Sep 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Liberals on the Teevee
As Andrew Golis says, this is why Rachel Maddow matters. As of last week, had a liberal journalist like Ari Berman broken a news story like this it would have been published on The Nation, picked up in some blogs, and then it would have died. Now, it’s on television:
And not only is the story on television, but Ari can come on to talk about it and why it matters.
Long story short, John McCain who hates lobbyists and celebrities decided to spend his seventieth birthday partying on a yacht off the shore of Montenegro with an Italian con man and his movie star girlfriend, a meeting organized by a lobbyist who also happens to be McCain’s campaign manager.
39 Responses to “Liberals on the Teevee”
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September 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
The real breakthrough will be when the other nets feel compelled to cover a story Rachel’s broken. I don’t think is it.
And Ari, man, he looks like a little kid.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Wow, real journalism featured on TV news. Who would have guessed?
September 11th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I wonder if this story will get any play in other news outlets. Probably not.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
This is a story that, like the number of houses McCain has, would be trivial on its own, but in the context of the campaign (and more importantly, the narratives of the campaign) has relevance. Whether or not McCain went on a booze cruise with some Italian dude and his movie star broad is of very little importance on its own. But it’s coming in the context of a campaign where McCain keeps accusing Obama of being the kind of celebrity wheeler-dealer who would, you know, take a booze cruise with some Italian dude and his movie star broad. I wish we were a cool enough country so that stuff like this wasn’t news, but well, it’s the environment Republicans have created.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
It’s too complicated to digest quickly. I think your summation at the end of your post should have been Rachel’s intro. Something snappy and easily digestible to start, then get into the specifics. It just takes her too long to get to the: “Long story short, John McCain who hates lobbyists and celebrities decided to spend his seventieth birthday partying on a yacht off the shore of Montenegro with an Italian con man and his movie star girlfriend, a meeting organized by a lobbyist who also happens to be McCain’s campaign manager.”
But, all in all, I agree that Rachel’s show is awesome.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
It’s simpler than that, even. Having openly liberal and likeable people expressing their opinions on TV legitimizes having a liberal opinion.
Glenn Beck, for example is right, er, rarely at best. But he’s likeable and open about his biases. That’s a lot more appealing than some asshole telling you that you’re objectively wrong and that he has no bias.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Glenn Beck is likable? God, I’d had to see what you would consider an annoying asshole.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Nice profile or Rachel in her hometown paper:
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
http://tinurl.us/c141c9
September 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
sounds like a story that would make a good ad…
September 11th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
You know what’s interesting about this? Maddow’s not pissed off about it (rightfully so, IMO). She’s mocking McCain for his whole “Obama’s a celebrity” meme. That’s pretty much the way the left tends to cover hypocrisy.
Contrast it with the right. If the shoe’s on the other foot, Glenn Beck/ Sean Hannity / Bill O’Reilly are the three stooges of pissed off dudes. The right covers hypocrisy with phony outrage.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Oh and great comment under the article I linked to:
September 11th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I think that this story may be too complicated for the hoopleheads. They need to dumb it down: “McCain has his 70th birthday party with mafia con-man, effete liberal actress and washington insider lobbyist.” That should do. I wish we knew how much the champagne cost. I can’t imagine what that party was like.
That dude Ari needs a haircut. Smart guy but come on, you don’t want people to dismiss you out of hand based on appearance before they listen to what you have to say. This isn’t selling out, its pragmatism. You’re there to get your message across.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Does it matter if none of the other networks pick it up?
Does it matter if it doesn’t get turned into an attack ad by a 527?
When will we ever learn to stop talking to ourselves and play the game?
September 11th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Speaking of Glenn Beck, I saw an advertisement in a movie theater over the summer that he was going to have a ’simulcast’ of his live ‘comedy’ show in (digitally equipped) theaters around the country.
How’d that work out? Did crowds fill up movie theaters to get that awesome, super-insightful Glenn Beck comedy?
‘Cause, I never saw any stats or sales figures about that. Was it an unmentioned summer sensation? A gigantic cultural phenomenon suppressed by the librul medja?
September 11th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Gosh, John McCain just can’t catch a break on birthday photos, can he? The year before this party on the yacht he and George Bush were having that birthday party while Katrina was drowning New Orleans.
Maybe that’s why he chose a boat the following year?
September 11th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
We have a picture, but what was McCain doing there? What’s going on? Will anyone ask McCain about this? My guess is that no one will ask and McCain won’t say anything about. All this picture does is raise a question, and we have no idea what the answer is. We can speculate, but until more information is known about the context, I don’t think it will go anywhere.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
So whats the over under for the show getting canceled now? It cant last long if it continues to commit journalism on TV that is a big no no.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
As smart and informative as Maddow is, she does manage to mis-use the phrase “beg the question”. You’ll never see Bill O’Reilly make a mistake like that.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Professor Booty
Unfortunately, according to my english Ph.D friends, that is now an accepted usage of the phrase “beg the question”. It annoys the hell out of me too, but it’s typical.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Shit! Give me a chance to party on a yacht off the coast of Montenegro for my 70th birthday and I would be all over it! Especially with my wife that is about 18 years younger than me. Party!!!!!!
September 11th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
So, are you saying she’ll run stories that Olbermann won’t touch? Or CBS? God save the Republic!
September 12th, 2008 at 2:26 am
As smart and informative as Maddow is, she does manage to mis-use the phrase “beg the question”.
Stanford graduate.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:34 am
By the way, supposedly McCain’s first words as he stepped on the yacht were: “Where’s Bijou?”
September 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am
“Begs the question”, for the older meaning, is incorrect. The phrase was “Beggars the question”. The meaning was that the question has been stripped of all value or, reduced to beggary. The way that Maddow uses “begs the question” is actually a more accurate usage. If you mean “beggars the question”, and actually say “begs”, you are making a bigger mistake than Maddow.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Was Cindy there? Maybe laborlibert needs to add “while Cindy stays home with the kids.”
September 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
“The way that Maddow uses “begs the question” is actually a more accurate usage.”
No it’s not. She means “raises the question”. But begging the question means circular reasoning, assuming the conclusion in the premises. You’re begging the original question, not “begging” or suggesting some new other question, as Maddow implies.
“Gosh, John McCain just can’t catch a break on birthday photos, can he?”
If he gets elected we’ll be hoping he has several more…
September 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
No, you are beggering the question, not begging it. The phrase was based on the verb “to begger”, which means to reduce to poverty. If you lost everything in the stock market, you were beggered. A question that loses all value because the answer is supplied in its asking is beggered. When people stopped using the word “begger” as a verb, they stopped saying “beggers the question”.
In the circular reasoning usage, replacing “beggering” with “begging” reduces the phrase to a nonsense phrase that has a meaning arbitrarily assigned to it, not a meaning that arises from the logical interpretation of the words as they are used.
It is not surprising that the phrase has changed to meaning something closer to what the combination of the words actually imply.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I LOVE Rachel, and Keith Olbermann. They seem to be the ONLY truthful journalists out there today. Nobody else wants to cover these stories that are important to us “liberals”, but they will. YEAH! Thank God for Rachel and Keith. If MSNBC execs were smart, they’d throw money at them and keep their coverage as is. I don’t need or even want “balanced” coverage anymore. I want a voice that sounds like mine – the way Rachel and Keith do it. Thanks you two. The only real journalists left.
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