtration system to solve the problem immediately, and so easily.

      And especially if you are poor. And renting.

      Delete
  5. Filtration may solve the lead problem but what about the problem of corrosives in the water? If the water eats away at metal pipes imagine what even trace corrosive residue could do to a child' innards over time. It's one thing to take a sip of rot gut water, it's a whole other thing when it's your total water supply.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How much water do kids drink, as opposed to milk, soda and juice? Not much, I'd bet.

      Delete
    2. Just how stupid is @ 8:31? Plenty. And I am not a betting person. Just an observant human and parent.

      Delete
  6. Note that when you fail to mention something, Somerby considers it an error.

    Since Somerby failed to mention the long sustained booing of Governor Snyder in Flint, I'd say his errors are aimed at advancing the line of propaganda he is pimping.

    Ever since he began blogging Bob has used black children as tools for his self loathing rants about "us liberals."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dave the Guitar PlayerMay 6, 2016 at 1:03 PM

      First, Bob is not complaining so much about "us liberals" as our "liberal" media representatives. When he does poke at "us liberals", it is usually to complain that we do not recognize the damage that our "liberal" media is doing to our own cause. This is not "self loathing", but self criticism. Secondly, I don't understand why you think the fact that Snyder is booed in Flint is relevant to the facts regarding the water problems there. Other than (as Maddow knows), this is a convenient way to demonize the Governor.

      Delete
    2. You have got a real first class brain there,
      Dave.

      Delete
    3. Dave, you have mad mindreading skillz (/s). Any other delusions you wish to share?

      Delete
  7. 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

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi everyone!
    I'm so excited my husband is back after a break up !
    My husband broke up with me last week, i was so frustrated and i could not know what next to do again, i love my husband so much but he was cheating on me with another woman and this makes him broke up with me so that he can be able to get marry to the other lady and this lady i think use witchcraft on my husband to make him hate me and my kids and this was so critical and uncalled-for,I cry all day and night for God to send me a helper to get back my man until i went to NY to see a friend and who was having the same problem with me but she latter got her Husband back and i asked her how she was able to get her husband back and she told me that their was a powerful spell caster in Africa name Dr.Unity that he help with love spell in getting back lost lover back, and i decided to contacted the same Dr.Unity and he told me what is needed to be done for me to have my man back and i did it although i doubted it but i did it and the Dr told me that i will get the result after 48hours, and he told me that my husband was going to call me by 9pm in my time and i still doubted his word, to my surprise my husband really called me and told me that he miss me so much, Oh My God! i was so happy, and today i am happy with my man again and we are joyfully living together as one good family and i thank the powerful spell caster Dr.Unity of Unityspelltemple@gmail.com , he is so powerful and i decided to share my story on the internet that good spell casters still exist and Dr.Unity is one of the good spell caster who i will always pray to live long to help his children in the time of trouble, if you are there and your lover is turning you down, or you have your husband moved to another woman, do not cry anymore contact the powerful spell caster Dr.Unity on his email: Unityspelltemple@gmail.com .if you have any problem contact Dr.Unity,I guarantee you that he will help you.Thank you so much Dr Unity.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "...we’ll ask Maddow, one more time, to explain her peculiar comments. Until she does, we’ll assume the worst—that Maddow is the latest self-dealer to trade the truth for her own success. We’ll treat her with the contempt she has earned until she explains why she said what she did—why she praised this overt woman-hater on her way to her big career prize."

    Bob Somerby, January 21, 2008

    Bring her to heel, big fella!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that was over eight years ago!

      Delete
    2. And he has kept his hate boiling for eight years plus.

      Delete
    3. Dave the Guitar PlayerMay 6, 2016 at 1:40 PM

      It is not hate. It is hard earned contempt.

      Delete
    4. No, it's compulsive hatred. If you weren't so possessed with kissing Bob's ascot, it would be obvious even to you.

      Delete
    5. Wow, he had her figured out way back then! My favorite though was when he accurately described Maddow as "a wasted draft choice". Long suffering sports fans of a losing team would understand.

      Delete
  10. 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

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello, I am Sheryln Coleman I’m the most happiest person on the face of the earth, after 6 months of sadness and sorrow without being with the one i love, i tried all my possible best to make sure i make my lover happy but it never seems to work out well it was like am doing everything in vain but all thanks goes to Dr Osinbajor for coming to change all my worries and sadness to Joy. i knew the great man when i read some wonderful testimony about Dr Osinbajor how he has helped lots of people on their relationship problems i was reading a magazine when i saw great testimonies, as well my predicament then i decided not to waste time because i have missed my lover so much i decided to contact him and share all my problem with him which he told me not to worry that he is assuring me that within 48 hours everything would be sorted out i believed Dr Osinbajor‎ so much because of how he has been helping many people, my boyfriend who left me for good suddenly replied my text and returned my calls and asked me to please forgive him i was so happy am so grateful to Dr Osinbajor for what he has done for me and I promise to testify his goodness all through my life. If you are there passing the same problem or any kinds of problem contact this great man on his email address: osinbajorbabatunde@gmail.com‎
    1. Getting your lover or husband back
    2. Money spell/ good luck spell
    3. If you can’t satisfy your partner 
    4. Weight loss spell
    5. Get a job spell
    6. Promotion spells
    7. Getting your money back
    8. Freedom spells
    9. Love spell
    10. Avenging spell
    11. Lottery spell ‎

    ReplyDelete