'Time' Reporter: Biden Blooper No Prob, GOP Senator's Internet Description Is

Scarborough Country/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

July 7, 2006

If you're a Republican senator who makes a remark with insensitive racial connotations, you're toast. Ask Trent Lott. But if you're a Democrat? Hey, no problem! Then again, woe betide the Republican senator who offers an awkward description of the workings of the internet.

That's the world according to Time reporter Ana Marie Cox, who appeared on last evening's Scarborough Country. For those who might have missed the Biden flap, on a recent campaign swing to New Hampshire, Biden told an Indian political activist: “You cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Sounds like a career-stopper for a Republican. But Cox saw no real problem. She opined that while other things might derail Biden's march to the White House, this wouldn't be it. But when it came to Republican Senator Ted Stevens, Cox wasn't so forgiving. In explaining his vote on a so-called 'net neutrality' amendment, Stevens recently said:

"The internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."

Not prose for the ages, granted. But I don't think anyone believes Stevens was suggesting the internet is actually composed of tubes. Seems that he had the concept of a pipeline in mind, a first-in-first-out protocol. In any case, certainly nothing offensive, other perhaps than to some San Francisco techno geeks.

Nevertheless, Cox was of the opinion that Stevens' remark was more likely to prove damaging than Biden's to their respective careers..

You don't suppose the two senators' party affiliations might have figured into Ana Marie's calculus, do you?

[Old North State]

Somebody should ask Al Gore about this. After all he invented the Internet.

[ClearCase_guy]

IT IS NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES A FIRST IN FIRST OUT PROTOCOL.

No need to shout my good man. Mark made a simple (small) error when referred to "first in first out". He deserves some slack.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Senator was talking about bandwidth issues, and you also note the impact that large amounts of data can have on net traffic.

Getting hung up on "tubes" or "FIFO" really misses the point. Let's not be pedantic.

[exit82]

An hysterical movie.I think I'd like to be Kumar if I ever grow up.

[tumblindice]

The MSM is truly amazing, ain't it? Former House leader Lott pays a fairly innocuous compliment to a fellow southerner who, as far as I know was not a recruiter for the Klan (like Robert "If It's In W. VA, It's Got My Name On It" Byrd) and he resigns.
But Hildabeast and `Plugs' make gratuitous racist slurs and it's just 'joshin' . . .

[sageb1]

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I watched the video clip of Biden's remarks yesterday. He was grinning away, as were the Indians or Pakistanis in the shop. I think he said something like, "Am I right?" after his initial comment.

[sageb1]

oops...didn't see this post before I posted.

[AntiGovernment]

Former House leader Lott pays a fairly innocuous compliment to a fellow southerner

Is it innocuous to say that the country would have been better off in 1948 with a radical segregationist as president? I understand he wanted to pay a compliment to a 100-year old man, but he could have complimented anything, yet he chose to compliment segregationism. Plus, it was the second time he had said that. Anyway, Lott was a worthless leader, so good riddance (not that things have gotten better).

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Trying to trash liberals by by revealing your own ignorance does not contribute to the conservative cause.

That was nasty. I was not offering my own description of the internet. I was venturing a guess as to what Stevens had in mind. And even if he was wrong, it's hard to see how it's going to hurt his career.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

LOL. Thanks, jigsaw.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks, CC. And please see #48. Rather than offering FIFO as my own description of the internet, I was surmising that it was what Stevens had in mind.

[rabidralph]

So, Time fires a pedophile and picks up a slutty gossip-monger? Nice.

[ClearCase_guy]

Thurmond ran for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights) ticket. Lott said: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

You (and the Media) see Thurmond as a racist son-of-a-gun and cannot see anything else about him. His issue was State Rights. It's a good issue. It was a good issue in 1948. It's a good issue in 2006. Lott was talking about States Rights but you heard "I hate black people". Get the wax out of your ears.

[Lancey Howard]

Time Magazine keeps getting worse.
Actually, I'm stunned that the thing still exists.

[newgeezer]

appeared on last evening's Scarborough Country

That's still on? Someone other than Joe's mom watches?

[HawaiianGecko]

IT IS NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES A FIRST IN FIRST OUT PROTOCOL.  Trying to trash liberals by by revealing your own ignorance does not contribute to the conservative cause.
 

I believe the author Mark Finkelstein said that not the Freeper who posted it, and Finkelstein clearly was referring to Stevens. The quote is: "But I don't think anyone believes Stevens was suggesting the internet is actually composed of tubes.  Seems that he (Stevens) had the concept of a pipeline in mind, a first-in-first-out protocol."

Now why Finkelstein thinks that Stevens had FIFO in mind is beyond me, he doesn't explain it in the article, but it wasn't the Freeper that said it.

[Physicist]

She opined that while other things might derail Biden's march to the White House, this wouldn't be it.

She's exactly right about that.

[tumblindice]

I believe he was just trying to compliment a fellow salon, but I'll concede your point: all conservatives are presumptive racists and deserve censure from the press, condemnation and then punishment from their peers on any questionable point of `political correctness', while Democrats should be able to express any irresponsible slur that comes to their minds without fear of recrimination because they were simply mistaken or misunderstood.
(Also, open the borders because to oppose doing so is racist. And Ann Coulter is very, very bad. And a racist.)

[Lazamataz]

those tubes can be filled

My tube is filled.

[tumblindice]

PS Welcome to FR

[maica]

Given tensions between India and Pakistan, one would think this would cause Biden more problems (among the Indian and Pakistani communities) than just the general "racist" nature of his remarks.

Biden is such a jerk, he just lumps people from those two countries together. A variation on "they all look alike".