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You are here: Home / Twitter is Now Safe for Conservatives

Twitter is Now Safe for Conservatives

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Here’s the message from the programming director of MSNBC, who by coincidence is also the Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, reporting that the person responsible for a heinous and unforgivable act of reverse racism has been fired. But where is the tearful apology? And if Phil Griffin were really sorry, wouldn’t he have at least genuflected before the statue of Ronald Reagan in the Capital Rotunda as a token of his deep regret? And what is the name of the staffer who perpetrated this unforgivable act? Why won’t Phil Griffin name names so we can put this person on the appropriate blacklist? Why is Griffin shielding him or her from the #tcot hash tag army? Just like Benghazi, there are many unanswered questions here.

Update: Here’s the RNC statement:

Chairman Priebus recently spoke by phone with MSNBC President Phil Griffin.

Mr. Griffin apologized for the network’s offensive tweet from Saturday night. As outlined in the letter below, his network has taken corrective action.

We appreciate Mr. Griffin’s admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology. We will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes.

We don’t expect their liberal bias to change, but we will call them out when political commentary devolves into personal and belittling attacks.

Thank you to everyone who joined in our efforts today.

By firing the staffer responsible, Phil Griffin was able to avoid a embarrassing, revenue-destroying boycott of MSNBC by conservatives, which is what Priebus had threatened.

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    Gin & Tonic

    At least that staffer didn’t call anyone a goat-fucking child molester, because then the consequences would have been *really* severe, right?

  2. 2.

    superfly

    Here’s the message from the programming director of MSNBC, who by coincidence is also the Communications Director for the Republican National Committee,

    Wait, what!?!?!?!

  3. 3.

    jl

    I know I am going against a zillion sci fi novels and movies, but if a revolt of the robots took over twitter, I think it would a net gain.

    Check out Krugman’s twitter feed. It is awesome.

  5. 5.

    jl

    @superfly: Everyone knew that. It is the natural order of things. Republican communications people run everything. If it were not for the teeming hordes of selfless, tireless, Republican communications and political consultants, this nation would collapse. Who would do interviews on every topic under the sun for the news and appear on talky shows?

    Not only do you lack any gratitude, you do not even seem to be aware. Were you educated in a public school, or something?

  6. 6.

    Belafon

    I think I’ll spend tonight starting all my tweets with “Maybe the right wing will hate it”.

  10. 10.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    All this proves that MSNBC is a teeming mass of reverse racism and perpetuates the evils of all bigotry, and that, by extension, Democrats and Liberals are the most bigoted, evil, Anti-American monsters in the history of ever. Don’t accept this apology people, FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE OPPRESSION OF REVERSE RACISM AND NEVER QUIT UNTIL WHITES ARE FREEEEE!!!……(to be blatant unabashed racists that is).

  11. 11.

    Alex

    Wait, we can fire people over stuff that is said now? I thought that “Duck Dynasty” showed us that it was against the first amendment.

  15. 15.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Alex:

    ….this is why I fucking hate these apologias and falling on your sword bullshit moments. It never satisfies these assholes. It just proves to them that you really are the monster they keep hyping you as and enables them to further rage and froth and keep going, and the rubes eat it up because the apology must mean something was really wrong with what you did, thus leaning toward believing more of this goddamn full on bullshit.

    HOW THE FUCK DO THEY KEEP MANAGING TO WIN THE FUCKING ARGUMENT LIKE THIS WHEN ALL THEY SPOUT IS PERSECUTION COMPLEXES AND BLATANT FUCKING LIES?!

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Origuy:

    That’s the way I read it too. Some nice revision to clarify Griffin’s employment status? We’ve established pretty much that he’s vile Rethuglican scum.

  20. 20.

    Schlemizel

    JAY – ZEUS! If that can get you fired its a good thing I don’t have a twitter account . . . as far as anyone knows

  21. 21.

    Patrick

    Based on Duck Dynasty scandal, right-wingers said nobody could ever be fired for something they said due to the First Amendment. Talk about fricking hypocrisy!

    And since these folks got so upset about an innocent tweet, I can only assume that the the racists in the GOP will embrace the Cheerios ad.

  22. 22.

    Patrick

    @ThresherK:

    Yes, why the hell does Halperin still earn a fricking pay check from MSNBC? His insult was far worse than this innocent tweet.

  25. 25.

    Cacti

    Pretty much without fail, any time a GOPer gets indignant, the “liberal media” will roll into the fetal position and beg “please don’t hurt me!”

  26. 26.

    IowaOldLady

    I’m just reading that the reporter who was threatened with de-balconizing after the SoU is the nephew of a mob boss.

    I love this story.

  28. 28.

    Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill

    Not shocked Phil apologized — as I understand it, he’s not left-of-center.

    There was a good piece on an NPR show a couple of weeks ago on all this, and how MSNBC is more invested in capturing/servicing a liberal audience as a way to differentiate itself in the marketplace, as opposed to Fox’s drive to actually promote right-of-center values. It’s why MORNING JOE says on, for one.

    The fact that people — including Dan — conflate the missions of the two isn’t surprising. But no, MSNBC and Fox are doing two quite different things with their audiences, and that’s part of why you get incidents like this.

  30. 30.

    evinfuilt

    @superfly:
    I thought he was kidding… dear FSM, I thought our mass media was bought and paid for, but that is ridiculous. That has nothing to do with Free Press, that’s basically admitting that he’s the commisar for MSNBC.

  31. 31.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Cacti:

    And then the wingers will continue to scream and froth about how unforgivable and recalcitrant the evil biased unbudging liberal media is and the horrors of their persecution, which will only send the media scrambling to kowtow lower as penance.

    Fuckers will never get it through their thick skull is that no amount of apologia will be enough for them, they will always be ‘the enemy’ to the wingers, always be the evil ‘liberal media’ from whom nothing good or pro-American ever comes.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Villago Delenda Est: This tweet got someone fired?

    Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.

    That quote? Seriously?

  34. 34.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @WaterGirl:

    Not only got someone fired, but the MSNBC Prez apparently kowtowed and begged forgiveness for his channel’s twitter account and the impertinence of such an awful reverse racist tweet.

  36. 36.

    karen marie

    I’ll just say, “Eff you, MSNBC.” This type of nonsense is exactly why I refuse to watch MSNBC, other than the occasional and very rare clip from La Maddow’s show.

    GROW A PAIR, MR. GRIFFIN.

  37. 37.

    Trollhattan

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    If it’s anything more complicated than uncontrolled machismo I’ll be surprised. Not that I know squat about the Italian system of justice, but from the get-go she was pretty much railroaded by IIRC an overly zealous prosecutor. That, and they have no actual ongoing crime to keep occupied with [rolling eyes skyward].

  39. 39.

    Keith G

    The media and political leadership of the left know that modern lefty civilians will not revolt, will not enforce a demand for better behavior by stepping away.

  42. 42.

    Citizen_X

    Meh. I won’t be impressed till the offending Tweeter gets marched through the streets by whatever is the Tea Party version of the Red Guard (the Tea Party?), wearing one of those dunce caps. Oh, and they put out propaganda posters with the Tea Partiers gleefully spearing a ratlike caricature of said Tweeter.

  43. 43.

    danielx

    What the FUCK?

    Lesson to be drawn: Wingnuts, no matter who their employer is, may publicly say anything, no matter how offensive. If criticism ensues, not only will the sayer not be fired but legions of fellow wingnuts, including pundits and pols, will leap to his or her defense on First Amendment grounds. Also, too, fuck the libs if they can’t take a joke.

    If a liberal utters something offensive to wingnut sensitivities, no matter the truth of the statement, the reaction from his or her employer….

    over the side with them, and “Please don’t hit me!”

    Like wingnuts are going to hate them any less or even maybe like them for being fair or something?

    Mr. Griffin, let me clue you in – the only emotion wingnuts are feeling over the termination of your anonymous staffer is satisfaction over having another liberal scalp to hang on the wall, figuratively speaking. They still think MSNBC is a nest of comsympliberals who should all be shot, and they’re still going to piss all over the fucking Cheerios commercial unless they’ve scared you out of running that, too. Oh yeah, and Spicer, your director of programming? Are you ever going to reacquire your balls from whatever desk drawer he has them locked in?

    At this point I am only surprised you haven’t gotten rid of Rachel Maddow for hurting the poor Kochs’ fee-fees; the sound of their anguished butthurt grows ever louder. Better get right on that, unless you’ve had a spine transplant in the last 24 hours.

  44. 44.

    CaseyL

    @Trollhattan: Twitter is melting down. The best comments liken the Italian justice system to cricket matches, with Italy 2-1 in a 7 game match.

    Atlantic Magazine did a story about Justice, Italian Style. It makes me wonder if anyone who has been convicted really did it, and if anyone who has been acquitted is really not guilty:

    Italy’s system bears very little resemblance to the US system – not only is double jeopardy allowed, but juries aren’t sequestered, anyone in the courtroom can make comments during the trial, and verdicts can continually be appealed by either side – apparently ’til Hell freezes over.

    Italy’s Carnivalesque Justice System.

  46. 46.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Phil Griffin was able to avoid a embarrassing, revenue-destroying boycott of MSNBC by conservatives

    Tell me this is snark.

  49. 49.

    Mumbles

    Yeah, miss me with this.

    Maybe in a universe where conservatives didn’t call Obama a “Kenyan anti-colonialist”, or say that black people were “satisfied with food stamps” or “taking other people’s money”, or where Common, of all people, wasn’t a “Hoodlum in the hizzy”, or where the thuggification of Trayvon Martin didn’t happen, maybe then I’d be sympathetic.

    Yes, I’m aware of the principle that it’s hard to stand up for someone after they apologize for something. But Common has a song that is literally anti-abortion. If he is judged to be a gangsta, then I have no chance at all. And neither do any other members of my family. Or the friends I grew up with.

    And so, I don’t care anymore. MSNBC should have stood up to these knuckleheads. If FOX wants to be seen as not racist, then let them stop saying racist things.

  50. 50.

    Mumbles

    Yeah, miss me with this.

    Maybe in a universe where conservatives didn’t call Obama a “Kenyan anti-colonialist”, or say that black people were “satisfied with food stamps” or “taking other people’s money”, or where Common, of all people, wasn’t a “Hoodlum in the hizzy”, or where the thuggification of Trayvon Martin didn’t happen, maybe then I’d be sympathetic.

    Yes, I’m aware of the principle that it’s hard to stand up for someone after they apologize for something. But Common has a song that is literally anti-abortion. If he is judged to be a gangsta, then I have no chance at all. And neither do any other members of my family. Or the friends I grew up with.

    And so, I don’t care anymore. MSNBC should have stood up to these knuckleheads. If FOX wants to be seen as not racist, then let them stop saying racist things.

  53. 53.

    Trollhattan

    @CaseyL:
    Many thanks for the backgrounder. It certainly frames what’s happening to Ms Knox in a more comprehensible way. Wonder when they’re going to ask for extradition?

  56. 56.

    John M. Burt

    We need to keep reminding people that the dead-end remnants of the Repub party don’t just regard us the way we regard them, as wrongheaded and in error — they really think we are a loathsome foreign influence, a not-we.

    We are Americans, but they deny it. Many of us are Christians — no we aren’t! Some of us are Jews — no we aren’t! Most of us are heterosexuals — No! We’re all faggots and dykes and anatomical freaks! Most of us are gainfully employed — No! We’re all parasitic welfare moochers! Many of us are veterans — NO NO NO NO NO! Every single one of us is a vile veteran-abusing cowardly hippie scumbag!

  57. 57.

    different-church-lady

    When the fuck are people going to wake up and see Twitter for the destructive nuisance it is?

  58. 58.

    JustRuss

    I don’t have a problem with firing the tweeter, as long as they also fire Griffin for his obvious conflict of interest. And then this:

    We don’t expect their liberal bias to change,

    Their programming director is the frickin communications director of the RNC, how liberal can they be?

  59. 59.

    Skippy-san

    Somebody is going to have to explain this tweet to me. I truly don’t get why its so “offensive”. It does point out a peculiar foible of American society-that just happens to me more pronounced in conservatives. Namely the uncomfort at mixed race families.

    Was it probably not the smartest thing that someone could have written-you bet. But exactly why it merits a full scale wingnut meltdown just baffles me. I guess I’m insensitive-but just once I’d like some one to say , “Yea I said it. And I am not apologizing. Now please to go f*ck youself!”.

    At that MSNBC held the staffer accountable. When is the last time one of the loons at Fox had to pay the price for their stupidity?

  60. 60.

    brantl

    By firing the staffer responsible, Phil Griffin was able to avoid a embarrassing, revenue-destroying boycott of MSNBC by conservatives, which is what Priebus had threatened.

    Sounds like not firing him would have been a win/win.

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