On the Halperin nonsense:
’m sorry, but this is crazy. Halperin’s crack was crude and dumb, but it doesn’t deserve indefinite suspension. Halperin’s use of an expletive is trival when compared with the degradation of our political discourse we witness on a regular basis from Halperin and many others — degradation that is seen as perfectly acceptable because no curse words are employed. Suspending Halperin only reinforces a phony definition of “civility” in our discourse, in which it’s unacceptable to use foul language and be “uncivil,” but it’s perfectly acceptable for reporters and commentators to allow outright falsehoods to pass unrebutted; to traffic endlessly in false equivalences in the name of some bogus notion of objectivity; and to make confident assertions about public opinion without referring to polls which show them to be completely wrong.
I care less about Halperin’s use of the word “dick” than I do about the argument he and Joe Scarborough were making — that Obama somehow stepped over some kind of line in aggressively calling out the GOP for refusing to allow any revenues in a debt ceiling deal. This notion that Obama’s tone was somehow over the top — when politics is supposed to be a rough clash of visions — is rooted in a deeply ingrained set of unwritten rules about what does and doesn’t constitute acceptable political discourse that really deserve more scrutiny. This set of rules has it that it should be treated as a matter of polite, legitimate disagreement when Michele Bachmann says deeply insane things about us not needing to raise the debt limit, but it should be seen as an enormously newsworthy gaffe when she commits a relatively minor error about regional trivia. This set of rules has it that it should be treated as a matter of polite, legitimate disagreement when Republicans continually claim that Dems cut $500 billion in Medicare in a way that will directly impact seniors, even though fact checkers have pronounced it misleading, but it should be seen as “demagoguery” when Dems argue that the Paul Ryan plan would end Medicare as we know it.
Exactly.
Remember, Halperin is the clown who insisted that McCain not knowing how many he houses he owned during the economic crash was good news for… John McCain.
JPL
Although, I agree with the point Sargent was trying to make, I do think that a journalist should be suspended for calling a sitting president a dick. If Halperin were a shock radio star that would be different.
MattR
From Salon
BTD
No way.
Althouse’s take was the most valuable by far.
JPL
Halperin pretends he is a journalist and as one, he should be able to come up with bigger words than dick.
Napoleon
Schlong?
Bender
Give the guy a break. It was a botched joke.
Love,
John F. Kerry
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Me also too. I agree with Sargent, Cole, et al that the far bigger problem is the (lack of) substance in political commentary– was that grinning nitwit side-sidekick suspended for declaring his love for Paul Ryan?–, but I feel the same way about dick as I felt about Shuster saying HRC was “pimping” Chelsea: Middle-aged men trying to sound hip and edgy. It’s pathetic, gratuitous and embarrassing
moonbat
The point is not that Halperin thinks Obama is a dick. It is that he pretends to be an impartial observer. Dare I say it? He aspires to journalistic credibility when he’s never even smelt it. Put “Rightwing Political Hack” under his name every time he appears on television and he can giggle and use naughty words on Morning Joe all he wants. I never turn that crap on in the morning anyway.
askew
Greg is dead wrong. When liberals let hacks like Halperin smear a Democratic President without pushing back, it sends a message to the media that it is ok to disrespect Obama. There’s a reason the media never talks about GOP pols this way. Because when they do, the conservatives mobilize and force the pundit to resign or ruin his/her credibility. The media is now so afraid of conservative backlash that they go out of their way to spin stories for the GOP. We need to start doing the same pushback and restore some kind of balance in the media.
Valdivia
Just as good, or even better take to my mind, by Bennen.
Elizabelle
How strange.
The New York Times has not bothered to approve any reader comments for its Halperin “Caucus” item, and it’s been hours.
Halperin is a graceless hack who gives Villagers a bad name.
NonyNony
@JPL
The really stupid thing is that if Halperin had used the word “jerk” instead of “dick” he would have said exactly the same thing and been exactly as wrong and as partisan but no one would have said anything about it ever.
He didn’t even need to come up with a bigger word – he just had to not pick the one he picked.
JPL
BTW…Halperin is a small dick…imo
NonyNony That would have taken some thought…oh yeah..he actually waited several seconds before he said dick.. maybe he does have a very limited vocab.
fourlegsgood
I am far more offended by Joe and Halperin’s narrative that Obama was being combative over the debt ceiling “to satisfy his base- it’s just posturing.”
Um, no, it’s not. IT’S FUCKING POLICY.
I’m not really offended by him saying dick, though I know he’s wrong, it’s the substance of the thing.
And for the record, Halperin is a dick, probably because of his own micro-dick.
Suffern ACE
But is the press wrong to focus on those trival gaffes when three years later, thoese trival gaffes and the commentary of pundits on them are what is remembered about a campaign?
moonbat
Valdivia @ 10: Word. Benen has been spot on about this in both his posts concerning it today.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I would very much like to see our entire mass media pundit class stood up against a wall and shot in the back of the head NKVD-style as a just punishment for their sins, so my opinion on the subject of “Halperin’s suspension: too much, or too little” hardly matters. As far as I’m concerned this is a debate over whether one of the busboys in the First Class Dining Room on the Titanic deserves a spanking or not for spitting in the soup. Whatever.
cat48
@john
I disagree. I’ve watched faithfully daily to get one of those jerks on that show who intentionally personally attack Obama daily, not his policy, HIM. It just happened to be Halperin. One down, a gazillion to go.
I obviously wasn’t the only one waiting patiently. Twitter exploded with telephone #’s, email addresses, etc. They were better prepared than I was…sort of shocking really.
geg6
Fallows is on the same page:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/the-real-dickishness-problem/241288/
As is Benen:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/what_matters_and_what_doesnt_a030605.php
Meanwhile, ol’ Chuckie Schumer is telling the truth about the GOP and their intentions. I’m sure he’ll be punished for it soon, but today it’s like a breath of fresh air.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_06/schumer_pushes_the_sabotage_en030608.php
jl
Most of the corporate media national affairs analysis has degenerated into dullwitted trite bullsh*t horse race gossip, small talk, beer and wine party hot air.
Has Cole patented or trade marked the phrase ‘Balloon Juice’ yet? He better, since somebody will soon.
The local radio news station I listen to while driving (KCBS) used to have good national affairs interviews that talked about substance, but now they are succumbing to it as well. I complained several times, and their rate of degeneration seemed to increase every time I complained.
So, it has become self satire, and best to treat it that way.
By the corporate media’s own logic, the actual substance of the debt ceiling is not worth covering anyway. The media have been selling its air time emitting social engineering propaganda informing the lesser people of this nation that they are screwed, the jobs aren’t coming back, the money they paid into social security and medicare is gone, so what the hell.
If the economy takes a big hit because of monkeying around with US default, and the lesser people get screwed again, where is the news in that? It will just provide more grist for the propaganda. The millionaire hacks who act out their roles on the TV are fixed and they don’t care.
eemom
oh fer fucks sake. What a stupid argument.
Calling the president of the united states a dick on television is, YES, completely inappropriate and a fucking FIRING offense, imo. Full the fuck stop.
I mean I realize it’s hopelessly old fashioned to believe that — in a public forum at least — respect is due to the office of the presidency, but here I am. Maybe I’ll go move in with Mrs. Sarah at the senile home.
Mike Kay (The Base)
Meh.
I don’t think “dickgate” is a big deal.
After all, the PUMAs and Firebaggers call the President worse things every ten minutes.
Hunter Gathers
Hey Halperin, if you really, really want the Conservative Movement to welcome you with open arms and give you that fat Wingnut Welfare check you’ve had your eyes on all these years, call Obama an ‘angry Kenyan’ next time. Sure you may lose your gig at Time, but Roger Ailes will give you your own show and more money than you could ever think of if you just stopped fronting and went Full Metal Wingnut.
General Stuck
Fuck Halperin, and apologizing for his duplicitous ass. If you want to clean up the discourse, you don’t do it by giving a pass to one of it’s prime purveyors. The fewer “Halperins” pumping bullshit into our national dialogue, the better. One dishonest hack down, and a bunch more to go.
Zandar
And yet for the next week it’s going to be nothing but HURT FEE-FEES as Obama’s “thuggery” got Halperin suspended and gosh the President is so mean for making Harry Reid cancel the Senate’s July 4th recess because the Village had plans in the Hamptons this week.
Martin
Sorry, the invisible hand of the free market is going to win this round. Halperin didn’t put his White House access at risk with the idiotic statement above. He does by calling the President a dick. If Halperin can’t get into the WH, or get information from his contacts who are happy to shun a reporter over something like this – after all, there’s no shortage of ‘off the record access’ – then he’s worthless to MSNBC. MSNBC is simply preserving what’s in their best interest – access – by taking Halperin down a notch and hoping to catch the WHs good graces – and Halperin even agrees with that. Nobody gives a fuck about anyone’s sensitivities here. This is all about keeping the business running.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This too. I said earlier that if Halperin had said “boor”, he’d’ve launched a meme. We’d be looking at CNN interactive polls asking if the President was boorish, and on Wapo dot com if it was “class warfare”
WarMunchkin
@askew:
Disrespecting the President should not be a suspendable offense. If you really have a problem with it, the issue is that the use of an expletive to set the threshold for disrespect represents a false definition of civility in public discourse. What’s disrespectful — and devastating — is all the times Obama was called a socialist marxist mustard-eating freedom-destroying communist welfare naive born-in-Kenya unAmerican guy, and what should be a more alarming symbol of disrespect is all the federal government nominees that will not be considered by the Senate. If your reaction to the “dick” pseudocontroversy is recoil, then you’re doing so for the wrong reason, and missed all the other and more important reasons that the President was disrespected.
Mike Kay (The Base)
btw, all these august bloggers like Cole and Sargent running to little Halperin’s defense, where were they when Ed Schultz got indefinitely suspended for calling lara ingraham a “slut”?
I’m not a fan of Ed, but I am a fan of consistency and cohesive thought.
jl
It is a demonstration of the total lack of any sense or consistency in the garbage most of the TV news talkies pump out, that credence is given to the idea that all sorts of very vague, unenumerated and undefined ‘uncertainties’ of anything Obama or the Democrats are really damaging the economy.
But the very real and damaging uncertainty created by the GOP’s brinksmanship is never mentioned. Or if it is, the really damaging uncertainty is why the Democrats don’t cave immediately to everyone of the GOP’s demands.
I have to dig my copy of the Adams and Jefferson correspondence, and find John Adams diatribes describing the behavior of, and the damage done by, a society controlled by a decadent moneyed aristocracy. If memory serves, it will fit the contemporary US scene perfectly.
Well, Colbert has his super duper PAC now, at least we will go down laughing.
martha
I just want one of those jobs where you can be wrong 80% of the time and not get fired. Weatherdudes and Washington gasbags. Any others?
kdaug
Bread and circuses, while Rome burns.
Jeffro
Since being wrong a gazillion times obviously wasn’t getting Halperin suspended, and since his being a smug little right-wing hack wasn’t getting him suspended, I’ll take this.
If the right thing happens for less than exactly perfect just-desserts-type reasons, it’s still the right thing. See also, Capone, tax evasion. I’ll take it.
Elizabelle
James Fallows, from geg’s link at 19:
We deserve better.
jl
Yeah, Cole just loves Ed Schultz and always has, right?
Rhoda
Sargent was making a good point; but he’s wrong spectacularly in one sense. I do care that the President was called a dick. I do care and I regret that this isn’t the first time he has been disrespected so spectacularly while in office. And it won’t be the last. So, yeah, Sargent is right. But this offense alone IS meaningful and deserves to be called out and recognized on it’s own merits.
I don’t remember when it became okay to disrespect the President in such a manner; hell Halperin himself apologized not just to the President but the office of the Presidency which he disrespected. And that is the crux of the matter; the office of the Presidency is so much LESS to some because the man who inhabits it is black.
General Stuck
I mean, how valuable is a guy to our pundit class that in a purposeful way wants to get something of his chest about a presidents speech, and asks if he is on the air, and doesn’t even wait to get a firm “no” off air, then delivers a juvenile personal emo take.
That clip could be characterized by some guy that forgot his man diaper while desperate to take a shit, and asking where the john was. But couldn’t quite wait long enough to get an answer.
misterbones
Slightly OT, but thought you might enjoy the response from that slimy fuck, Hugh Hewitt:
Yes, Halperin is apparently an Obot.
ETA: the formatting is weird. It oughtta be blockquote up til “acolyte.”
Mike Kay (The Base)
I just remembered….
I once got suspended by Cole for a week for saying jane Hamsher looked like a “wax figure”. I didn’t even use any patently offensive words.
To Cole that was over the line, but calling the President a “dick”, that’s okay.
If only Obama was an arguably a cute, blonde, hippie chick who batted his eyelashes at Cole, then Halperin’s remarks would have crossed the line.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Josh Marshall said a few years ago, I think specifically about Cokie Roberts or maybe I just inferred that through my own passionate hatred, Village Bigfeet are confused and a little embarrassed that people actually take politics seriously, as if it were something that affected one’s life instead of just the entertainment at the Endless Grand Garden Party hosted by Sally and Ben.
Ash Can
I agree with Sargent’s basic idea that the idiocy of the discourse is a far worse problem than the use of a vulgarity. Having said that, I’m not going to lose any sleep over a worthless hack being shown the door at MSNBC, regardless of how trivial the reason for his booting.
aisce
@ mike kay
yeah, cole! why don’t you stop being such a racist fuck? you hate the president because he’s black! admit it! hamsher! puma! arglebargle squibbledy doo!
…you’re really not sure why a person like you might get banned, mike? really?
this has been a frustrating day. can’t we talk about something more important than mark halperin?
like ron johnson using his company as a piggybank to win an election?
eemom
beeeeeeeeeeep
I interrupt this thread to inform you that the National Blog Service has issued a Troll Watch for this blog to remain in effect indefinitely.
A new toko-loko screen name has been reported on several recent threads and, although moving erratically, is believed to be headed in this general direction. Its paranoid nonsense about libertarian enablers is projected to be spewing at gale-level force by threadfall.
Residents are urged not to feed it.
We now return to our regularly scheduled bloviating.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Isn’t there video of Halperin on the verge of tears because Baby Hughie called him a liberal?
cat48
Boots Day
I understand why some lefties like Benen are trying to take the high road and downplay the “dick” business, but I think that’s totally wrong. It is entirely inappropriate for a supposedly serious pundit to refer to the president as a dick, and we should do what we can to prevent that from happening.
Imagine if some supposedly neutral pundit like Jake Tapper had ever referred to George W. Bush on-air as an asshole. Do you think he would have a future in journalism? Do you think the right wing would allow him to?
trollhattan
@21.eemom
This. If MSNBC wishes to discharge an odious employee/contractor/pet monkey for being…odious, then get ‘er done and be quick about it. His 1st amendment rights resume as soon as he’s not receiving that paycheck.
aisce
@ rhoda
well, you’re wrong. dubya as a chimpanzee. chevy chase falling down flight steps. hunter s. thompson on the campaign trail. bill clinton ejaculating on an intern’s dress. oh wait, that last one was real. my bad.
my point is, presidents are not treated with any sort of particular dignity unless there’s a national tragedy. being black has nothing to do with calling a president a dick on camera.
Valdivia
@36 Rhoda once again you said it exactly as it should be said. So-co-sign.
Boots Day
Which supposedly serious pundit went on TV and referred to Bush as a chimpanzee?
I’ll wait for your answer.
Davis X. Machina
I think it’s pretty clear that what’s being disrespected is the Bing.
shortstop
It’s worse than that. The circuses are getting so spectacular that people are starting to forget that the bread’s giving out.
gogol's wife
I agree with Askew, eemom, and Rhoda. That clip with all three of them smirking and giggling was disgusting. I wish they could all be not just suspended but fired.
stuckinred
Mike Kay (The Base)
Hamsher ain’t no fucking hippie, jesus.
General Stuck
It is not for me, the disrespect of Obama as an administration, that needs to be wide open to being called whatever, without a lot of limits on the speech, even nasty.
The problem, and Halperin brings it out in the open on a major teevee cable news program and station. That it is the disrespect on a personal level, ofter in sexual terms, and at times personally directed at his manhood, or whatever you want to call it. Something that has been much more rampant of the blogs, and largely coming from the disappointed left. We have discussed this here many times.
So yes, when a pundit uses the “puzzy’ word, or the “dick” or “coward” etc… word in the capacity of his punditry, it is a big deal, and I do think it has something tangentially to do with race. In that it frees up a little more any inhibitions a pundit might hold toward critiquing a black president, this black president. As being not quite equal in the swampy recesses of the white psyche. We have seen it before, and will again.
stuckinred
I’d like to see BO post up Halperin’s narrow ass under the basket.
metricpenny
I’m with gogol’s wife at 53, Rhoda at 36, eemom at 21 and askew at 6.
Amir_Khalid
I have no idea what all this fuss is about. Hasn’t the American media — or much of it, anyway — been historically partisan? Haven’t media people criticized politicians not on their side in language far stronger, if nominally less indecent, than merely calling them dicks?
Yes, Mark Halperin was rude to the President, but I agree with Greg Sargent that a passing incivility doesn’t merit an indefinite suspension. A public reprimand and a week off the air seem about right.
As for the refusal of political journalists to address the substance of partisan disagreements over policy, it’s not just Halperin. Remember that most journos who work a beat have, at best, a layman’s understanding of the field they cover. If your background is exclusively in journalism, all you really know how to do is write stuff down (or repeat it on camera, as the case may be). Few business journalists have ever been businesspeople themselves. Few who cover economic policy have any academic or professional credentials, let alone at Paul Krugman’s level. And few political journalists have the background to discuss public policy knowledgeably.
So they cover politics as though it were sports and they were fans. A sports fans might know sod-all about actual coaching or playing, but he will still feel entitled to his opinion.
That said, if Halperin were commenting on actual horse races, he’d be the one pointing to the horse of his favorite rich man, running dead last, and insisting it was bound to win the race. But they don’t sack political pundits for being wrong, or wrong-headed; not in America, not anywhere else.
Tonal Crow
Beware the Trolliwock my son,
The repetition that bites, the posts that catch,
Remember the pie filter,
Yeah that sovereign salve,
That no Trolliwock can match.
Forsetti
The Republicans and their sycophants cannot tolerate anyone, least of all Obama, calling them out on their behaviors. They are the CHOSEN ONES by birthright, religious affliation, genetics, etc. Anyone who questions them, especially someone outside their coveted niches, must be denigrated. They are the bullies on the playground that are the first to run whining to the teacher when someone stands up to them.
Bender
Oooh…so, he spent 4-6 whole hours on this little “future of our economy” deal. Damn, that deserves a round of golf or two. Maybe even a trip to Hawaii. NO MORE DISTRACTIONS! Now, off to Oprah! Then, 30 more fundraisers! Meanwhile:
What a lazy di–, errrrr, person. Well, the President did his job: He put Biden in charge. Now let him eat his waffle.
bemused
misterbones@38,
I suppose to loony Hewitt, Halperin is a transparent liberal. This Orwellian crap is getting very old.
Linda Featheringill
eemom #43
Oooh! You were so correct!
Thanks for the warning. :-)
jnfr
I just wish Prez Obama was a dick more often.
Dennis SGMM
Speaking of dicks…
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@Martin @26
What was puzzling me is why the brouhaha over “dick” when O’Donnel’s show let fly with the eff bomb in the movie clips they ran during their Lumet films montage just earlier this week. I was fully expecting O’Donnell to come back after the break and apologize his brains out, but not a word about it was uttered during the rest of the show – so I figured maybe O’Donnell cleared it with the suits beforehand on some sort of artistic license merit (and FCC rules don’t apply to cableland).
What you said makes a hell of a lot of sense. It would explain Schuster’s shushing, as well (what with Hillary being a favorite for the next Dem nomination). (Of course, Olbermann dogged Bush daily for years, but I can’t recall him going ad hominem on any of the WH key members.)
Anthony Weiner
Wanna see a picture of my Obama?
SST
@ Ash Can (#41)
Yeah this. My thoughts exactly.
aisce
@ boots day
i reject your entire premise. why should i treat halperin more “seriously” than bill maher? or jon stewart? or keith olbermann? i treat him less seriously than any of them, in fact. considerably. and i don’t even care for the likes of maher or keith.
halperin was on morning f’n joe for goodness sake.
Admiral_Komack
“I’m sorry, but this is crazy. Halperin’s crack was crude and dumb, but it doesn’t deserve indefinite suspension.”
You are correct, sir.
Mark Halperin deserves to be fired.
Carry on.
piratedan
okay, maybe President Obama IS being a dick, but sometimes you have to be a “dick” when you deal with cavalier, sociopath politicians who are putting their election chances ahead of the good of the people. It also doesn’t help when the President has to deal with rank hypocrites who are never held accountable by the fourth estate who would rather bring popcorn than report the news.
harlana
He called our president a dick for talking about economic justice, which was nice for a change. I have never been an “Obot”, but he is a “serious” journalist who called our president a dick on national teevee for having an opinion about congress’ dereliction of duty, he should be sacked.
And I don’t think he was a dick. Damn, to be as mean and selfish as they are, these republicans sure are a bunch of pearl-clutching, thin-skinned, whiny little ponces.
SIA
The problem is that instead of lots of fruitful discussion about O’s presser and him laying down some lines in the sand re the debt limit, the entire conversation is now about that effing wanker Halperin. Couldn’t have gone better for the wingers if they’d planned it.
harlana
SIA: Well then they should just sack his ass, see Anthony Weiner, so we can move on
SIA
@ harlana, I would be deliighted. As for Weiner, I didn’t like him and I didn’t think he should quit.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Admiral_Komack:
Co-signed.
Halperin is a hack for the Republican party who showed what a dick he is on national television. If a Democratic pundit said something like this you can bet the howling of the wingnuts for his head would be heard nation wide.
Fire his ass. Faux Nooz will be glad to hire him and he would be right at home there.
HyperIon
So it’s Ki yi yippie yi yi
You long hairs are sure gonna die
Our American home was clean till you came
And kids still respected the president’s name
And the eagle still flew in the sky
Hearts filled with national pride
Then you came along with your drug-crazy songs
Goddamit you’re all gonna die
One of Elton’s better ballads. Thanks, Bernie.
AxelFoley
Wait, what?
How does this asshole NOT deserve a suspension for going on NATIONAL TELEVISION and calling the President of the United States a “dick”?
How the fuck does he not deserve what he got? Hell, the sumbitch should be fired for not only the disrespect, but for crudeness unbecoming of a professional journalist on a news show.
How can anyone that’s not a Repub defend this shit? Seriously.
AxelFoley
@ askew:
Exactly.
Jado
ANYTHING that gets him off the air, I will take.
We can only get Capone on taxes, but so be it.