MSNBC's Shuster, Carlson discuss purported "cackle," laugh over "Hillary laughing pen"
SUMMARY: On MSNBC Live, David Shuster presented to Tucker Carlson "a Hillary laughing pen" -- a pen shaped in the likeness of Hillary Clinton's head with a mouth that moves as the pen makes a laughing noise. In response, Carlson stated: "I can't tell you, David, how much I appreciate this, how much I appreciate your going through Chris' mail while he's gone and how much I'm really going to miss that cackle. I hope it goes on forever. It's brought light to my life."
During the April 22 edition of MSNBC Live, guest host David Shuster said to senior campaign correspondent Tucker Carlson: "Before we get to predictions, Tucker, I want to present you something that actually was delivered to Chris Matthews today. But he's not here, and I stole it, and I'm giving it to you. ... It's a pen. It's 'Jabber Jaw Pens.' And when you listen to it here." At this point, Shuster pressed the top of the pen -- a likeness of Sen. Hillary Clinton's head -- and the mouth began to move as the pen began audibly laughing. After the pen stopped, Shuster continued: "[I]n honor of being on the air with you for the first time in a little while, I present you with a Hillary laughing pen." In response, Carlson stated: "I can't tell you, David, how much I appreciate this, how much I appreciate your going through Chris' mail while he's gone and how much I'm really going to miss that cackle. I hope it goes on forever. It's brought light to my life." Carlson also pressed the pen.
Shuster then said: "As we -- to the refrain of Hillary cackling, let's start with predictions tonight. What's going to happen?"
According to a press release on hillarypen.com, "[T]he new Hillary look-alike/laugh-alike pen plays a medley of the New York senator's actual chortles, snorts, and guffaws digitally recorded from her recent appearances on Sunday morning TV interview programs." In the release, Jay Kamhi, "the pen's creator," stated: "Some have said that Senator Clinton's laugh is infectious, but they didn't say whether it's infectious in the good sense, or infectious in the CDC sense. ... Our recommendation is to listen to the pen a few times, check for any redness or swelling, then make up your own mind accordingly."
As Media Matters for America documented, after Clinton's appearance on all five Sunday political talk shows on September 23, 2007, political reporters and other media personalities -- including Shuster -- seized on Clinton's laugh as a new subject of attention, with several media figures calling Clinton's laugh a cackle. Additionally, Media Matters has documented Carlson saying of Clinton: "Could you actually live in this country for eight years having to listen to her voice?"
From the 4 p.m. ET hour of the April 22 edition of MSNBC Live:
SHUSTER: And we're back. Just over three hours until the polls close in Pennsylvania. Tucker Carlson is a friend of mine, an MSNBC senior campaign correspondent. And joining us from Washington is Reuters Washington correspondent John Decker. Before we get to predictions, Tucker, I want to present you something that actually was delivered to Chris Matthews today, but he's not here, and I stole it and I'm giving it to you.
CARLSON: Good.
SHUSTER: It's a pen. It's "Jabber Jaw Pens." And when you listen to it here --
[laughter from pen]
So in honor of being on the air with you for the first time in a little while, I present you with a Hillary laughing pen.
CARLSON: You know, I can't tell you, David, how much I appreciate this, how much I appreciate your going through Chris' mail while he's gone and how much I'm really going to miss that cackle. I hope it goes on forever. It's brought light to my life.
SHUSTER: As we -- to the refrain of Hillary cackling, let's start with predictions tonight. What's going to happen?
CARLSON: I think she could do better than expected. I mean, it's impossible to overstate the degree to which this is about impressing the media, basically. She could win, you know, no votes at all, and she wouldn't have to get out. She could win every vote in the entire state, and she wouldn't win the nomination. And so this is about crossing the threshold that we set. And I think she's going to have to do pretty well in order to do that. And I think she -- I think she might.
Now this is really side-splitting funny.
No...not the pen. The idea that mmfa would assign Eric Hananoki to actually spend time writing this article...LOL
Hey clown, think we'll see these MSNBC guys spend any time chortling in delight over derogatory caricatures of Obama-- or John McCain?
Thes guys have no shame with their bias. They just don't care. It's a valid MMFA cite.
After all, isn't this what we watch a "news" channel for?
To see "journalists" and "commentators" yuck it up over effigies of a presidential candidate?
If it's cable, it's crap.
What makes me crack-up, is when dipsticks like Wesly...
make their little posts.
Being a conservative dumb-ass is no way to go through life.
I agree Wes,
Anyway Hillary got the last laugh with her victory in Pennsylvania so who cares about a stupid cackling pen.
With the exception of Joe Scarborough & Pat Buchanan the rest of the clowns over at MSNBC are in the tank for Obama so let them go on trying to demean her, it ain't working!
Hey Lynn :-)
Let me say upfront that I think it's a pretty sure bet that Obama will be the Democratic nominee when the dust clears. Only a complete collapse by him or some shady backroom deal by the Clintons could possibly derail him.
So why does Hillary go on? Because she can. And because there is that 1% chance the above scenarios could occur.
My beef with MSNBC is their blatant bias against Hillary. They [media] shouldn't be acting as cheerleaders or detractors towards any of the candidates. Well hell how many times have we all said just that?
Now I'll admit that the in-fighting among the Dems was amusing, for awhile. And I would have been doing cartwheels if I was backing McCain, which I'm not. But all the bickering has detoured the discussions of the issues that need to be addressed. So it's getting to be a lot less fun watching the Obama crowd vs the Hillary crowd going at one another. Or the media spurring it on.
While I still believe the general election will be close, I think Obama will prevail. And while I'm still a tad tentative about his lack of experience, I think if he picks a good VP & Cabinet he'll do just fine. And so will this nation.
Why isn't Media Matters doing a story about what Bill Clinton said today:
"I don't think I should take any s**t from anybody on that, do you?"
'Cause this is MMFLA. You and Wesley are sentenced to the corner for a 30 minute "timeout."
Lynn,
I think the race card has been subtly played by both sides. Not necessarily by the candidates, but by their surrogates & supporters. Sad, but I suppose inevitable.
There are men who won't for Hillary simply because she's female. Whites who won't vote for Obama simply because of the color of his skin. Folks that won't vote for McCain simply because of his age.
Most everyone else will base their votes on a more intelligent criteria.
Lynn, call me crazy, but should the general election come down to McCain vs Obama [I'm 99.9% sure it will] the majority of this nation's voters will look beyond race or age & vote their best interests.
First, I did not say Obama played the race card. I wrote: There has been a very subtle playing of the race card from Obama's side. Obama's side. And I'll stand by that.
It began right after the NH primary when Jesse Jackson Jr. said:
But those tears also have to be analyzed. They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45% of African-Americans who participate in the Democratic contest, and they see real hope in Barack Obama. We saw something very clever in the last week of this campaign coming out of Iowa, going into New Hampshire, we saw a sensitivity factor. Something that Mrs. Clinton has not been able to do with voters that she tried in New Hampshire.Not in response to voters -- not in response to Katrina, not in response to other issues that have devastated the American people, the war in Iraq, we saw tears in response to her appearance. So her appearance brought her to tears, but not hurricane Katrina.
Subtle eh?
Or how about how Obama supporters [starting with Donna Brazile] that turned Bill Clinton's remarks about Obama's record on Iraq being a fairy-tale? Suddenly it was Clinton suggesting Obama the Black guy running for President was a mere fairy-tale.
Then came Hillary's remarks about how the Civil Rights Act was due to MLK & LBJ. True by the way. Yet turned into something racist by Obama supporters. The claim was that Hillary was suggesting it took a White man to finish the deal, thereby belittling the Black man, MLK. Pure bunk. Hillary meant no such thing. But that's what Obama folks were saying.
There are other subtle examples, but I'm going on break [need a butt & coffee] & you could google it if you think I'm full of it, & prove it to yourself.
Why isn't Media Matters doing a story about what Bill Clinton said today:
"I don't think I should take any s**t from anybody on that, do you?"
Because that doesn't constitute conservative misinformation. What part of the MMFA Mission Statement are you having trouble comprehending, Libertarian Guy?
Tucker, I could see you stuffing this...
right up your butt.
Then give it to David, and he can play with it too.
I'm amazed. Truly, Clinton can say anything.
I'm also surprised this isn't MMFA-worthy. This is a big story, and it's getting buried by the avalance of the Pennsylvania boxing ma- um, primary. (When is one of these two going to win, already? Let's get this goddamned election over with, I wanna see McCain and [insert Democrat] tell us how they're going to run our lives for us for the next four years...)
Oh, come on. The pen gag isn't that funny, but the bigger issue is that we're allowed to poke at our elected officials and NOT get dragged off to a gulag.
At least... not yet. But there's always the next administration...
You're right Libertarian...
The pen gag isn't that funny.
But--just to be fair--I'd like to see a little "pen gag" about John McLame.
What sort of "gag" could Schuster and Sh@thead come up with for McCain?
Come on, don't let me down!
Fine by me. I despise McCain as much as the other front-runners. Fair game, IMO.
Were you expecting me to defend McCain, by the way? Hell, no.
But--just to be fair--I'd like to see a little "pen gag" about John McLame.
It would be difficult to develop a "John McCain Pen". It would require sophisticated computer software to start each sentence you write with "My friends," and write out "Shiite" every time you mean to write "Sunni". :-)
Jabberjaw = Republican Operative ?
It was propably a slow newsday to bring this up. Scraping the bottom of the barrel. It´s a JOKE. Hillarys cackling is borderline-disturbing (and that`s a fact!) and theese guys are poking fun from it.
Shuster has done a good job of giving criticizing Bush and co. Carlson is just a simple moron and if you get stuck on every bad joke he makes, it makes you look stuck up and childish.
"They are making fun of hillary! Not fair. Now you have to make fun of McCain!!! I´m telling on you..."
Please, just let it go. There is propably a lot of more important things to highlight.
journalists aren't in the business to joke...what part of that do you guys not understand?
Meanwhile, the crimes of Bush and Cheney go uninvestigated. They lied us into a war for Oil and Profit, and they're laughing at us while they vacuum money out of our Treasury and use it to build a bonfire in Iraq.
I was referring to nerzog's post BTW.
I should have phrase my question in the larger sense:
Bill Clinton accuses Obama of playing the race card... then flat-out denies he accused Obama of playing the race card.
Why that isn't bigger news, is quite troubling.
Re: Nerzog's assertion of "creating a circus around the Democratic primary"... well, it is a circus already. So was the Republican primary. Two camps of lame-assed candidates, sure to give us a two-fer of same this fall.
My God, is this the best we have to offer? A cranky senator-for-life, another cranky senator, and one who offers us hope in one hand and change in the other, to see which hand fills up first?
So, it's no big deal if a liberal politician lies through his/her teeth?
Sorry, that's a terrible double standard. I don't care which "wing" someone flies with... if they're lying to the press, or to people in general, they need to be called on it.
So, it's no big deal if a liberal politician lies through his/her teeth?
Sorry, that's a terrible double standard. I don't care which "wing" someone flies with... if they're lying to the press, or to people in general, they need to be called on it.
You still don't get it, do you? The purpose of MMFA is to disciss conservative misinformation in the media - where facts are omitted or lied about BY THE MEDIA in order to advance a conservative agenda. A liberal's lies would only be presented here if the media misrepresented them in such a way that it advanced a consevative agenda.
If you think a liberal/progressive politician has lied about something, there are doxzens of places on the Internet wher you can discus it - but not here. MMFA is dedicated to how information is presented in the media. I know it's a subtle difference, but most of us here get it - why can't you?
Seriously, an election in the greates democracy ever is "it's impossible to overstate the degree to which this is about impressing the media, basically." ??
Please, please take your responsibility as journalist seriously, all you beltway pundits.
i'd like one of those.
It's probably the closest you'll ever get to a real woman..... :-)
Here's something even better - a Farting George W. Bush Doll:
http://www.getpranks.com/item.cfm?id=79
Really? Obama's playing the race card? Prove it. - dbeden4153
Bill Clinton said as much... then denied he said it. Happened just a day or so ago.
I'd expect a media frenzy of the same magnitude as if it'd been McCain telling a bald-faced lie, but sadly we do not hold our prospective Fearless Leaders to a high-enough standard.
Look, I realize I'm new here, but if someone lies to the press it shouldn't matter one bit which party the liar is doing the deed. Is it too much to ask that we hold EVERYONE accountable, left or right?
Look, I realize I'm new here, but if someone lies to the press it shouldn't matter one bit which party the liar is doing the deed. Is it too much to ask that we hold EVERYONE accountable, left or right?
You still don't get it, do you??
The purpose of MMFA is to highlight examples of CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION in the media - where the media purposely puts out false information or hides facts that would present a factual report on the events of the day. MMFA is NOT a place to debate whether one politician or another is lying - it is a place to discuss how that politician's words are REPORTED.
I can't make it any simpler than that. If you still cannot grasp this concept, maybe MMFA is not the place for you.
"Look, I realize I'm new here, but if someone lies to the press it shouldn't matter one bit which party the liar is doing the deed. Is it too much to ask that we hold EVERYONE accountable, left or right?"
This site has nothing to do with people who lie to the press. It's called MEDIA Matters - it only deals with the press itself says and does. Bill Clinton isn't a media figure, so they're not going to report on him. (Plus they only do conservative misinformation, as they way in their mission statement thingie.)
Well, attack it from the "how it was reported" angle, then.
I know what the purpose is, I've read stuff on this site before. But this kind of story is an example of what's wrong, IMO, with the bigger picture. If CNN were downplaying this Clinton/racecard story, would they not need to be held just as accountable as if they had misrepresented or hid anything concerning John McCain?