Fox News "body language expert" found possible meaning in Clinton's use of left hand to drink beer
SUMMARY: On America's Newsroom, while discussing a video clip of Sen. Hillary Clinton drinking a beer on the campaign plane, Bill Hemmer asked Fox News' "body language expert" Tonya Reiman: "[I]s that an honest moment, a moment of levity?" Reiman replied: "You know, the only thing that struck me as odd is, she's holding the beer with her left hand, and she's a righty. And if you think about how you would normally take a sip, it's a little bit awkward to drink with your nondominant hand, unless you have a reason to be doing that."
On the March 4 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, while discussing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drinking a beer on the campaign plane, co-host Bill Hemmer asked Fox News' "body language expert" Tonya Reiman: "[I]s that an honest moment, a moment of levity?" Reiman replied: "You know, the only thing that struck me as odd is, she's holding the beer with her left hand and she's a righty. And if you think about how you would normally take a sip, it's a little bit awkward to drink with your nondominant hand, unless you have a reason to be doing that." Hemmer then asked: "Well, what would that reason be, then?" Reiman answered: "It could be anything. Maybe she's really just holding that cup to hold that cup, you know. Maybe she wants to give the appearance of being light and easy."
Appearing on the September 24, 2007, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Reiman asserted that Clinton exhibited "evil laughter" during a Fox News Sunday interview with host Chris Wallace. On the January 30, 2007, edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Reiman stated that "Hillary just look[ed] like a zombie" during part of President Bush's 2007 State of the Union address. Reiman then purported to analyze Clinton's body language during a January 28, 2007, speech in Davenport, Iowa, in which Clinton responded to a question by saying: "What, in my background, equips me to deal with evil and bad men?" Reiman said: "Watch how she sways back and forth. It's almost childlike, the way she moves back and forth." Reiman then said that Clinton was in a "little-girl posture," to which O'Reilly responded: "Right. 'I'm bad, I'm bad.' "
From the March 4 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
HEMMER: All right, let's talk about Hillary Clinton. She did something on the campaign plane the other night, and our embedded producer, Aaron Bruns, brought this to us. She was drinking a beer in a red plastic cup when she went back to talk to reporters. Watch here and we'll talk about it.
[begin video clip]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Need a beer?
CLINTON: Got one. ... We're helping to get out the differences and raise some issues.
[laughter]
CLINTON: This is my favorite press avail of all time. I can't tell you -- it's been a long year.
[end video clip]
HEMMER: Is that a -- is that an honest moment, a moment of levity?
REIMAN: You know, the only thing that struck me as odd is, she's holding the beer with her left hand, and she's a righty. And if you think about how you would normally take a sip, it's a little bit awkward to drink with your nondominant hand, unless you have a reason to be doing that, you know?
HEMMER: Well, what would that reason be, then?
REIMAN: It could be anything. Maybe she's really just holding that cup to hold that cup, you know. Maybe she wants to give the appearance of being light and easy.
HEMMER: But isn't she the one who said we don't need a president we need to get a beer with, we've already been down that route? I think I remember hearing that.
Snoopy, How insensitive of you. You should be exiled to an island with Truthy for Justice. Sen. John W. McBush needs three hands for what you are suggesting. One hand for the tweezers, one for the magnifying glass and the other to spank.
Sorry, I thought this was about Rush. I apologize to all of the Samers who are voting for Mc Bush, I mean, McCain.
What morons! I didn't have to THINK but for a second to answer this baffling question. Hillary is shaking a LOT of hands. If you are right-handed, like most, have you ever held a sweaty cold beer bottle in your right hand and had to switch hands to shake someone's hand? Ughhhh - nothing like offering someone a cold clammy wet hand to make a good first impression.
Faux IDIOTS!
Lack of a wide stance?
Isn't there more significance in the first place about the fact that he's even drinking beer at all? I love the focus on his left hand-- as if that's the important thing.
If you're going to focus on something-- the consumption is the issue, isn't it?
You're right, it's that Mrs. Clinton is being photographed drinking a beer (I guess) is what's supposedly noteworthy, not anything about her hand, left or right.
I know how these fox hacks think... that was the whole point, to note Mrs. Clinton knocking back a tasty brew... the whole "body language left hand" crap is just contrived nonsense to find a reason to comment on the candidate drinking a beer.
It's yet another nail in their credibility coffin, that they employ their in-house "body language expert" (who I'm sure is on call at a moment's notice for an assignment like this) as a contrived context and ploy, as a pretext upon which to show and comment on video depicting the candidate sipping a cup of suds...
And guess what? To almost any sensible person I know, that merely makes Mrs. Clinton more like one of us!
I like the idea of it, that she has a taste for beer... it makes me wanna know what kind of beer she drinks (although I bet she doesn't drink much beer, and those types usually have no expert preference, and are as likely to drink that swill Budweiser as anything else)... I bet she prefers a glass of wine.
Anyway, fox should think twice about what they think is a slam, and unflattering, about this particular candidate.
Knocking back a brew after a hard day on the campaign trail, is more likely to endear the candidate to us, for being like us, than not.
*********breaking news*******
hillary eats a danish. is this her clever attempt to signal the european left? i'm with you guys? why not an english muffin? a deliberate snub of our close ally?
*******more breaking news********
It has been confirmed that Hillary Clinton blinks. With both eyes. At the same time. Was she signalling her distress on the campaign trail? Or was it an automatic response triggered to lubricate her eyelids? Does this send the wrong message to the blind? More at 11...
The camera was on Hillary's right. If she was holding the cup in her right hand her right arm would have been between the camera and her as a barrier...a closed or defensive position. Holding the cup in her outside hand opened her up to the camera in a friendlier, open, more receptive way. Do not think that on the campaign trail practically every word spoken isn't calculated or that even postures and positions aren't choreographed. IMO she has had at least some training, as any candidate for higher office probably does, on her mannerisms, posture, positioning, etc., including how to stand in front of a camera. There are "communication" experts who specialize in this sort of thing...
Or, maybe she had just used the bathroom and forgotten to wash her right hand... ;>)
Pete, you should copy-write the phrase, "It's All Crap", before Fox changes it's slogan from Fair & Balanced" to "It's All Crap" ©.
Fox would then be sued by the estate of the late Peter Boyle, because that's too close to his "Holy crap!" line on Everybody Loves Raymond. :-)
What the hell is a "body language expert"? Who can only drink something using their dominant hand? I am left handed but can drink with either hand without spilling all over myself.
If you are right handed I can think of a hundred reasons why one would hold a drink in your left hand. How about keeping your hand free to shake hands? If you shake as many hands as a candidate for President does you probably need to rest your hand as much as possible.
Is there anything less important Fox Noise can pay attention to?
Some people, from politicians to lawyers, regard the dynamics of body language as important in dealing with people. The problem I have with FOX is that they present it almost as a form of mindreading rather than just illustrating what certain body language may suggest and how either positive or negative impressions could be conveyed. Hillary's left handed drinking, for example, could mean nothing more than her right hand is sore from shaking hands.
However, as I pointed out in another post here, some people in the public eye actually use body language experts in order to avoid inadvertantly conveying some negative impression, or to convey a more positive impression, to the public, to gain maximum benefit during presentations. How to stand (open? closed?), where to place your props, hand mannerisms are all studied components.
I am somewhat ambidextrous...If I use my left hand to eat it may be for no other reason than the person to my right is sitting too close to me. On the other hand, although there may be a very simple explanation for Hillary's drinking with the left hand, it also would not surprise me to learn that she has been trained to be aware of the location of the camera and to position herself in the most open, friendly way to it...such as by not creating any "barrier' between her and the camera.
If FOX really wanted to inform the public perhaps they would do something about how politicians actually study the use of body language as another tool in the their box of persuasive skills.
I had a glass in front of me when I read this. I'm a lefty so just as a test I picked up the glass with my right hand and drank from it. It felt a little strange (since it's not the way I normally do it) but it certainly wasn't "awkward" and my chin and the front of my shirt stayed nice and dry.
But what struck me about the exchange was that she said she noticed it and then said it could mean anything (in which case why mention it at all unless it was just to have something to say). Hemmer, apparently not getting what he wanted, immediately tried to turn the scene into some kind of expression of hypocrisy:"But isn't she the one who said we don't need a president we need to get a beer with?"
So she doesn't have a beer with the press means she's cold, aloof, unlikeable. She does have a beer with the press, she's some kind of hypocrite.
Jeez, I hate defending Hillary Clinton but this kind of ongoing crappola is just ridiculous.
Hey admitted lefty Larrye, I am a lefty for some things, a righty for others, but a proud two-fisted drinker. Not that difficult.
And I think where the geniuses are confused on the beer issue is here; Americans are not opposed to a president who has the occasional beer, they just (most of them) figured out that choosing a president by the same guidelines you would choose a drinking buddy is not the best way to go.
OMG. Is this what the nitwits who watch Fox think is news? I'm stunned.
I think Media Matters is over reacting on this one. Whenever Reiman is on she is discussing body language, and she makes comparisons to animals and other objects often (even when talking about Conservatives). The "almost like a child" remark simply stated that Clinton was displaying child like body language, for one reason or another. I think most of her quote are taken out of context.
Reiman uses an extremely subjective and vague form of pseudo-science to claim expertise when she is really just giving the opinions that her employers want to hear. She will easily interepret a stance or gesture as a positive for a republican/conservative and as a negative for a democrat/liberal and throw in enough gobbledygood and babble to make it seem as if she isn't changing her "analysis" based on the subject.
The woman just does what she needs to do in order to collect her check. There are no constants or immutable facts to body language analysis, only subjective interpretations.
I'm lefthanded but I always drink with my right hand. Pretty simple reason: when I have my cup of coffee, beer, kool-aid, maalox, whatever in my non-dominant hand, I can be writing, dialing a phone, grilling burgers or performing another function with my dominant hand. I guess that's not a dark or sinister enough reason for FOX, though.
I find that if I drink using my left hand it leaves my right hand free to draw my gun faster...you know, in case of an attack by terrorists or illegal immigrants. ;>)
Or Jehovah's Witnesses distributing copies of The Watchtower.... :-)
Reiman replied: "You know, the only thing that struck me as odd is, she's holding the beer with her left hand, and she's a righty. And if you think about how you would normally take a sip, it's a little bit awkward to drink with your nondominant hand, unless you have a reason to be doing that."
Speaking from personal experience, I'm right-handed and used to hold my beer mug in my left hand in my long-ago bar-hopping days. Because I usually had a cigarette in my right hand.
Fox News started up with this whole voice and body language expert analysis a while ago. Suggestions for future "expert" segments would be astrologers, phrenologists and entrail readers.
One point that people are missing is that FOX's analysis is not so much about Hillary using her left hand instead of her right hand...it's FOX's suggestion that Hillary was using the beer cup as a prop.
REIMAN: It could be anything. Maybe she's really just holding that cup to hold that cup, you know. Maybe she wants to give the appearance of being light and easy.
I suspect that a real body language "expert" would have said that, considering the camera angle, by not holding the cup in her right hand where her right arm would have been in a defensive, blocking position between her and the camera, holding the cup in her outside hand created a more open position and she was therefore conveying the correct body language. But that's not what FOX was saying...they're suggesting that Hillary was using the beer cup as a prop.
I wonder if they'll have her on to diagnose Bush's little Bojangles dance yesterday while waiting for McCan't?
Although it's not supposed to be an "exact science" some legitimate people put a lot of stock in reading body language and an analysis of the candidates' body language could be an interesting piece. However, it's what FOX does that I have a problem with. They tend to reduce everything to bullsh1t.
BTW, I recently went back and watched the video of Bush's famous 7 minute My Pet Goat moment. His body language suggested to me that he was about to crap his pants...frozen with fear and indecision. You don't have to be a body language "expert" to see that. But what would FOX's body language expert say about that?
I agree that this Hillary/beer cup in left hand thing is just more FOX bullsh1t.
Yeah, what is it with that stance of his?
And while I'm at it, ranch? That flat piece of dirt with no livestock or crops on which he's afraid to ride a horse? Ranch?
The best part is if she had the beer in her right hand they would be talking about how comfortable she looked drinking it, she must be an alcoholic.
This whole thing is retarded. I drink beer with either hand just as comfortably, sometimes both hands at once.
Now when we see her get in a whiskey drinking contest with Obama, winning, and wiping the residual off with her sleeve, (ala Marion Ravenwood in India Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark,) she'll get my vote. :-)
ps. she's pretending to be all right with the good ol' boys but subconsciously is clinging to the left. :-)
"Now when we see her get in a whiskey drinking contest with Obama, winning, and wiping the residual off with her sleeve, (ala Marion Ravenwood in India Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark,) she'll get my vote. :-) "
I think that's how we should pick every seat for every major office. Then I may have a shot at a senate seat ;)
jackball,
"There's much more important things to cover, imo."
That's the point. FOX has so many real issues to cover and they choose this one?
Sigh. It's not like they've run out of real news to cover. But if this is their level of analysis, then maybe it's just as well they focus on this sort of nonsense...
Come on, guys. FOX, chick, cleavage. I'd be surprised if Hemmer heard anything she was saying.