Dave Catanese, a reporter with Politico, posted tweets saying that Mr. Akin’s comments about rape were worth discussing. Mr. Catanese said in his most recent post: “Bad idea trying to have nuanced conversation on highly charged issue on here. Did not intend to take a side. Lesson learned.”
[….]Mr. Catanese did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. But as many people on Twitter continued to denounce his statements and speculated whether he should be prevented from covering women’s issues entirely, at least one female follower came to his defense.
“You provoked thought and discussion and it was a good thing. Please don’t regret it.”
I cannot get enough of this shit. Some scientifically illiterate moron at Politico or Slate (see Saletan, William) pulls some gibberish out of his ass and then parades around congratulating himself for his provocative courage.
El Cid
The politically correct line is that women are now somehow more than just property, that they’re almost like people — but I’m a bold and daring rebel, so I think we need to bring this out in the open and have a real discussion on whether women are people or things.
lamh35
Politico fired/”indefenitely suspended” Joe Williams for saying that Romney seemed more comfortable in front of white audiences. This guy was suspended from covering Romney only.
Gotta love it huh.
shortstop
@lamh35: From covering Akin only, you mean? Well, that should be okay. It’s not like the rest of the Republican party, which he’ll still be covering, thinks abortion should be illegal in all circumstances or that women keep lying about rape…oh, wait.
ruemara
What are the nuances he can find to discuss about rape?
Ash Can
@lamh35: As I said in another thread, I can’t help thinking that if Catanese were black, his office would have been cleared out, vacuumed and dusted, and have a new name on the door by the following day.
Tony the Wonderhorse
well it all comes down to his intent for me
if it was commercial, he’s an idiot
if it was provocative, he has a point
if it was cynical, he’s still an idiot
etc.
Culture of Truth
The GOP platform calls for an abortion ban without exceptions, audit the Fed, return to the gold standard (maybe), medicare as voucher program, and raising the eligibility age. It’s not all golden oldies – for the first time they drop a committment to keep the mortgage deduction, rescind opposition to gays in the military and oppose any limits on buy large amounts of ammunition.
jl
Well, you know what, I think there is a process, heretofore unknown to science, that automatically shuts down old men’s naughty parts when they shouldn’t have kids anymore. Therefore, d*cK p1L1zzzz are dangerous medical products that should not be covered by insurance.
Anyway, a lot of those old geezers have performance problems because of smoking, or eating too much crud, or not exercising, and why should we subsidize those losers’ health care. I have no facts or figures, but I heard that someplace. I think I heard a preacherman say it once on TV.
My ideas are worth discussing, right?
Oh, wait, I am not some vicious reactionary ignoramus. So it doesn’t count, I guess.
And I heard someplace that some nitwit GOOper someplace introduced a bill to make pi the Biblical 3.0. Therefore, that is worth discussing too.
Fer gawds sake. Turning into a country of ignorant fools.
kc
What’s his defender’s name- Mary Rosh?
MikeJ
Time to go make a few twitter accounts with various races/sexes associated so you can always point to one anonymous person on that thinks you’re right.
NCSteve
@ruemara: Well, as any Taliban judge can tell you, this whole so-called “rape” thing is really a highly nuanced issue. I mean, there’s “real” rape where the victim didn’t entice the rapist by being physically attractive or wearing provocative clothing and also fought really, really hard and can prove it by having been beaten nearly to death. And then there’s mere slut rape where the victim wore slutty clothes or made eye contact or had the temerity to be mentally or physically disabled or just didn’t fight hard enough. And, really, slut rape isn’t really rape it all. They’re the ones the state should force to have the baby because, obviously, wink, wink, nod, nod, they weren’t stressed out enough about being “raped” to get their stress hormones flowing and prevent the pregnancy.
Hope that clears up their thinking on this highly nuanced issue for you.
I mean, seriously, has anyone besides me noticed that the only fucking issue in the whole fucking world that Republicans today think worthy of “nuanced” discussion is goddamn rape?
Zenposeur
Some people believe that women can secrete condoms from our vaginas at will in order to block a rapist’s sperm.
Others disagree.
What’s important here is that we have the discussion.
Comrade Mary
Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Is that nuanced enough?
(Christ, the posturing of twits like that as they sigh over the fact that no one appreciates their beautiful nuanced mind — really, just fuck them.)
moops
and now the topic is “out there”. It would be irresponsible not to talk about the issue like there are two sides.
Cokie’s Rule
Hunter Gathers
Lay off the guy, will ya? It’s not like he said Mitt Romney was only comfortable around white people or anything like that.
Lev
“Look. Maybe people hate me, maybe not. But it’s their problem, not mine. They just can’t handle who I am, what I’m about, because I don’t hold back. I’m an upfront guy, I’m for real in a world of fakers. I say things people don’t want to hear, but I say them because I don’t believe in filtering myself. So what if feelings get hurt. If they can’t handle the fact that that’s the way I am, and they want to play their little games, that’s fine. But that’s their problem.”
–Every jerk in the nation. And, evidently, Politico reporters too.
Nethead Jay
@Zenposeur: That’s excellent deadpan sarcasm you’ve got there. Well done.
@DougJ: Nice title
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think the question “is Mr. Catanese turning tricks in the tenderloin to feed his crack habit?” meets the provocative discussion standard. Of course there are some who would call it outright trolling, much like Akin and his rape nonsense.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MikeJ:
otherwise known as the sockpuppet shield wall defense.
If a man’s socks still love him, how can he be wrong?
jl
I think gasoline puts out fires if you pour it on just right, if done very thoughtfully and sincerely. I heard it someplace.
I also think that throwing someone who has hypothermia into a pool of ice water is a great treatment to warm them up.
I heard those things someplace from vicious reactionary fools.
Therefore they are all worth a very serious and nuanced public discussion. And I am very clever, so can work in ‘angles’ that make sense to ignorant people. Obviously against free speech if you do not applaud my bravery.
Soprano2
He was a reporter for our local NBC affiliate, KYTV. He was their political reporter and had a political blog. He knows a lot about MO politics, so him not being able to cover Akin or the MO Senate race will hurt Politico more than if it had been another reporter.
IMHO here’s what he said that’s the most offensive:
He should have just stayed out of it.
PurpleGirl
Where is the AMA or any one of the more than a dozen societies and associations for obstetricians and gynecologists to make a statement about the science? I can understand a single doctor might not want to draw attention to themselves and have the crazies go after them, but surely one of the professional organizations can be release a statement, couldn’t one of them?
jl
@Soprano2:
“So perhaps some can agree that all rapes that are reported are not actually rapes? Or are we gonna really deny that for PC sake?” he tweeted.”
Certainly everyone with a lick of sense can agree that this doesn’t have anything to do with all the things that were wrong with Akin’s statement.
So, perhaps we can agree that some political reporters are offensive ignorant fools. And I insist you agree that my ideas be discussed right now, using Dave Catanese as an example, front and center of public discussion, or you are taking away my free speech rights.
Glad we all agree.
jl
@PurpleGirl:
A blog on Scientific American website debunked Akin’s offensive and incorrect ignorant nonsense. Not sure if anyone else with credentials has said anything.
Any official statements anyone knows about?
gelfling545
He certainly provoked thought. The thought was “my god, what an ass.”
Meg
“So perhaps some can agree that all rapes that are reported are not actually rapes?”
Does he know this is different than saying ” not all rapes that are reported are actually rapes”?
The logic! And he asked people to agree with that?
Cowbelle
@PurpleGirl: They did already:
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Statement on Rape and Pregnancy
karen marie
@lamh35: You’re kidding, right? I was on Twitter and saw what Catanese was saying as he was happening. First he defended Akin — “we can’t know what he meant.” Then, after he got shit thrown at him from across the Twitterverse, he claimed he wasn’t defending Akin, that he was just trying to open a debate but “lefties” were being mean and shutting him down.
He should have been fired for being a flat-out partisan hack. He never answered whether he’s on Akin’s payroll but from the way he was defending Akin you would be justified to believe he is.
karen marie
@jl: He made that comment as his defense of his defense of Akin.
Mnemosyne
@Soprano2:
And thus he exposes the problem with deciding that some women “deserve” to be able to get abortions while others are slutty slut sluts who have to suffer through an unwanted pregnancy.
I can’t be the only person who realizes that if abortion is banned except in cases of rape and incest, there will suddenly be a huge rise in false reports of rape from women who are desperate to get an abortion, right? Or is that all part of the plan?
jl
@karen marie: That is correct, and I was sloppy. But I do not think it makes much difference, Catanese issued tweet after tweet asserting that there was somehow, something true or worth discussion in what Akin said, and one accused ‘the left’ of being the first to shut down debate.
I think almost all of Cataneses tweets, except for one recent one that was an apology of sorts, can be criticized on the same grounds of trying to excuse an inexcusable statement of purported fact that was insulting, and totally ignorant.
As I implied above, what if Akin said he hears it on some authority that you could put out a fire by putting gasoline on it, if you did it just right? And someone started some clever contrarian BS saying that we should debate it?
Mnemosyne
D’oh! Can a kind front-pager please release me from moderation for using the “I” word? Kthxbai.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
I have a comment in moderation, but basically I think what the jackass was saying was that some women will falsely claim to have been raped in order to get an abortion if it’s banned for everyone else. To which I can only say, well, no shit, Sherlock — I’m pretty sure that increasing the number of false rape accusations while restricting abortion is a two-fer as far as conservatives are concerned.
jl
@Mnemosyne:
Absolutely.
And you know, if you have a forest fire and you use gasoline to set a backfire, you CAN put out a fire with gasoline that way. So, there IS some merit in some fool saying ‘I heard some reliable person say that you can put out a fire with gasoline’.
And then I can make people dumb and maybe get them killed niggling over debating points and whatnot, and ‘fairness’ and first amendment rights by confusing the two issues in defending what dumb thing I said in the first place. And whining that there is no freedom of debate when I confuse people about what dangerous and dumb thing the other guy said in the first place.
Put Akins statements in any other context and there would be no excusing this miserable garbage we see coming out of these GOP politicians and the media.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
I only listen to David Bowie’s advice when it comes to fires and gasoline.
(Or, you know, Tarantino’s take on it.)
Harry
Political dudgeon aside, it used to be thought that women had some difficulty getting pregnant under conditions of extreme stress, hunger, physical danger. Even doctors thought so, IIRC.