Mary Matalin Smacks Down MSNBC’s Dyson: ‘Will You Ever Get Tired of Beating Up On Darth Vader?’

NewsBusters.org ^ | December 8, 2013 | Noel Sheppard

[Kaslin]

There was a really delicious exchange on ABC’s This Week Sunday that conservatives across the fruited plain will greatly enjoy.

After hate-spewing MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson bashed former Vice President Dick Cheney for once wanting Nelson Mandela put on a terrorist list, Matalin shot back, “When will you ever get tired of beating up on Darth Vader” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Mary Matalin Smacks Down MSNBC’s Dyson: ‘Will You Ever Get Tired of Beating Up On Darth Vader?

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: I'm the same generation as President Obama, and taking a stand against apartheid both in the university community and more broadly in terms of, you know, dealing with the disinvestment strategies, but also challenging Ronald Reagan's engagement approach. I think conservatives get a little bit of amnesia here when they forget that Dick Cheney wanted to put him on the terrorist list and insisted he stay there, that Ronald Reagan resisted - he said on the one hand that Nelson Mandela should be released, but he depended upon a white supremacist government to reform itself from within. I think Nelson Mandela challenged that. Also, though, he challenged people on the left as well.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: Amnesia, Mary?

MARY MATALIN: When will you ever get tired of beating up on Darth Vader who said Nelson Mandela is a good man? As we’ve seen in your earlier segment, it was a complicated situation. The ANC was a terrorist organization at one point. He has since said wonderful things about Nelson Mandela

Actually Mary, much like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Cheney is a frequent target of the haters on MSNBC.

As such, as long as Phil Griffin is running this farce of a so-called “news network,” there’s little likelihood Dyson and his fellow character assassins will stop attacking the former vice president.

Yet Dyson's appearance on This Week raises another issue. Given the shame that has been foisted on MSNBC with the high profile departures of Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir, why would Stephanopoulos invite one of their other despicable flamethrowers on his program?

Somebody clearly wasn't thinking about those optics.

[GeronL]

I don’t think I would trust anyone who has ever said any wonderful thing about Nelson Mandela.

[Orangedog]

As such, as long as Phil Griffin is running this farce of a so-called “news network,” there’s little likelihood Dyson and his fellow character assassins will stop attacking the former vice president.

But by all means, keep paying that cable and satellite bill every month so they can pay the salaries of people who hate you with money you voluntarily give them. Bunch of mousy, abused housewives....

[ifinnegan]

“Ronald Reagan resisted - he said on the one hand that Nelson Mandela should be released, but he depended upon a white supremacist government to reform itself from within.”

That is exactly what happened.

“I think Nelson Mandela challenged that.”

This last part makes no sense.

Anyhow, I vaguely remember someone named Mary Matalin, but ...

[Jim Scott]

Nelson Mandela was a communist and the ANC a terrorist organization. Reagan and later, Cheney saw that the white South African regime was unsustainable but didn’t want the ANC to take over and establish a communist regime in the country. Mandela was no Ghandi and while he was relatively peaceful as a leader he didn’t do all that much good for his nation which is now suffering from a thuggish black police force, anemic economy, high crime and unemployment rates.

Leftists attempting to make Mandela a secular saint in the mold of Martin Luther King is annoying but predictable. He helped overturn a white government in an African nation. That, alone, is enough to make leftists misty-eyed.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Using Darth Vader is a racist dogwhistle.

[jsanders2001]

Libs tend to judge people by outward appearances only. The would look at a crocodile and surmise that it was smiling at them rather than salivating. They have no wisdom in them, only street smarts.

[MUDDOG]

as long as Phil Griffin is running this farce of a so-called “news network,"

Or Peter Griffin.

[dfwgator]

[SunkenCiv]

...hate-spewing MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson...: I'm the same generation as President Obama, and taking a stand against apartheid both in the university community and more broadly in terms of, you know, dealing with the disinvestment strategies, but also challenging Ronald Reagan's engagement approach. I think conservatives get a little bit of amnesia here when they forget that Dick Cheney wanted to put him on the terrorist list and insisted he stay there, that Ronald Reagan resisted - he said on the one hand that Nelson Mandela should be released, but he depended upon a white supremacist government to reform itself from within.

Y'know, engagement -- like what Zero is doing with Iran RIGHT NOW, but WITHOUT insisting that it release a CHRISTIAN POLITICAL PRISONER? Y'know, engagement, like what Nixon did when he went to China? Y'know, engagement, like what Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford did with the USSR? Thanks Kaslin.

[VeniVidiVici]

Why do we even differentiate between NBC and MSNBC? We should just refer to both as NBC.

[dfwgator]

I refer to it as, MSDNC.

[Kaslin]

Gee, my cable provider has more then one channel and MSNLSD is not watched in my house. Neither is abscbsnbc and cnn

[SunkenCiv]

Good point:

> The online partnership of msnbc.com ended on July 16, 2012 and the site was rebranded as NBCNews.com.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC

OTOH, the website and logo remains “MSNBC” despite Microsoft’s having sold its interest last year.

[GeronL]

and you still help fund it just by subscribing

[Kaslin]

Mary Matalin is married to James Carville. They are both politically the opposite from each other, as she is conservative and he is liberal. We used to refer to him during the Clinton years as the Serpent head

[Kaslin]

Phil Griffin

Phil Griffin

[Kaslin]

You are welcome and you are correct

[Kaslin]

Because NBC is a network channel, and MSNBC a cable channel. That’s why.

[Kaslin]

blah, blah, blah