MSNBC's continued embrace of Pat Buchanan shows it still hasn't learned from Savage, Imus, Matthews fiascoes
June 03, 2009 12:17 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Given Pat Buchanan's history of clear bigotry - most recently demonstrated in his reminder last night that he supported and continues to defend a white supremacist - there really isn't any good reason for MSNBC to continue putting him on the air. The man is a bigot, plain and simple. In light of the hot water MSNBC has gotten into in the past for bigoted comments by its employees, you would think they would want to distance themselves from the likes Buchanan.
But what's really extraordinary is that MSNBC brings Buchanan on air to talk about race issues. It gives Pat Buchanan a platform from which to call other people racists. Granted, if there's someone who knows racists better than Pat Buchanan does, I can't think of who it would be. But his is not the kind of expertise MSNBC should be inflicting upon its viewers.
Pat Buchanan's idea of a good Supreme Court justice was someone who said "I believe that segregation of the races is proper ... and the only practical and correct way of life in our states. I yield to no man in the firm, vigorous belief in the principles of white supremacy and I shall always be so governed." Pat Buchanan says calling that person a racist is a "smear."
Paying Pat Buchanan to opine about the Supreme Court, and to call other people racists, is nothing but a sick, twisted joke.
But that's just what MSNBC is doing. Here's a compilation of some of Buchanan's recent vile and hypocritical attacks on Sonia Sotomayor:
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
(You might want to suggest someone, anyone, that poasses muster. Otherwise: you guys are in TROUBLE.)
The sort of loony old guy cooking up crazy formulas all the time...
the thing that worried me the most is that he was the only guy on TV in 2003 that made any sense about the lead up to the war in Iraq...
I always found it very very creepy that I agreed with Pat Buchanan...still gives me the willies just thinking about it.
You mean somebody actually agreed with Pat at one time? Your post made me laugh in spite of feeling nauseous watching the video of the racist old dinosaur Pat.
Another lame culture warrior who lives to protect us from filth.
I'll take the filth any day.
Ed Rollins is also pretty good. He is also very smart politically speaking.
I could do without Medved. He has never shown himself to be particularly intelligent.
Ummm... yeah, it's sometimes wise to do so if those opinions are based on faulty reasoning, racism, outdated stereotypes and/or dogma, or outright demonstrable falsehoods.
Ignorance is not a 'point of view.'
It's not attacking the messenger. It's attacking their partisan and misleading message.
So I don't understand why you're trying to claim the messenger is being attacked here.
BTW, if he could be even 1/2 as logical as Keith Olbermann, he might get his own show.
Pat also has an admitted racist working for one of his orgs, Mr. Epstein.
O'Reilly's game is to stoke hatred and false indignation in his audience and then get paid a few of Rupert's millions for doing it.
I suppose it's a possibility I might think that way...if I never watched him and listened only to Bill-o the Clown's take on MSNBC..
I've also never seen Olbermann ambush and ridicule those that may think his show is a joke, unlike Bill-o.
He ought to leave Billo alone because he doesn't need to go after him anymore. The act has ran its course.
Any similarity is in your delusional mind.
You are clearly delusional about all of this. I just to think that the few posts I remember you making were fairly reasonable. Were you just a lurker troll all along?
Seeryer does not agree with you on one issue...and he goes from reasonable, to a troll. Wow LuLu, have another glass of kool aid
Olbermann's behavior is antithetical to the principles of open-minded liberalism which should never insult or abuse people who hold different views. His nasty attitude to anyone who disagrees with him was instrumental in causing me to doubt my lifelong support for liberal causes. Olbermann is not "liberal". Stalinist or Fascist is more apt. Like a number of others who currently want us to think of them as leftist, his true orientation is closer to the right.
I truly can't stand some of his ways, such as the sexual pun-laden teabag day report, which I found absolutely unprofessional, and the "WTF?" segment title - that sort of showboating.
That being the case, I still can acknowledge that man does not ever sit there and manufacture news. He also uses quite impenetrable, and rarely heard logic on a great many occasions. So no... there is almost nothing you say here that holds any water. These two men are not even slightly similar.
If you are going to call Mr. Olbermann a "Stalinist or Fascist" and state that "his true orientation is closer to the right," at least have the decency to give specific examples.
Or were you mostly just interested in swift-boating?
And, just out of curiosity, does this have anything to do with Olbermann backing Obama over Clinton?
Say what you want about Keith, but he speaks very bluntly about issues I care deeply about and, most times, I find he hits it out of the park. Considering he is the first modern-day journalist at a major network to aggressively stand up for Progressive causes, I find him courageous and worthy of defense against unsupported, scurrilous attacks.
What has Olbermann ever done to be Stalinist or Fascist?? Noone believes your nonsense.
With just under 8,000 respondents, about 57% of people said 'yes' when asked if Judge Sotomayor was racist. Seeing that made my blood boil.
We need to have Democrats brushing back on these loathsome, right-wing maggots, as fiercely as they trumpet their obscene talking points.
Where are the Democratic politicians stressing repeatedly that Samuel Alito made virtually the same comments about the influence of his background as Sotomayor made about hers.
The one thing Dems never do is give a unified defense against scurrilous charges.
The end result? Those accusations of racism are sticking. It is disgusting and shameful.
Your text to link here...
Why our black community should just be eternally grateful for the slave ships that brought them here to be slaves for over 200 years, right? And I guess they aren't showing Pat enough gratitude for Jim Crow either. He's probably just waiting for the chance to write another column about that.
All I can say is thank God for the remote, as soon as I hear his voice I change the station. And I find it appalling that he is treated as if his opinion is respected.
Yup, Pat has got it right, it's just like the old south except it's against us poor beaten white poeple.
That incredibly stupid arguement has my head spinning so fast that the screen in front of me is just a blur right now!