TNC has a good take on Michelle Malkin’s appearance on the “Today” show:
I love watching these “respectable” journalists get all indignant with provocateurs that they invite on their show–like they actual thought the guests would be sensible. Dig Michelle Malkin below, and Matt Lauer who is shocked–Shocked!–to discover that Malkin thinks, among other things, that the Gates question was planted and Michelle Obama’s entire professional career was based on nepotism. That last part is almost a verbatim quote.
I know who Michelle Malkin is. But I left the interview wondering about Matt Lauer.
Personally, I’m waiting to see what happens when Brick Oven Bill goes on the show.
Hunter Gathers
Tools like Lauer are paid to act stupid, so as to entertain the dullards who watch crap like the “Today” Show.
Bootlegger
He’s also in that class of media clowns that Glenzilla criticizes for just asking questions and then swallowing, even if painfully, and repeating the answer whole.
Wordsmith
I’m sorry – who’s Brick Oven Bill? Bill Bennett, per chance?
gonzone
So then who books these clowns?
Another ignorant (willfully or not) fool?
Turn off the TV.
Ash Can
Hopefully, the silver lining in all of this is that there were Today viewers who didn’t know much/anything about Malkin, watched the interview, went “eeew,” and now understand just how bad she and her ilk can be.
RememberNovember
Lauer is a professional softball pitcher. An archetypical talking head.
PeakVT
But I left the interview wondering about Matt Lauer.
Apparently T-NC’s cynicism needs another cup of coffee.
Woodrowfan
Lauer is also a bit of a rightwinger.
linda
how about some funny….
william shatner does it again…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/william-shatner-reads-pal_n_247598.html
HRA
Whew! Lauer did not challenge her at all. Bought and paid for IMO. I am referring to the corporate masters of NBC.
Senyordave
I remember when Lauer had one of the first post-election interviews with palin. Here is a quote form that interview:
But you know questions about well, “You know what do you read up there in Alaska?” To me that was kind, a little bit annoying because I’m like, “You know what do you mean what do I read up in Alaska? I read the same things that you guys read in New York and there in L.A. and in Washington state. What do you mean, what do I read up there?” But anyway, just, just some annoyance that certainly showed through and, you know, perhaps that, that annoyance that showed through would have led some to be annoyed with me, watching the interview. And that’s understandable.
The only problem with this was it was total lie! This was the actual transcript:
COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?
PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media —
COURIC: But what ones specifically? I’m curious.
PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.
COURIC: Can you name any of them?
PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.
Lauer was such a putz he let it go unchallenged.
MattF
Lauer et. al. should invite some lefty wackos and set a cage match with Malkin, Colter and their brethren. That, at least, would be honestly undignified– and entertaining as well.
Hunter Gathers
@linda: Sarah Palin is going to keep comedians well fed for quite some time.
Comrade Jake
@Hunter Gathers:
I’m not sure it’s fair to characterize people who watch The Today Show as “dullards”. A lot of people tune into these kinds of shows briefly in the morning to get a sense of what’s going on, before they rush off to work or to take the kids to the school. They routinely break away from Matt and Meredith to provide a summary of the top stories. No doubt there are better sources for just about anything, but the fact of the matter is lots of people do tune in.
That’s why it’s maddening that NBC would choose to have someone like Malkin on. They’ve had Coulter on from time to time as well. They’re making these types of folks mainstream, and it’s really disgusting.
Zandar
“Racial opportunist” is the new “uppity”.
Demo Woman
OT but this poll is just to funny Ten percent think that Sarah has a future as a college professor.
Q: What do you think is the best job for Sarah Palin
now that she has resigned as governor of Alaska?
All
voters Dem Rep Ind
Homemaker 32 45 18 34
Television Talk Show Host 17 21 14 15
Vice President 14 4 27 11
College Professor 10 12 7 8
President 6 2 12 4
(Other) 13 10 12 21
(Don’t know) 8 6 10 8
Source: Fox News poll, July 21-22; +/-3. y.
Comrade javafascist
AS Malkin makes her media tour for her latest book, would it kill one of these so-called journalists to ask the rather obvious question: “Given the lead time for writing and publishing a book, including research, how long was Obama in office before you developed your thesis?”
El Caballo de Sangre
Woo! Just need a cookie again, I guess…
RedKitten
I can see that latter bit backfiring on Malkin, though. Michelle Obama’s favourability ratings are still up in the 70’s, AFAIK. I wasn’t able to find the viewer demographics for the Today Show, but I would venture a guess that they do reach a large number of women aged 25-45 — the very same group of women who find Michelle so easy to relate to and who have given her that favourability rating. A lot of these women have busted their Thatchers trying to get where they are professionally, so to hear some unknown bobblehead chirping about how Michelle only got where she is because of nepotism? I can see that pissing more than a few people off.
jwb
@Demo Woman
“OT but this poll is just to funny Ten percent think that Sarah has a future as a college professor.”
If I’m reading that correctly, that’s because 12% of Democrats think Palin has a future as a college professor. Dems also believe more than Repubs that she’d make a fine TV talk show host and, surprisingly enough, homemaker (45 Dem to 18 Repub).
Gex
I didn’t pay much attention to Lauer. But then I heard him parrot back the idea that a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was the best way to “preserve states’ rights” regarding marriage and it became clear that he’s one of the misinformers out there spreading rightwing nonsense. It was one of the moments that made me realize the MSM can’t be relied on for anything but sports scores.
The Other Steve
@linda: Masterful! I think Conan/Shatner is onto something. Sarah Palin is our 21st century master Poet.
ericvsthem
Only time I see honest to goodness liberals on these programs, they are in the debate format vs. some vile wingnut hack. Howard Dean and Paul Krugman are the exceptions to the rule, and are very fine exceptions, indeed. But when Malkin or Coultergeist are given equal (or greater) media exposure, their outrageous opinions become the conservative mainstream vs. those of Dr’s Dean and Krugman. And then the MSM calls it balance!
Morbo
Daily Show this week has had Kristol and John Bolton; that’s irksome.
mistermix
@RedKitten: The only way anything backfires on Malkin, or any of the other authors who cater specifically to wingnuts, is if it will somehow impact the sale of her next book, “Barack Obama is a Scary Black Man in 12 Chapters, With Illustrations”.
Hunter Gathers
@Comrade Jake: Those morning shows are worthless. You’re better off watching SpongeBob.
Ash Can
@RedKitten: Exactly. I can’t really get too worked up about this myself, because — Lauer’s lack of questioning notwithstanding — I see this as primarily a publicity stunt on the part of the Today show, and quite possibly a net negative for Malkin in the longer run.
jenniebee
Hey, leave Malkin alone! If universal health care comes through, her readership might finally get the anti-psychotic meds they need, and then Malkin would have to find other ways to make a living with that cheerleader outfit.
Comrade Jake
@ericvsthem:
The problem is the false equivalency. I mean, do you have any doubt that if someone asked the producers of The Today Show why they allow someone like Malkin on, they would respond with “Well we also have Paul Krugman on now and then!”
I’m not suggesting they put far-left, fringe people on the show, not at all. But for Chrissakes put someone on with some modicum of respectability.
Comrade Jake
@Hunter Gathers:
Thanks for completely missing the point.
Bob
@Comrade Jake:
I totally agree with Comrade Jake. This is where I am. There is no way these idiots should be given any type of coverage which could risk providing legitimacy to their views and lies.
ironranger
Can’t remember where I read this but Clear Channel doesn’t have plans to recruit Palin for a radio talk show. Something about doubting she could handle a 3 hr format. I’m cracking up just imagining it. Pranksters (Sarkozy spoof) lining up & endless material for late night comics.
I have a feeling even Fox TV would pass on her.
schrodinger's cat
I need another cookie. Please fix the site soon, all these cookies are not friendly to my girlish figure.
Violet
But shows like the Today Show aren’t doing “news” and “reporting” and “investigative journalism.” Like most things on TV, they’re worried about ratings. Michelle Malkin provokes, people get their knickers in a twist and ratings go up. It’s a win, win, win for NBC.
One could argue that NBC and their ilk should be doing proper news, but that’s another argument. They aren’t. They don’t. To pretend otherwise is silly.
Cyrus
@Wordsmith:
Frequent commenter here, birther, nutty (in the sense that he says things that come from out of left field pretty regularly), possibly a spoof.
Although, if he was Bill Bennett, that would be awesome.
Hunter Gathers
@Comrade Jake: No, I didn’t. It would be better off for you and your family to watch cartoons in the morning before school/work, as opposed to the garbage that is to be found on all of the network morning shows. For all intensive purposes, Malkin called Obama and his wife niggers. Do you think anybody should let their kids watch crap like that? How about Glenn Beck saying that Obama is a racist and hates white people and white culture on Fox & Friends the other morning? I know people who watch that shit with their kids as well.
The chances of somebody on SpongeBob calling someone racist is absolute zero. Or do you want to have to explain to a five year old what that angry lady on TV this morning meant when she called Obama a ‘Racial Opportunist’?
I would rather be ignorant of the entire outside world than be informed by Matt Fucking Lauer.
David
If you remember, John McCain wouldn’t let Michelle Malkin participate in his blogger telephone press conferences because she was too “fringe.” Now she appears on the Today show as an average Republican.
Xenos
@ironranger:
It seems like a lifetime of never doing her homework is finally catching up to her. She really knows nothing, and not even a top-rate team of producers is able to keep her afloat with material when she has such a crappy attitude about taking instructions.
Wordsmith
@Cyrus: I was going off of the ‘built like a brick house’…… in this case a brick oven. Actually, that’s quite the catchy moniker.
burnspbesq
Hold up a sec.
Nepotism???
Wow, she’s even dumber than I thought.
Michelle Robinson’s parents were low-level city employees who weren’t involved in politics to any meaningful extent. In Daley or post-Daley Chicago, she’ not getting anything through nepotism.
Did the fact that her brother was already there and doing well credentialize her with the Princeton admissions office? Who knows, but even if it did that’s not nepotism.
Did being the spouse of an up-and-coming politician influence hiring decisions? Maybe, but how do you distinguish that from the effect of her very real credentials and experience?
No, dear, nepotism is when I get a summer internship from an investment banking firm that is trying to get work from my dad, who sets the investment policy for a multi-billion dollar pension fund.
What you are describing is something else. But you’ve never allowed reality to intrude on your alternate universe, and why start now?
Sheesh.
ironranger
@Xenos:
She doesn’t play well with others, politicians or media. If she was more savvy she would have sucked up to them & not just her groupies. I would call her a babe in the woods but probably a bad idea.
Ed in NJ
The reason there are no provocative Democrats on the TV is because Democrats are pussies.
When Michelle Malkin says something outrageous and over the top, the left blogs go atwitter for a day or so, the Republicans laugh their asses off and question our rights to free speech and then it’s done. When MoveOn makes and over-the-top ad Democrats vote for resolutions condemning them. That’s why the Bush got whatever he wanted to for 8 years, because we had a bunch of spineless chickenshits running our party, just like we do today.
Comrade Darkness
@Senyordave: PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.
What’s really really scary about this is it demonstrates she has no clue what the newspaper landscape in the u.s. looks like, and other than the clippings files her staff makes for her, probably never reads one or ever noticed a masthead in her life. No one who knows that a few large papers of record dominate the U.S. (with a handful from Europe that get cited regularly) followed by a horde of smaller town papers, would ever say anything remotely like this. It’s beyond clueless and gets into the kind of answer a space alien with no experience on planet earth would give.
Honestly, even Bush didn’t have his head this far up his ass. And it’s really hard for me to say that.
mcd410x
BOB … nice!
harlana pepper
Looks like Lauer was genuinely unprepared for teh crazy. His indignation was pretty lame stuff. At least he could have countered some of the outright lies with a fact or two but, again, this is The Today Show. The best he could come up with was “lotta comments there”?! Sterling, Matt, simply sterling.
harlana pepper
My fiance doesn’t have cable yet so, for the first time in eons, while he was visiting, I ended up watching The Today Show. Both of us pretty much hate morning shows, but choices were limited. The utter inanity of The Today Show subjects (ankle liposuction, how to protect your children from rug fringe and other household hazards, etc.) reminded why I do not watch these shows and what I have *not* been missing.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Mnemosyne
burnspbesq beat me to it, but my first thought when I heard Malkin claiming “nepotism” for Michelle Obama and Joe Biden (son of a failed businessman) was, “I think you should have checked your dictionary before going with that word, because it doesn’t mean what you seem to think it means.”
It would be nice if someone in the media would get Malkin to try and define “nepotism” so we can all point and laugh at her, but no one ever will. They’ll just cover up for her ignorance and pretend the word means what she claims it does. Assholes.
harlana pepper
@ericvsthem: I guess that’s why they think someone like Howard Dean is a balance to someone like Malkin, because 5 years ago, the msm had decided Dean was an insane, fire-breathing, foaming-at-the-mouth, super far left liberal (despite the fact that he’d been a popular, but moderate governor whose only crime was to oppose the Iraq war and, oh yeah, he said he’d break up media monopolies).
harlana pepper
@Mnemosyne: Thanks, that was my immediate reaction. I’m like, whuh? Michelle Obama’s dad was a plant worker, just like my highly influential dad (lol). WTF is this little troll talking about?
Sentient Puddle
@RedKitten: I hope you’re right on that, but I’m not optimistic. From where I’m sitting, The Today Show is designed to be as inoffensive as possible. If someone shows up on it, then the producers think for whatever deranged reason that this guest is part of the mainstream.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. I haven’t watched Today in ages, and the only counterexample I can think of is when Ann Coulter was on. Though if anyone could get Matt Lauer to stop and say “WTF”, it’s Ann Coulter.
Brachiator
TV interview shows deliberately decide to operate at a disadvantage. They are blandly gracious to all the guests, no matter how obnoxious or deliberately provocative they might be.
And of course, sometimes there’s a corporate tie-in. For example, there is the stunning (but little noticed outside the world of sports) refusal of the ESPN web site to make any mention of the civil suit alleging rape made against the Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback, even though everybody else and their mother was commenting on it. But another ESPN-connected division was filming a TV show that featured the guy.
The most vile people, like Coulter or Malkin, will use this to their advantage. They know that they can come on saying all kinds of outrageous stuff and the host will treat them with deference.
Also, despite political or ideological differences, hosts and guests might run in the same social circles. Among the many reasons that Rosie O’Donnell was dumped from The View is that even though she was a wealthy celebrity, she didn’t run with the Manhattan-to-the-Hamptons crowd and had little patience for the social hypocrisy that some of the other hosts were willing to indulge.
Matt Lauer is not fool or an idiot or simplistically a corporate tool. He knows that his viewers are not looking for hard-hitting interviews early in the morning, and will sometimes turn on a host who they perceive is “unfair” to a guest.
We’re lucky they didn’t ask Malkin to stay over for the cooking segment.
Don
I can see that latter bit backfiring on Malkin, though. Michelle Obama’s favourability ratings are still up in the 70’s, AFAIK.
Pfft, Malkin’s not looking to appeal to anyone who might have a favorable opinion of Mrs O. Her red meat is appealing to people who want to hear her say hateful ignorant things that support their own position. The fact that the other side finds her repugnant is an advantage to her role, not a negative: it allows shows to book her on to be horrible and let her opponents revel in how much more reasonable they are than the whackjob opposition.
Mike in NC
First saw Malkin during the ’04 campaign, when she was on the Chris Matthews show one night, ranting about how the anti-Kerry Swiftboat gang wasn’t getting enough airtime. I thought “Who is this screaming psycho bitch?”. A few minutes later Zell Miller appeared and threatened to kick Tweety’s fat ass. It was all quite bizarre.
Martin
“Oh deary me, I had no idea the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan would make these kinds of racist statements. Thankfully, he’s at the fringe of society and nobody actually hears his message of hate, but it’s good that we had him on our top rated morning show, your most trusted place for news, viewed by 100 million Americans and I’m confident our guest left happy and feeling respected.”
I’m sorry but the media commentary here kind of cracks me up. It’s like deliberately taking a vacation in a sewer and wondering why everything stinks all the time.
Comrade Jake
@Hunter Gathers:
Ahm, yes, yes you absolutely did. I don’t question for a second that there are far better things to watch on television, as I wrote in my first response. Reading comprehension fail, natch.
Kyle
First saw Malkin during the ‘04 campaign, when she was on the Chris Matthews show one night, ranting about how the anti-Kerry Swiftboat gang wasn’t getting enough airtime.
She also implied that Kerry shot himself in Vietnam to get a Purple Heart. To his credit, Tweety called her on it. Bitch hemmed and hawed some bullshit about how “there are questions raised”, but chickened out when asked to give a straight answer about whether she was claiming Kerry shot himself. Rightard punditry at its dirtiest.
IndieTarheel
The only thing Lauer ever has been is a hairdo, a fact that means less with each passing day.
Martin
I do with my kids on those occasions when they are particularly eventful. Kids implicitly trust adults. If someone like Lou Dobbs says that Obama is a racist, kids will have a natural instinct to assume that this person in authority on TV, who must be there because the other adults have approved of him, is telling them the unvarnished truth.
You need to take those moments to teach them that the authorities in our lives, right up to the president, can be wrong, hateful, deceptive, and so on. And you need to teach them how to look out for it and why it happens. It’s not a Mary Poppins world out there any more and if you don’t work on this stuff, you’re going to find out when it’s way too late.
I was stunned last year when my son came home from 4th grade upset about having to quit from his classroom newspaper because a handful of girls from the class had swallowed the PUMA coolaid from somewhere and were pushing out ‘inadequate black man’ and birfer-type crap from late in the primaries. These were 10 year-olds and they had already gotten down the wrong track with the media. I had to ask the teacher to intervene because it was just all kinds of wrong to see kids in the classroom doing the Glenn Beck thing rather than the Cronkite thing.
Maus
“Lauer is a professional softball pitcher. An archetypical talking head.”
As is Kouric, but she lucked out accidentally hen her softballs somehow concussed Palin right between the eyes.
ericvsthem
@harlana pepper:
I guess that’s why they think someone like Howard Dean is a balance to someone like Malkin, because 5 years ago, the msm had decided Dean was an insane, fire-breathing, foaming-at-the-mouth, super far left liberal (despite the fact that he’d been a popular, but moderate governor whose only crime was to oppose the Iraq war and, oh yeah, he said he’d break up media monopolies).
So how do we get Glennzilla booked on the Today show? Or David Waldman from The Great Orange Satan?
Germane Jackson
@Hunter Gathers:
Intents and purposes. God, that one drives me nuts.
Trollhattan
@ maus #60
Yup. It was “gotcha” media played with nerf equipment and the Moosenier still couldn’t escape. I could imagine Barbara Walters asking, “Governor Palin, if you were a tree what kind of tree would be?”
And Palin answering, “Well Barbara, no matter what kind of tree because I like all trees equally in God’s eyes I’d get out my chainsaw because in Alaska, gosh, God has given us so many gifts to make us such a rugged place and peoples that values us as individuals who cherish our freedoms. Also. I would use those God-given gifts to increase our energy independence and stop importing wood products from Russia and make us favoring small, efficient government.”
“In what sense, Barbara?”
<i“Lauer is a professional softball pitcher. An archetypical talking head.”
As is Kouric, but she lucked out accidentally hen her softballs somehow concussed Palin right between the eyes.
Origuy
The nepotism thing apparently is about Michelle Obama’s positions at the University of Chicago. According to Wikipedia, in 1996 she became Associate Dean of Student Services. Barack was a Lecturer at U of C at the time, and was elected to the Illinois Senate that year. In 2002, she became VP for Community and External Affairs for the U of C Hospital. Barack was still in the Illinois Senate, having lost a run for Congress in 2000.
So, apparently, the University of Chicago, a private institution, needed pushing from a state legislator to promote an Associate Dean with experience in community affairs to be Vice President in the same area after six years on the job. A white male would NEVER have gotten that kind of opportunity. No, sirree!
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
Gosh, you mean she got a completely unrelated job at the University of Chicago 4 years after her husband started lecturing there? That is some powerful nepotism.
(Sarcasm not directed at you, just to be clear.)
Phoenix Woman
Don’t be too hard on the Cons. Most of their experience with black people has been with useless tokens like Clarence Thomas, who has been a big beneficiary of the right-wing welfare machine that provides “affirmative action” to any African-American willing to sell his or her soul to its operators. Plus, they think all that black people do all day is knock back malt liquor. Seriously.
Brachiator
@Origuy:
What does the Wikipedia say about Malkin?
Now, I’m sure that Malkin was qualified, as far as I know. But I could easily imagine someone weaving charges of nepotism out of this.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator: @<a
Ah, Republican projection. Is there any question that you are not the answer to?
Steeplejack
@Hunter Gathers:
Sorry, you hit the copyediting nerve there. It’s “for all intents and purposes.”
Steeplejack
@Germane Jackson:
Germane, we are kindred spirits. I short-circuited and replied to the previous post before reading down to yours.
mclaren
So now these people are “provocateurs”? When I was a kid we called them kooks.
I recall leafing through the pamphlet Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles as a kid. It explained that the Fab Four were a communist plot to subvert the minds of Western youth by hypnotic musical mind control.
Fast forward to Michelle Malkin and Bill Kristol and Ann Coulter.
Nothing’s really changed, has it?