Posted on 12/07/2013 9:17:42 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Each Friday, Politico Magazine picks the political scandal of the week, and our colleague Mike Allen asks Playbook readers to weigh in with their crisis-management expertise, both professional and otherwise.
This week’s scandal: the spectacular implosion of Martin Bashir, the MSNBC daytime host who resigned Wednesday as controversy mounted over his remarks about former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Here’s what got him in trouble:
On his Nov. 15 broadcast, Bashir called Palin "a world class idiot" because she made a comparison to slavery while discussing U.S. debt to China. The host then read an excerpt from the diary of a former plantation manager who wrote of forcing one slave to "S-*-*-T" in another slave's mouth, and said "if anyone truly qualified for a dose of [such] discipline... then she would be the outstanding candidate."
Bashir initially took three days to apologize for his comments. "Last Friday, on this broadcast, I made some comments which were deeply offensive and directed at Governor Sarah Palin," he said on his Nov. 18 show. "My words were wholly unacceptable … They were neither accurate nor fair. They were unworthy of anyone who would claim to have an interest in politics, and they have brought shame upon my friends and colleagues at this network, none of whom were responsible for the things that I said.”
Could Bashir have handled this better? If you were his PR adviser, what would you have told him to say or do? What would you tell him to do now? We asked Playbook readers to give it a shot, and here’s what they came up with. We’ll announce a winner in Monday’s Playbook.
***
Gene Grabowski, executive vice president, LEVICK’s crisis practice
Martin Bashir’s response to the crisis he created centered on his apology. That apology violated some basic rules....
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
"a very Legitimate point." about Sarah.
Shouldn't the Post fire Milbank too?
Damn right they should!
“I won’t read the article...”
Me neither, but I wonder if it mentions that Sarah Palin did accept his apology (which I thought was OK as those things go).
I think I saw her do this on Fox News Sunday, since that is the only show of that type that I watch. She said: who am I not to accept someone’s apology.... (from which I inferred that she felt it was sincere, which I did too, again insofar as those things go).
I don’t know if she was asked about this at other times.
Of course the guy is a complete jerk, and what he said was completely outre, but was it really worse than Letterman or Maher?
They’ve gotten rid of Bashir and Baldwin (who really, really can’t hold onto a talk show job and he should just give it up and stick to acting) - are they trying to clean up their act?
First off, you should never have to apologize for something you say. You should always say what you mean and mean what you say.
You should always measure your words before speaking them ... especially if you are on TV or radio.
I’d vote for that!
What do you have against dogs?
Remember Rush calling poor little Sandra Fluke a Slut? Oh my, the Liberals were unhinged, and that was just a thought spoken aloud.
I will say this, of all the recent Liberal (non-apologies) Apologies, Bashir’s seemed sincere and didn't rely on any word tricks. Whether he believed what he was saying I do not know. That's between him and his Conscience.
In reality, there is nothing he could have done to salvage his reputation after this outburst. He is far too stupid for broadcasting, even as a liberal. As penance, however, he could have offered to undergo the treatment he prescribed for Palin on live tv and gone PPV. I would certainly have paid a nominal amount to see it, so long as it wasn't faked like much of his reporting.
Democrat’s think it’s all a game. They have no concept of Sarah being a person with a family... or having dignity.
Probably because they’re so empty themselves.
In my opinion, you should never apologize unless you are actually sorry. It usually only makes things worse. Most people who say something that causes outrage should just stick to their guns. Backing down only makes it worse, unless you really are sorry you said it. Only then should you apologize, and it should be personal. The “I regret if you were offended” is just adding insult to injury.
If he were truly sorry, he’d be a different kind of person than who he is and he’d never have said it in the first place. But if he was sorry, he’d find a way to apologize to her personally. It would probably be difficult since she has no reason to take his call. And she has no reason to imagine he is sincere as opposed to just trying to manipulate a bad situation.
In this case, I never watch this network anyway, and there isn’t much they could do to make me tune in. So I would never have known about his remarks if I didn’t read it here. I wouldn’t know about his apology either.
I like the way Sarah has handled it. In her case, she takes that and worse almost every week of her life. He’s just one more, and not that important. She has handled it gracefully.
The people who watch him, basically agree with him, so he’ll find his way back to the spotlight and they’ll make him a hero before its over. I think this article is a step in that direction. These are the kind of people we are up against.
MSNBC should have fired him that day, if not mid-show. And had he been talking about most people other than Sarah Palin, they probably would have. I’d like to think they have some minimal standards, anyway. I’d find it bizarre if Fox let a similar situation go this long. So it’s nice that Bashir apologized, but it was still a horrible thing to say, and I can’t say that either Bashir or MSNBC handled it well.
Death by pica?
Bashir should walk up to Mr. Palin and say that to his face, about his wife and suffer the consequences. But, Bashir is a coward hiding behind NBC, which is a company who gave tacit , if not explicit approval for Bashir to say this. This is who NBC is. This is what they are. Think of what Matthews has said,….so also, Schultz, that lesbian woman who has a show, and that prick who wrote West Wing. It is a cadre of miscreant bullies, who are too cowardly to say this to Mrs. Palins face or to the face of her husband.
Bashir should walk up to Mr. Palin and say that to his face, about his wife and suffer the consequences. But, Bashir is a coward hiding behind NBC, which is a company who gave tacit , if not explicit approval for Bashir to say this. This is who NBC is. This is what they are. Think of what Matthews has said,….so also, Schultz, that lesbian woman who has a show, and that prick who wrote West Wing. It is a cadre of miscreant bullies, who are too cowardly to say this to Mrs. Palins face or to the face of her husband.
Exactly!
And that was the reason for his "I'm glad I said it aren't I cool" apology. Thinking he would get away with it.
It's very interesting that the ed show is still on.
I guess to MSNBC Laura Ingraham isn't important enough to fire someone for calling her a slut.
Interesting is that Ben Carson compared Obamacare to slavery:
"Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," Carson said. "It is slavery, in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government."He's 100% correct and always speaks slowly, clearly and with authority.Carson said that the legislation was never about health care, it was about control. That’s why, he said, when the administration took office, it put everything it had into getting it passed.
No hateful backlash to him, and he did defend his comment Here
Obviously the lefts war on Conservative women, especially those deeply involved in politics, is full tilt.
As far as I know Sarah Palin has not been wrong on any issue except supporting John McCain (big mistake).
Liberals hate her because she does not back down and calls out the liberals.
Of the advice given in the article I gleaned one good bit - Bashir badly needed an editor to keep him from going public with this thing. That's what editors are for. I didn't find much fault with his apology, actually, assuming it really was his. But it was too late and in any case, see paragraph one.
It is a little disturbing that someone whose business is words has apparently never encountered the phrase "debt slavery", because that's exactly what Palin was talking about. Judging from the comments he isn't the only one. The fact is that a large number of liberals want so much to hate her, try so hard, that they have willingly forfeited their ability to communicate in the English language. For a journalist that's particularly damning.
Where does this hatred come from? All this intense hatred - I thought it was just fear combined with the rough-and-tumble of contemporary politics but I no longer find this a satisfactory explanation. There's something visceral, insensate, and not entirely sane about the hatred. Strange stuff.
The left’s intense hatred for Sarah Palin stems from their inability to deal with the fact that they secretly admire her beauty and tenacity and brains while they simultaneously hate her right-of-center politics and her nobility, morals and good character. Her giving birth to Trig and loving him unconditionally is an unforgivable sin to the left and they must vilify her like no other.
The left is evil.
Good point. Sorry. I’m not going to ask for someone to come take a dump in my mouth.
When you owe enormous debts, you are a defacto slave.
Batshit's "slip of the tongue" was the longest slip of the tongue in history.
You will see this woman is a piece of work if you read the article.
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