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Concha: What We Learned After 11 Days of Analyzing Martin Bashir & MSNBC
Mediaite ^ | November 26, 2013 | Joe Concha

Posted on 11/26/2013 8:30:14 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

“So is this thing over?” a non-political friend of mine asked me Sunday in regards to the Martin Bashir/Sarah Palin story.

It took me a few seconds to figure out how to answer the question. But in bold terms that left no room for ambiguity, the response eventually was this:

“Uh…well…I guess it is.”

It’s now been 11 days since Mr. Bashir used a national television platform on a cable news network to suggest someone defecate and urinate into a former vice presidential candidate’s mouth. The end–which apparently sorta came when Palin accepted the host’s apology–appears to have arrived. Really, outside of Tom Brokaw or Brian Williams saying something, where else is there to go if no suspension or worse is coming?

To that end, let’s review the whole saga for those keeping score at home:

- Bashir made the aforementioned comments on Friday, November 15th - These comments were scripted and therefore vetted and approved by at least four different staff members of Bashir’s show (likely a copy editor, segment producer, line producer and a senior or executive producer) - Bashir apologized on his program on Monday, November 18th - However, the day after said apology, MSNBC morning show co-host Joe Scarborough stated (on another network) that he didn’t think Bashir wrote the apology by himself - As of this writing (Tuesday morning) MSNBC’s Twitter feed still has not deleted a Tweet to the network’s 530,000+ followers promoting Bashir’s original comments - After nine days, MSNBC management finally released a statement (November 24th) indicating it is “handling the matter internally” - Externally, Bashir has not been suspended or fired, nor does it appear he will be reprimanded in any capacity - This past Sunday (11/24), Palin stated on Fox News Sunday that she has accepted Bashir’s apology

And that last part appears to mark the end of the road. Know this: MSNBC isn’t going to suddenly gain a conscience or establish anything resembling standards for on-air conduct ten days after allowing the Bashir comments to go out over its air. Invariably in these situations, action is taken within hours…maybe a day or two. To administer any punishment now would only (somehow) make the network look even more more dysfunctional.

So what have we learned?

Well, for starters, never evoke slavery to make a point about anything. Let’s avoid Hitler, the Holocaust and the KKK while we’re at it. Because any point made after those words or acronyms are uttered is complete lost or ignored. Palin should know better, especially since everything she says is going to be analyzed and ridiculed by the usual suspects in media on the left.

Secondly, ideology absolutely rules the day above all else at 30 Rock.

Scream a gay slur in a fit of rage on a Manhattan street? Make an apology…then get suspended (Alec Baldwin).

Accuse Hillary Clinton of “pimping out” her daughter? Make an apology…then get suspended (David Shuster).

Call Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut”? Make an apology…then get suspended (Ed Schultz).

Call the Rutgers basketball team “nappy-headed hos”? Make several apologies, get fired anyway.

Refer to President Obama as a “dick”? Make a (very quick) apology…then get suspended (Mark Halperin).

Suggest someone defecate and urinate in a Republican woman’s mouth? If you’re Bashir, make an apology…then see yourself be discussed on other cable news networks like Fox and CNN for a full week…and then, like John Travolta and Sam Jackson in the divine intervention hotel room scene in Pulp Fiction, look around, check for wounds, but quickly realize that despite being shot at several times at close range, you’ve somehow survived without a scratch.

No suspension. No termination. Even a 60 percent bump in the ratings (in the demo) the day of your apology…

So upon comparing the previous examples of ill-advised words and descriptions by other MSNBC personalities to Bashir, all share some common threads:

All were ad-libbed while Bashir’s comments were scripted.

All attacked Democrats (Shuster/Hillary, Halperin/Obama) or minorities (Imus on RU women’s hoops)…or a former MSNBC host (Ingraham, who may still have some friends in high places at the network).

So one has to only wonder (since MSNBC management and anchors like Chris Matthews refuse to discuss the situation publicly) what would have happened to Bashir if his comments were directed at anybody, an-y-bo-dy outside of Palin. Well, if the following poll (below) could somehow be taken of 1000 members of MSNBC’s core audience, the feeling here is the former Alaska Governor would win relatively easily:

Poll Question: Whom do you loathe most?

Sarah Palin Dick Cheney (pronounced “Cheeee-ney”) George W. Bush Mitt Romney Anyone on Fox News

Just a guess…but the pick here is Palin, who would likely take home the prize at 35+ percent, with Cheney coming in a respectable second with 20 percent or so. Anyone at Fox News would be a close third with 17-18 percent, with Bush 43 and Romney splitting the remaining 25 percent (feel free to share your predictions in the comments section).

So in MSNBC President Phil Griffin’s eyes, if the people he believes make up his primary audience aren’t offended by Bashir’s comments, then it’s a case of no harm, no foul. Forget how this entire episode makes the network look to some: Unprofessional, unprincipled, disorganized, deplorable, inconsistent, indecisive and a rudderless ship without a captain…this is about protecting its sole narrative: Republicans are stupid, uncaring and racist…and therefore deserve whatever creative criticism progressive anchors, hosts and contributors can dish out.

But remember, if an MSNBC host or anchor strays from the narrative and attacks a Hillary, a Chelsea, a former employee, gays or minorities…WELL, they better have that suntan lotion packed for the kind of long, two-week vacation a nice suspension can provide.

After 11 long days, the Martin Bashir-Sarah Palin adventure appears to be over.

Accountability and authority were never invited to the party.

With “anything goes” now the precedent as long as the target fits the target demo, all it ultimately means is this: something totally outrageous, something totally beyond the pale, will be said by someone prominent at the network before 2013 becomes 2014.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: martinbashir; muslims; palin; television
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To: Travis McGee

Sounds like a Plan.


21 posted on 11/26/2013 9:01:14 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (A Communist is nothing more than an honest Democrat...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Bashir's not the typical MSNBC type. His Christian upbringing must have given him enough of a conscience to make that sincere sounding apology concerning his vile statement about Palin. And he did show some independence in taking Alan Grayson to task for comparing the Tea Party to the KKK. So there might be some hope for him, if not to become a conservative, at least to be a fairer-minded liberal voice than most.

That still doesn't mean he shouldn't have been fired before he even had time to get up from the desk that day.

22 posted on 11/26/2013 9:02:28 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Farnsworth

Authorities: Accelerant poured around Palin’s church in arson
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-12-13-palin-church-fire_N.htm

Fire hits Palin’s church in Alaska
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/13/palin.church/

Why did the press ignore the firebombing of Sarah Palin’s church?
http://www.examiner.com/article/why-did-the-press-ignore-the-firebombing-of-sarah-palin-s-church


23 posted on 11/26/2013 9:04:25 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet ("Of the 4 wars in my lifetime none came about because the US was too strong." Reagan)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That still gets me... the torching of Palin’s church, and how the so little of the media even bothered reporting it. And the few that did made such light of it, putting it at the end of their news broadcasts, smirking, making it like a quirky, cat-in-a-tree news story. Then the vile Letterman follows it up by using it as grist for a joke, saying “the police were looking for Joe the Arsonist.”

Can anyone imagine the same dismissive or lightweight response had it been Obama’s church that had been torched? Or even Hillary’s? Always a double-standard when it comes to Palin. Always open-season on her. No attack or smear is ever out-of-bounds. I fully believe the parallels to the Goldstein character from “1984,” in which Palin serves as the designated target of daily hatred, ginned up by the corrupt minions of the establishment elite.


24 posted on 11/26/2013 9:17:25 PM PST by greene66
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I remember the picture now and a small blurb in the media.


25 posted on 11/26/2013 9:30:34 PM PST by Farnsworth (Now playing in America: "Stupid is the new normal")
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

IMO if the apology had truly been sincere it would have been immediately followed by an Bealesian revelation where he would have arisen from his chair, gone to the window and shouted “Good God what the hell am I doing?!!”

He’s not contrite, he’s not sincere, and he’s not done yet.


26 posted on 11/26/2013 9:33:25 PM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Or...

Remember when the creepy liberal "journalist" Joe McGinniss rented the house next to Sarah Palin, so he could see through her windows to write a book about her?

Apparently, earlier this year was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

-PJ

27 posted on 11/26/2013 9:38:37 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I want the bastard fired


28 posted on 11/26/2013 9:39:54 PM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: rockrr
I have to admit his apology would carry more weight if he had resigned along with it. Still, I rank him higher than Ed Schultz.

My mother taught me to try to find something good about everybody. Next I'll try to find something nice I can say about Ed. Might take a while.

29 posted on 11/26/2013 9:45:42 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: FreeperCell

Have become? LOL. They always were. And always will be. They are power hungry scum or useless idiots. That is the sum total of liberaldumb...


30 posted on 11/26/2013 9:55:34 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
a fairer-minded liberal voice than most.

LOL. May as well wish for rainbow dust from a unicorn...

31 posted on 11/26/2013 9:59:12 PM PST by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Don’t know how anyone could spend 11 days watching MoreScatNBC sober. Even to try to analyze it would turn my stomach.

I figure a high percentage of MoreScatNBC’s ratings are from conservatives analyzing the demented mind of the left.


32 posted on 11/26/2013 10:37:48 PM PST by bobo1 (I hate living in an obamanation)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think Comcast owns msnbc. I have Comcast and msnbc is not part of the free package.


33 posted on 11/26/2013 11:22:47 PM PST by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Liberals have become bigots.

Become? Become?

34 posted on 11/27/2013 12:37:50 AM PST by Bullish (America should yank Obama like a rotten tooth before he poisons the entire body)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sorry, but I refuse to cede ground over the terms of slavery, Hitler, the Holocaust, and the KKK.

The reality is we are in danger of all of these types things which are primarily being fostered by the leftists running this country and radical leftists in other positions of power and influence like Bashir.

We should be mindful that these types of evil can gain a foothold in any party, group or system including politically conservative, evangelical Christianity if we do not guard ourselves against evil. But, as of today, these threats to liberty are coming from the Democrats and establishment Republicans. They are not coming from Palin, the Tea Party or anyone else who is esteemed as a leader among conservatives.

Bashir’s words were a Freudian slip as it were, revealing his true heart. Unless he publicly renounces his entire leftist ideology I refuse to believe his heart has changed at all. The complete lack of consequences for his behavior and general lack of criticism by others on the left reflect where their hearts truly are as well.


35 posted on 11/27/2013 12:45:10 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

MSNBC is VILE, and is has NOTHING but EVIL, Christian HATING people on it.


36 posted on 11/27/2013 1:12:32 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

ANYONE and I mean ANYONE, who could actually say what he said is NOT a Christian in ANY WAY!!


37 posted on 11/27/2013 1:16:34 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Actually her husband Todd is Yupik Indian. She is good old fashioned English descent. (Heath)


38 posted on 11/27/2013 4:10:59 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: Political Junkie Too

“And they that rolleth a stone,it shall return upon them” - The Good Book


39 posted on 11/27/2013 4:14:05 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Am I allowed to suggest that someone should take a dump in michelle’s big mouth and whiz in there to wash it down?

Or is that not allowed?


40 posted on 11/27/2013 4:48:07 AM PST by Right Wing Assault
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