Pat Buchanan doesn't think TV personalities should be accountable for their rhetoric
June 16, 2009 4:44 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Here's Pat Buchanan on MSNBC, moments ago:
If David Letterman had said that about Sasha Obama and Alex Rodriguez, he'd be out of a job now, and he'd be begging to get his job back. But Sarah Palin and her daughters are fair game. And it really does show there is a terrible double-standard here. But I will say this: Letterman has apologized, and she has accepted it. I hope we don't go on with it. I think we ought to go forward, because Letterman is less of a problem, frankly, than the people out there who are the censors, trying to get people on the left or on the right thrown off of TV shows because of what they say.
Shocking that Pat Buchanan doesn't want anyone to consider his rhetoric in deciding whether to keep paying him to talk on TV, isn't it?
But what criteria do Buchanan think people should use in assessing whether someone should be on television, if not "what they say"? Or does he think TV Pundit should be a lifetime appointment, like the Supreme Court?
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Yes David Letterman would have been in much bigger trouble had he said the same jokes about President Obama's daughters, but it's not because of hypocrisy or any double standard, but because of what's called popularity...
President Obama is very popular, well liked, and respected by a majority of the American People, Gov. Palin is not...
As a matter of fact, I'd bet that a majority of the American People think Sarah Palin is a walking talking joke, and that they laughed right along with David Letterman (even John McCain must by now think Palin is a joke, a joke that back-fired on him).
It's all about who you like and who you don't... there's no absolute measure here, it's entirely relative and subjective and there's no arguing against it.
As far as pat buchanan's censorship rant goes, he's wrong : not only do the American People have every right to exercise their power as consumers, and to boycott anyone or anything (because that's a power just as great and sometimes greater than the power of the election and the vote), but they have every right to petition and even insist that people who offend them be removed from the Public Airwaves...
It is no violation of anyone's right to be removed from the Public Airwaves, because there is no right to be on those Public Airwaves in the first place... or how else do you explain why you and I and everybody we know, are shut out from and cannot broadcast on those Airwaves... is that a violation of some right of ours?
Where there is no right to do something, there can be no censorship or violation of rights, in being prevented from doing it.
Second if there is a double standard Sarah Palin is the main beneficiary. Letterman has made far more tasteless jokes about celebrities over the years without having to apologize. If the joke actually had been at the expense of one of Obama's daughters and Letterman issued an apology the right would probably be up in arms about how Obama can't take a joke and letterman has said much worse things about Kathy Lee Gifford/Madonna/Britney Spears or whoever. Which reminds me about how someone (I don't recall who) said comedians hands would be tied when Obama was in the White House (meaning, I assume, they couldn't think of any Obama jokes that weren't racist.) Well isn't it interesting to see who it is who really can't take a joke? Not that I condone Letterman's jokes. Some were over the line.
Oh, and here's another one. You can bet the right will vote for him...
I'm sick of Republicans playing the victim when it suits them. Acting outraged at John Kerry's supposed insult of "the troops" when anyone with a lick of sense knows he insulted George W. Bush. Passing resolutions condemning MoveOn.org for insulting "the troops" when anyone with any brains knows they were making a political point about ONE soldier and his veracity.
And the real problem is that those who are misquoted and taken out of context ALWAYS apologize! Kerry apologized for his 100 percent accurate remark. Democrats voted FOR the anti-MoveOn resolutions in Congress. And Letterman apologized for his jokes about Bristol Palin, which Sarah Palin chose to pretend were about her younger daughter so that she could score political points with her faux outrage.
On the other hand, conservative commentators and public figures like Limbaugh and McCain and Coulter NEVER have to apologize for their REAL insults.
Sasha is like 8 years old, you creep! Letterman said his joke was about Palin's daughter who just had a baby WITHOUT being married and faked her engagement and is currenlty on an ABSTINENCE TOUR!
Get it? That IS funny!
A joke about an 8 year old having intercourse is NOT FUNNY. What a moron!
I guess if they really wanted to try, they could make the case that the joke was calling the Palin girl a prostitute, but most sane people would interpret it as a reference to the youth of Spitzer's prostitute.MOre likely, it's a case of conservatives tendency to blame the victim,and more projection interpreting it as a slam on Palin Jr.
Slightly off-topic, but related to TV personalities being responsible for their rhetoric, Sean Hannity had a bit on tonight about Obama's "obsession" with Fox news.He played three or four clips of Obama referring to Fox or Hannity, some in response to an interviewer suggesting that Obama gets no bad press, a few were merely Obama mentioning Fox or Hannity as a punch line.Seannie had two guest agreeing that Obama was "obsessed".
But do the math-- Hannity has (I believe) three hours a day on the radio, and one on tv. Thats 20 hours a week, or more than a thousand hours in the past year.Take a very conservative estimate, say, Hannity mentions Obama once every six minutes, and that's ten thousand times he's mentioned Obama, many of those documented lies.
Party A mentions Party B 10,000 times, all negative, most misleading or false. Party B mentions Party A 5 or 6 times, with no deception involved.
And Party A is lacking in self-awareness enough to describe Party B as "obsessed".
There's no comparison. Sasha Obama is well under the age of consent - Bristol Palin (the subject of Letterman's joke) is a legal adult with a personal history of out-of-wedlock sexual relations and an illegitimate child.