MSNBC's Brewer baselessly claimed Obama "seemed to take a shot at -- potentially -- his rival, Hillary Clinton" during discussion of basketball
SUMMARY: MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer introduced a report about Sen. Barack Obama's appearance on HBO's Real Sports by saying, "[T]he Democratic presidential hopeful talked about how basketball shaped his life. And he seemed to take a shot at -- potentially -- his rival, Hillary Clinton." Brewer did not include the fully context of Obama's comments, which makes clear that he was not "tak[ing] a shot at" Clinton.
On the April 16 edition of MSNBC Live, anchor Contessa Brewer claimed that on the April 15 episode of HBO's Real Sports, Sen. Barack Obama "seemed to take a shot at -- potentially -- his rival, Hillary Clinton," and aired a video clip of Obama on Real Sports saying: "You can tell something about people from how they play basketball. For example, people who keep on shooting even though they have no jump shot. You can tell that there's a certain self-delusional aspect to their game, right? That says something about who they are." Immediately after airing the clip, Brewer said: "Well, now, he didn't say who he was actually talking about there. Hmm." However, Brewer omitted the full context of Obama's comments, which makes clear that he was discussing a basketball game he played with Craig Robinson, the brother of his wife, Michelle, and how the way Obama played basketball helped convince Robinson that Obama was a "good guy."
In the Real Sports segment, Gumbel stated of Obama: "He wouldn't reclaim his hoops roots until some years later, in law school at Harvard, where he began what would become an almost religious devotion to pickup basketball. It was a good thing, too, for it was around that time that Obama began courting a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson, who wanted her new man to take a special Robinson family test." Gumbel then aired a clip of Craig Robinson stating, "She had heard my father and I popping off about how you can tell a guy's personality on the court. She said, 'You know, I think I like this guy. Would you take him and play basketball and see what kind of guy he was?' " Moments later, Gumbel aired a clip of Obama saying: "I think apparently I passed to Craig often enough that he concluded I was a good guy." Gumbel then asked Obama, "Do you believe you can tell a man's character from watching him on the basketball court?" Obama replied: "No, but I do think that you can tell something about people from how they play basketball. For example, people who keep on shooting even though they have no jump shot. You can tell that there's a certain self-delusional aspect to their game, right? That says something about who they are."
From the 4 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on April 16:
BREWER: We already know that bowling isn't his sport, but Barack Obama is more at home on the basketball court. On HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, the Democratic presidential hopeful talked about how basketball shaped his life. And he seemed to take a shot at -- potentially -- his rival, Hillary Clinton.
OBAMA [video clip]: You can tell something about people from how they play basketball. For example, people who keep on shooting even though they have no jump shot. You can tell that there's a certain self-delusional aspect to their game, right? That says something about who they are.
BREWER: Well, now, he didn't say who he was actually talking about there. Hmm.
From Obama's appearance on the April 15 edition of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel:
GUMBEL: After Punahou, Obama left Hawaii for college and a new life on the mainland, during which time he says he completely lost touch with his first love. He wouldn't reclaim his hoops roots until some years later, in law school at Harvard, where he began what would become an almost religious devotion to pickup basketball. It was a good thing, too, for it was around that time that Obama began courting a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson, who wanted her new man to take a special Robinson family test.
ROBINSON: She had heard my father and I popping off about how you can tell a guy's personality on the court. She said, "You know, I think I like this guy. Would you take him and play basketball and see what kind of guy he was?"
GUMBEL: Craig Robinson, a former basketball star at Princeton, was Michelle Robinson's brother and would become Barack Obama's brother-in-law.
ROBINSON: I'm being asked to pass judgment, and all I could think of was that he was going to come out throwing elbows and being a selfish jerk and I'd have to report back and that's the end of it.
GUMBEL: Did he know why he was out there?
ROBINSON: No, no. See, that would have messed the experiment up if he knew. He had no idea. He just want -- my sister's like "You know, he fashions himself a basketball player. Would you take him out and see what he can do?"
GUMBEL: How did he behave out there? What did he show you?
ROBINSON: He was quietly confident. He could play. He knew the game, so he wasn't selfish. He passed the ball when he should. So I had good news to report back.
OBAMA: I think apparently I passed to Craig often enough that he concluded I was a good guy.
GUMBEL: Do you believe you can tell a man's character from watching him on the basketball court?
OBAMA: No, but I do think that you can tell something about people from how they play basketball. For example, people who keep on shooting even though they have no jump shot. You can tell that there's a certain self-delusional aspect to their game, right? That says something about who they are.
Ya know, I was more concerned about the apparent differences between the health care plans associated with the candidates...instead I should have focused on their basketball skills. Another reason I can never be elected to public office...I have no b-ball skills. :)
But seriously, where is the connection here? Somehow Ms. Brewer read Sen. Obama's mind and determined that his discussion of the courtship of his wife was a veiled swipe at anyone? Huh? And what exactly would that shot be? That Sen. Clinton keeps running a primary campaign over and over again? It would make more sense if Ms. Brewer considered is a swipe at Mr. Nader...just sayin'. :)
I wonder if Contessa Brewer dribbles out of bounds on the court too.
No - she just drools..... :-)
(Regarding Obma’s comment, I thought he was taking a dig at me and I have the following response for the Senator: Hey, Senator Obama, I heard that! How dare you?! I'm standing right here in the corner waiting patiently for the ball and can hear you just fine. Regardless, there's a perfectly legitimate reason why I shoot so many 3s, and that's cus they don't got no 4s, so pass me the damn ball - I'm due!)
Good catch MMFA, if you want to highlight the candidate that has stooped even lower than the Rovian political style of attack, slime and cripple, then go after Hillary Clinton and watch that machine put their opponents through the paper shredder.
Nobody does it better.
And shame on ABC News last night for that sham of a debate. If Obama wins the nomination he'd better be able to handle months of that kind of crap headed his way.
Oh, please. Just more of the "say aything about the Clintons and you'll get a pass" phenomenon. News flash: ALL politicians are good at sliming their opoonents. That's biz, sadly. You know want to know who the "good guys" are? Look at the ones who lost.
Besides, if Sen. Clinton was half as good at doing this as you claim she would have "shredded" Sen. Obama a long time ago. Somehow the still-wet-behingd-the-ears rookie just keeps chugging along, and staying ahead. (And thank god for that! GO OBAMA!)
But maybe I'm reading too much into your comments. You are comapring her to Rove, now persona-non-grata in his owm party. So maybe you're not actually setting the bar that high...?
I am not in Rove's party, thank you.
And if you are proud of Clinton and her attempt to destroy the party and Obama if she is denied her coronation, then you are entitled.
Just don't sit there and tell me it's politics as usual, because unless you said the exact same thing when Rove did it, you are a hypocrite.
Hi Tommy,
Your points are well taken, but I'm not sure anyone does it slimier than Rove. I think what he did to McCain in South Carolina circa 99-00 is one of the lowest, most disgusting things I have ever heard. It was only topped by the Swift Boat stuff. I'll make you and everyone here a promise: If HRC or BO go after McCain's military service, I will call them on it.
Fried,
I respect your opinion, I just don't share it, completely. Clinton's performance in this primary has been nothing short of disguisting, for me. When she basically said earlier that McCain was essentially more qualified to be president than her Democratic rival is; when she pounced on the Wright controversy over and over; when she kept at the "bitter" comments and attacked, attacked over it; and the race baiting done by her husband......all in all, she isn't about to go down without a major, very injurious fight to her own party.
But, my opinion is she doesn't give a damn, I even believe if she loses to Obama, she wants McCain to win so she can say "see, I told you so!", and then rescue the party in 2012.
Shameless, and what so many liberals despised about the Bush/Rove tactics are the same thing she is doing.
We don't need 4 or 8 more years of that!
Tommy,
I will agree with the gist of your post. I think she has been nothing short of despicable in the primaries. You won't get any argument from me there. I guess I was thinking more of the behavior of people like her associates and the messages put out by her advisors like Rove. As far as HRC's behavior goes, I agree with you.
OK, yes, I despise Carl Rove. And I do think that Sen Clinton's apparent "win at all costs" attitude is destructive to the parties chances. (But the race is still too close, so I don't think she needs to bow out just yet either, despite the fact that I'm pulling for Sen Obama.)
But your "put them in the shredder" comment and comparisons to Rove are still over the top. She puts up with far more than she dishes out. Nobody ever BELIEVES me when I say that, but then: Hating the Clintons has become such a common and contagious pastime that no one can really look at the situiation objectively anymore. Look at how the (liberal? HAH!) press treats them; look at the utter vicousness that the Right goes after them with, even relative to other Dem's; look at the stupid whitewater/vince foster/monika lewisky crap that's still floating around 10-15 years later... it's ridiculous! The worst thing Bill Clinton ever did was WIN THE ELECTION. And the Republicans will never forgive them for that.
I really enjoyed last night's debate. The hosts did an excellent job, and Obama and Hillary explained themselves well.
Thanks for a great debate ABC!
It's so obvious, how did i not see it before. HC and BO should play a game of HORSE to decide who will get the nomination. Democracy at it's finest.
OK, radical idea, how about a 2-hour college style debate with the first half focused on health care and the second half focused on taxes. You know, one candidate presents their plan, then the other candidate presents, then the first candidate gets some time to question the second, then the second get some time to question the first, then some re-direct questions, then rebuttals and summations...
...sorry, we might actually learn something and be able to make a decent decision if that happened. :)
Nah...we'd be stuck with Mr. Nader as president! We don't want one the candidates fighting...they actually have some decent ideas that are worth considering.
How about this...viewers call in votes to nominate the champions! Maybe we can get some viewership from that...we'll get Chuck Norris from Gov. Huckabee's bus and stack the vote for someone we really want to see smushed...any nominations for Chuck's opponent? :)
But snoop we would lose the celebrity death match.
I mean the Republican Celeb fighter would be Chuck Norris, we'd be hosed.
Not martial arts, Beer Pong, now that would make it interesting. And between each game you ask the Candidates to name the different sects of Islam and which regions they occupy.
Ah, Nerzog, that was set for the next week's debate! I'm suggesting 8 of these in each of the 8 weeks of August and September, we can reply the heck out of them in October and NO ONE has an excuse for not understanding the policies they are voting for in November.
And if you can't prove you watched them all, you can't vote! Ooops, did I type that out loud? Inside voice...:)
There is enough room on the cable for that, isn't there? Somewhere? :)
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? WE CAN'T HAVE AN INFORMED POPULACE! THAT'S JUST CRAZY TALK! BESIDES, IT WOULD NEVER SELL! GET THIS TROLL OUTA HERE!
[/sarcasm]
I played hoops last night and I've noticed over the years that playing basketball sometimes brings out the worst in people. I've seen many men I would consider gentlemen almost get in fights during the game. However generally speaking, I think it is the greatest game around. I still love playing it after all these years.
Having said that, Brewer uttered one of the silliest comments I've ever heard.
Hey Brewer... Airball. Airball. Airball. :-)
AA,
I disagree with you a bit, I dont think playing ball brings out the worst, all though it is some times bad. I think parents watching their kids play brings out the worst.
So it's either cricket or curling.
That's Brockian Ultra-Cricket! :) Thanks for the smile, Eweston!
Namaste & RIP DNA.
Ukoo catchoo!
Dazed,
You got me there. I've seen more than a few parents go nuts at sporting events their child was participating in. I didn't see it, but heard of one parent locally (who was a former school superintendent for goodness sake) literally put his hands around the nceck and choke a coach in a parking lot. And this was Track!
Yes, parents in sports is the worst.
ps. After writing my comment, I thought back that although I've witnessed many angry encounters on the basketball court, I don't recall seeing more than one or two actual fights if that.
That's why Ilike BASEBALL. It's always brings out the best in everyopne.
...Just don't crowd the plate...
...Or throw inside...
...Or charge the mound...
Whoops. Never mind!
Last night's ABC debate was the smoking gun, that the media hates Obama, hates liberals, hates the Democrats, loves McCain and loves the Republicans.
Although there has been lots of evidence for that for a while.
Whew, I'm sure glad that debate is over.
Alrighty then.
Hey Tommy,
Guess Brock might as well close down this site. Since Werner has decided ALL media coverage is stacked against the Dems, anything reported here is just redundant ;-)
Finally got the bike on the road today. The wheels didn't fall off and I didn't otherwise fall down.
All good, it may snow tonight, but a contest occurred to me. During the Daytona Motorcycle race series, one is done on BMW opposed twin machines. Seeing a half a dozen enter a turn together off the banking is incredible. The sound, like a squadron of piston engined bombers going overhead. I'd like to see both our democratic candidates do a series of 50 mile sprints on these machines. I think it would tell us important things about our candidates. Probably better information than the last debate, and be much more intertaining besides.
I am so tired of seeing squabbles on the screen.
On the April 16 edition of MSNBC Live, it appears that Contessa Brewer didn't view the whole story on Barack Obama which had been featured on HBO's Real Sports, or if she did, she was intent on inserting a controversy where none existed. In talking about his history with basketball, Senator Obama was relaxed, natural, and un-calculating in his comments; I saw no insinuations in his comments towards any individual, such as Senator Clinton, as suggested by Ms. Brewer.
Perhaps, rather than taking the lazy course of dissecting and spinning someone else's work, journalists, yes, and even newspersons, should find meaningful stories and events that can truly shape our understanding of the world so that we can be well-informed citizens who can make responsible and wise decisions. There is much that we are shown only the surface of, and even then from only one angle. We need not look for fire where there is even no smoke.
I encourage you to present stories that are meaty, informative, and important, in order to help us become thinking, well-informed citizens, and overcome ignorance and lack of understanding. Such illuminating stories would be far more satisfying, elevating, and, yes, entertaining because they would enlighten.
David Worcester