I’m not on any email lists, but I will not lose any sleep if these people set themselves on fire:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I’m sure this is where I’ll be told I’m being divisive. Also, Fox is a sister news organization…
TenguPhule
We can cook smores!
freelancer
What does intellectual honesty look like? This is what intellectual honest looks like!
Porco Rosso
Well somebody doesn’t want to work at the Washington Post.
General Stuck
Now I’m cranky. My broadband connection is totally spastic tonight. Can’t watch any videos.
We need to get divisive or else this country is going to be over run with stupidity. Somebody ought to burn down cable news. It is a blight on the republic.
Lev
You know, I really just wonder what motivates someone like Breitbart. I realize that politics is messy and all that, and lots of people do oppo research and whatnot, but this guy wakes up every day and tries to slime good people, and most of those whom he targets seem to be of a different race than himself and have probably had to struggle hard to get to where they are. Where’s his fucking humanity? I try not to judge people I don’t know, but in this case it’s hard not to.
The right is becoming less a group of failed politicians and ideologues and more a group of failed men. That’s just sad.
Mister Papercut
Race-baiting on Fox News? Must be [insert current day of the week].
Ash Can
And I sure as hell wouldn’t rouse my own self out of bed to whizz on ’em if they were.
Porco Rosso
Hmmm. Can this tactic by Fox be tagged as “Dropping a Doocy?”
drag0n
Gloat all you want John. We won this round. Thanks for bringing this bullshit to our attention.
drag0n
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I would not be surprised to find out one day that Breitbart and Fox got set up.
Where did Rahm touch you Mr. Murdoch?
Steeplejack
@drag0n:
You’re a conspiracy theorist. And not a very good one.
ETA: Gosh darn it, if only they had checked the veracity of that video clip. Or e-mailed the credenza. Or whatever.
Lev
@drag0n: Yeah, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Breitbart actually did get the edited tape as is? Would explain how the full tape turned up so quickly.
Nah, there’s nobody devious enough on the left to pull something like that off that slickly. So many fucking evil geniuses on the right, hardly any on the left. Guess that’s the cost of trying not to be evil.
sven
Hey, DougJ, Cole, ALaurie, whoever, …
Is it possible to start dedicating like 10% of open threads?
I’m basically a media hound and am always on the lookout for new books, music, movies I hadn’t heard about. It wouldn’t have to be formal, just every once in a while say:
“This open thread is non-fiction, knock yourselves out!”
It certainly doesn’t have to be media; I’m positive other folks here can come up with topics that would be fun.
Just an idea.
Also too;
I’ve had Elbow’s disc Seldom Seen Kid in my changer for the last month; here’s Grounds for Divorce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL4mywCOJXA
drag0n
Lev:
Breitbart claims he got the edited tape ‘as is’ from the production company that shot it for naacp. Or so he was claiming earlier.
Anyhow, anyway you cut it. He has a lot of egg on his face and has been neutered.
Mnemosyne
@sven:
Nonfiction? The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Amazing book, especially if you like science, race relations, a detective story, and history all mushed together.
freelancer (itouch)
@Lev:
It’d be irresponsible not to speculate:
The Dangerman
I’ll spring for the Bics.
drag0n
@freelancer (itouch):
Breitbart got punked.
Comrade Mary
@sven: Elbow is Teh Awesome, and that’s my favourite song of theirs — but have you heard the version done live with the BBC Concert Orchestra? Fuckin’ visceral.
sven
@Mnemosyne: Wow!
I just requested it from the library…
Position #4
How did all this work before the internet again?
Steeplejack
@drag0n:
Bullshit. Breitbart originally claimed he had “tapes” that he was going to kill the NAACP with. He walked it back to “I only got the edited version” after the shit hit the fan.
And, if he was so done wrong by, why doesn’t he release the name of the nefarious person who set him up by sending him the hinky edit? Hmm? . . . [crickets]
Comrade Mary
@Mnemosyne: Oh yes, and have you heard the RadioLab show on this, too? The entire show is on tumours, including a segment on a horrible contagious cancer among Tasmanian Devils, but the Henrietta Lacks segment can be played separately.
And as it happens, CBC Newsworld (or whatever they call it now) is playing a documentary called Catching Cancer right now. Canadians can stream it online here, but it should be available elsewhere #cough# if you just hunt a bit.
(Sorry! It seems like I’m piggybacking on everyone tonight, but it’s just synchronicity.)
Non-Existent Patricia
@sven:
Card catalogs, bitchez! Somewhere, Dewey Decimal is weeping.
drag0n
@Steeplejack:
He claimed he got the tape “as is” from the production company that shot it when pressed for the originals by TPM this afternoon. The crickets were earlier this afternoon when TPM asked him to cough up the originals and he could not. It’s all on their web site.
Oh, I forgot.. only rightwing nutbags are smart enough to manipulate the media.
patroclus
It would be totally cool if it were Ashton Kutcher who had put together the edited video that slimed Shirley Sherrod and then put the whole backstage story on Punk’d, but, unfortunately, I think it’s actually the case that Andrew Breitbart is a race-baiting, lying, sliming propagandist who is unencumbered by any sense of right and wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Mary:
Tattoosydney linked to a great video of frighteningly adorable Tasmanian devils the other day from one of the conservation places. This isn’t it, but it’s what I could find on YouTube.
“Frighteningly adorable” because, as someone said, they make sounds like they’re being dragged backwards through a woodchipper.
sven
@Comrade Mary: Nice!
Can you imagine getting see something like that live?
There has to be a DVD for sale somewhere…
Wile E. Quixote
@Lev:
He’s a lazy, incompetent, cowardly little shit. What the fuck is Breitbart good at? Nothing. He’s a non-entity, a piece of shit. This is a man who described himself as “Matt Drudge’s bitch”. Yeah, that’s something to aspire to, being the bitch of a mentally unbalanced loser who almost ended up in a state home for making obscene phone calls. Breitbart jacks off over the military, but like all of the other conservatives out there he never served. He’s a worthless little shit who wouldn’t be able to hold down a job as a jizz mopper at a peep show. Fortunately for him and his Daddy Drudge the intertoobz came along and they found that they could make a comfortable living peddling bullshit to racists, retards and losers.
Wile E. Quixote
@John Cole
And I’m not on any email lists, but I will not lose any sleep if someone sets those people on fire.
Triassic Sands
@Steeplejack:
Mr. Breitbarf [sic] is a journalist and thus can’t reveal his sources, especially when he may be hoping for more irrefutable proof of racism and other liberal crimes against humanity from the same source in the future. I mean it worked so well for him this time, surely he would be foolish to burn that bridge.
Steeplejack
@drag0n:
Yeah, dig yourself a deeper hole. What possible reason can you think of that the “original company” that filmed the event would take the time and effort to edit down a condensed version of the event that would just coincidentally be a race-baiting masterpiece?
Lolzwhut?! Why don’t you breathe into a paper bag for a while and get back to us.
sven
@Mnemosyne: Is this the video you were looking for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE46dlD2j2I
Oh C’mon, you knew someone was going there!
sherifffruitfly
And as usual, the anti-Obama self-proclaimed “true progressives” are right there with fox news blaming Obama as well.
ricky
Did someone earlier say Breitbart has been neutered?
His little stunt has dominated the media for three days, gobbled up all the air to suffocate coverage of Financial Reform and Unemployment, made the NAACP and th Obama administration look foolish and the press as dumb as ever.
I would say he has more claim to land on an aircraft carrier and dance under a Mission Accomplished banner than W. ever had. He had a little old WMD and used it.
Mnemosyne
@sven:
It wasn’t until I saw Tattoosydney’s video that I realized that Mel Blanc was doing an impersonation of the actual noises those things make and not just making it up. The man was a genius.
ricky
@sherifffruitfly:
Please, call them REAL progressives. Or just “the base.”
Anything else just rubs salt in the wounds of their oft stabbed backs.
sven
@Mnemosyne:
I always liked this:
http://www.g-cart.com/images/products/speechless.jpg
This too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mel_Blanc_4-15-05.JPG
drag0n
@Steeplejack:
His story. Not mine. It’s on TPM. If you are too lazy to go find it don’t expect me to link it.
Mnemosyne
@drag0n:
So you believe notorious liar Andrew Breitbart is not lying in this case because …. ?
Steeplejack
@drag0n:
You’re the one who advanced the theory “I would not be surprised to find out one day that Breitbart and Fox got set up.”
But now you’re all “Just the facts, ma’am.” Got it.
lawnorder
…
Just listen to Maddow. This is the exact same thing that happened with Van Jones. And ACORN. And now Sharrod.
Same thing, same people, WH fooled 3 times.
As Bush used to say, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice… refudiate!!!
This administration has been fooled 3 times. Shame on them.
drag0n
@Steeplejack:
I would not be surprised, no. So shoot me. What’s next? A lecture on US Government hiring practices like we got from that clown last night?
R. Porrofatto
The NewsHour on putatively liberal PBS this evening never mentioned the words “Breitbart” or “Fox,” just like every other mainstream news about it. The entire episode was pinned on the NAACP for “starting it” by calling for the Tea Party to disavow their racist elements, and the White House was blamed for Sherrod’s firing almost as if it happened in a vacuum.
Ben JB
That’s just as good as The Daily Show–maybe there’s hope for cable news yet!
Viva BrisVegas
Whenever I think about Fox News in situations like this, I’m always reminded of Otter’s line from Animal House.
Holly McLachlan
Breitbart got punked.
I need to set the lyrics above to the world’s saddest song…. as played on the world’s smallest violin. Truly. They tug at my heartstrings so.
Breitbart is a high profile, newsmedia professional. If he got Rathered, it’s his own damned fault. He should have known better than to run with this one without having seen uneditted tape.
The only legitimate response at this point, for a news professional in his shoes, is to own the error. It is of course precisely what he won’t do. He’s hack. And now, a well revealed whiner.
Malron
You know, I find it interesting that people are blaming “the White House” for being fooled on ACORN when it was The Democratic Congress that voted to de-fund ACORN based on a doctored video, not the Obama administration. Also, I don’t remember the NAACP or the Congressional Black Caucus putting up much of a fight when Glenn Beck was viciously smearing Van Jones. But hey, never let the facts interfere with working up a good mad, I always say…
In spite of all the Sturm und Drang over this, a little perspective is necessary.
Shirley Sherrod was a lower level employee at the USDA, working out of their regional office in Georgia. She was not holding a cabinet level position. Now, either Obama leaves it up to Sherrod’s superiors to decide whether or not to retain her in most cases (this, of course, being a most extreme exception) or people are advocating that the president of the United States needs to personally micromanage every single federal employee in order to make sure no one says anything out of line or oversteps their bounds and hastily fires someone before all the evidence is in. But, if he started doing stuff like that, how the hell would he have time to handle the real business of being president, things like meeting with Heads of State, like he was doing with UK Leader David Cameron at the time this whole mess was at its peak? Its necessary to delegate responsibility and trust your appointees’ judgment, only stepping in when necessary because your subordinates are either unable or unwilling to resolve the situation themselves. I believe Obama rightfully let others address the Sherrod situation until they bungled it so bad he had to step in with the late night phone call urging Vilsack to make things right.
Its sad that so many people feel the need to leap frog over everyone else involved and try to place all the blame on the president by claiming he orchestrated this firing from behind the scenes, then refuse to give him the slightest bit of credit for stepping in to straighten out the mess because he – gasp! – dealt with it behind the scenes. But then, that’s been the M.O. of the media and the mantra of the Manic-Progressives on every issue for over a year now.
During the election I always feared people wouldn’t really let Obama govern the country the way he wanted if he actually won. Now, 18 months into his first term I’m seeing that many of his own party don’t want to follow his lead and an awful lot of so-called progressives feel that no matter how much GOBP obstruction he has to wade through, no matter how many members of his own party break ranks to help facilitate the opposition and how much he might manage to accomplish in spite of it all, the Manic-Progressive wing of the party has decided if he doesn’t do it the way they say he should they will dismiss every accomplishment as a sellout or a betrayal to drive down enthusiasm and basically make life miserable for him at every turn. I came to the conclusion that a lot of Democrats and progressives didn’t elect him to be their leader; they elected him to either be their errand boy or just some symbolic figure that they can use for political cover while they continue to do the same old thing behind the scenes.
We have just seen a remarkable thing from our leaders, unprecedented even. The press secretary and the head of the USDA both humbled themselves to apologize to a lower level employee for royally screwing up and kicking her out of her job. 24 hours ago, not one of us expacted any type of apology to be forthcoming from either, yet we got one from both. Compared to the brash, callous attitude of the previous administration and all its major fuckups through the prior eight years, I find the honesty and contrition of Gibbs and Vilsack pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, too many are preoccupied with using this incident to feed their narrative that Obama’s a failure to notice how much things have changed for the better.
But hey, what do I know? I’m just your friendly neighborhood
Obamabot worshiping Dear LeaderObamacrat.bob h
Isn’t Fox’s role in perpetuating this fraud something the FCC should be concerned with? Can you really abuse the public airwaves in this way with impunity?
mcd410x
@Malron: Now, with 100% more concern-trolly goodness!
valdivia
@Malron:
what you said. a thousand times.
John D.
@mcd410x: You *really* need to go look up “concern troll”, because Malron’s rant? That ain’t it.
Frank
@Lev:
I truly hope there is a very special place in hell for people such as Breitbart and the FoxNews pundits.
wilfred
Maddow misses the point:
In the final analysis, Fox News et. al. — sleazy and despicable as they are — were doing their job as part of the opposition.
Obama and his administration — weak sisters that they are — are terrified of the oppostion and its tactics and will let themselves be jerked around and humiliated.
SteveinSC
@R. Porrofatto: This ignoring the role Breitbart, Fox, etc. played and trying to make it a story about NAACP and the White House is just adding insult to injury. The obscene thing is this Villager response was predicted here (and I suppose, other) blogs as well.
nepat
@wilfred:
Hmm. I thought Fox was a news organization. At least that’s what they keep telling us.
Palooza
A “liberal media” story condemning Briebart: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/andrew-breitbart-matt-drudge-arianna-huffington/story?id=11219422 (oh wait, they are lionizing this guy…. 2 days after this incident, WTF?)