Sunday, February 17, 2008

Editorial: "Pimp" was not the word

You're very square, cookie. No, pimps don't get dates for you, they just take your money.

And 'independent' media doesn't practice journalism, they just take your money. The quote at the top is from Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda in one of her two Oscar winning roles) in Klute and while you read it again, grasp the there's no bigger pimp than "independent" media these days.

"Pimp" is the word that you heard . . . or didn't. And you should be wondering why you didn't.

As Rebecca pointed out, this is the exchange that took place February 7th on MSNBC's Tucker:

David Schuster: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea is out there calling up celebrities saying, 'Support my mom.' And, apparently, she's also calling these super delegates.

Bill Press: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad.

David Shuster: Didn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

That is offensive. First of all, Press' comments clearly indicate: "Danger, David Shuster, danger." Yet Shuster, an alleged journalist, ignores them to get in his "pimped" remark.

It's really important to him that he introduce to the news cycle the smear that Hillary Clinton "pimped" her daughter. It was offensive. It was offensive to suggest that of any parent. It was offensive to suggest it of any child. It was offensive that this sort of 'critique' introduces itself for the first time when it can be aimed at a female candidate. It was offensive, it was sexist and it should have been called out.

Only it wasn't. Not by 'independent' media. Amy Goodman -- good little whore that she is -- wasn't interested. She can (and does) distort on her laughable show day after day to praise Bambi while ripping apart Hillary, but she can't note this event.

Nor could FAIR who seemed to go into non-stop action alert over Don Imus last year.

It's because there are no standards in 'independent' media, just non-stop begging.

This was a story about sexism and because it didn't paint Hillary as "EVIL," Little Media took a pass. Laura Flanders, so quick to laughably write about her "womahood," had nothing to say on the matter. Oh, if only that were true more often -- on every topic.

It was also a story about the media and the story included the fact that when Shuster got into hot water, he lied. As Media Matters notes, on February 8th's Morning Joe, Shuster tried to brush off his remarks -- without ever stating what they were -- by lying that he'd also stated, "
"Americans should be proud of [Chelsea]" and "everybody, all of us, love" Chelsea Clinton.

A journalist for MSM is caught lying on air and you'd think Little Media would be all on it, only they weren't. They're so committed to PIMPING Obama that they couldn't be bothered with covering this story. "PIMPING"? Yeah, we used it. Little Media -- though childish -- is not a child. We use the term frequently to describe the way journalists push a story. We have never, ever used the term to describe any parent-child relationship nor would we because somethings are truly out of bounds.

It wasn't merely tasteless on Shuster's part, it was offensive. And it was NEWS.

MSNBC thought so. They suspended him. The most FAIR could do was re-publish a 2005 praise-be-Shuster article. (The trash worked at Fox "News" for years and when that dried up finally, he had a few harsh critiques of Fox "News." That passes for sainthood at FAIR.)

Last edition, we called out Katrina vanden Heuvel for a weak ass response. vanden Heuverl nows stands as a GIANT in Little Media for she's the only one who tackled the topic.

It was news. Even though Little Media went out of their way to avoid the topic. As Feminist Wire Daily explained:

MSNBC anchor David Shuster was suspended from the network last week following his offensive comments about Chelsea Clinton's work for her mother's candidacy. While guest hosting on "Tucker," Shuster remarked that Chelsea's efforts to support her mother were unseemly and that it was like she is being "pimped out" by the campaign.
Shuster has been suspended from all NBC network appearances other than to issue his apology. He also apologized to the Clinton family. NBC News President Steve Campus said in a statement: "David Shuster . . . made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. . .NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks."
"I am a mom first and a candidate second and I found the remarks incredibly offensive," said Senator Clinton said at a news conference over the weekend, reports Reuters. "I have sent a letter to the head of NBC expressing the deep offense that I took." Senator Clinton did not say whether or not she would participate in the debate scheduled for February 26th on MSNBC. Take Action to tell network presidents that sexist comments like Shuster's are not acceptable.

On Friday's Democracy Sometimes!, Amy Goodman and Eve Ensler alledgedly chatted about the attacks on women and girls. Since, even in that segment, they couldn't mention Shuster's actions, Eve was talking out her butt and not her vagina and Goody, of course, has no option but to talk out of her ass. Evie was PIMPING a "LOVE" event. Don't make us laugh, "independent" for Obama, Eve. "Love" and "respect" for women requires calling out what happened. You didn't.

There's something that a number of women who try to pass as feminist haven't factored in and we'll bring that up now since Eve has endorsed Obama from her "independent" position: History.

If Eve and her kindred favored Obama while holding both up to a similar standard, they'd have nothing to worry about when history gets written. Instead, they've created a standard for Hillary and had none for Obama. Instead, they've trashed Hillary in some very non-feminist ways. They've done so in the midst of a very public trashing ("trashing" in the feminist sense). That won't play out any better than the actions of their actual spiritual foremother, Emma Goldman, have played out in feminist history (she argued against the vote for women -- during the suffragette movement -- Moscow wasn't for women voters).

They better live in fear of the next Susan Faldui. Ten years from now, another Backlash will be published and they've provided their own set of things to find hilarity in -- the way Faludi rightly (and humorously) called out Susan Brownmiller -- 'feminist' -- fretting in text whether or not she should pluck a stray hair growing on her chin and whether or not the hair itself is a sign of masculine ambition.

With Kimberly Crenshaw, Eve penned a column that has many laughing (at The Huffington Post, google, no link to trash):

Progressives, feminists, civil libertarians, compassionate conservatives and independent thinkers alike denounced the president's rant as a simplistic but frightening attempt to hijack the outpouring of grief felt world wide to serve his pro-war agenda.

What's missing from that sentence? Try "Socialists and Communists" -- rather strange that Evie, of all people, would leave them out, isn't it? Or maybe not so strange.

Our Lady of the Closet goes on to co-pen:

In seeking to corral wayward souls into the Hillary Clinton camp, the new players of this troubling game are no longer the hawkish Republicans but "either/or" feminists determined to see to it that a woman occupies the Oval Office. Drawing their feminist boundaries in the sand, they interrogate, chastise, second-guess and even denounce those who escape their encampment and find themselves on Obama terrain.

Either/or feminists? They're the problem? We think the problem is the ultra-left living in shame (not the ulta-left itself, but the ultra-left living in shame) that prevents them from publicly fessing up to what they are. We assume it would be uncomfortable for some to see feminists draw lines when they work so hard to blur the details of their own lives.

That column was pathetic and laughable and we're damn sick of the closet-cases trying to pass themselves off as something they're not. You have a political ideology, Eve, get honest about it.

Tony Kushner once infamously said it was easier to come out as a gay man than as a Socialist. We think that's a damn shame and we don't think the doors on the closets get blown off until people start getting honest about what they are.

We also think that while a very public trashing (in the feminist sense of the word) is going on, feminsts or feminist-hybrids don't join in. If they do, they're pathetic (and history will not be kind). Pathetic is the garbage that Ensler's pushed such as Bambi's a no-nuker. Bambi's bought and paid for by the nuclear industry as well as the coal industry. Get honest, Eve. In fact, let's see all the 'feminists' trashing Hillary get honest.

Some aren't feminists and some are committed to party lines which have nothing to do with the feminist movement. Their loyalties go beyond the feminist movement which, for them, has never been about anything other than having a cloak to gather round themselves and hide beneath. Consider it a political burka. That's why hacks like Eve Ensler can co-write a column where she trashes Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinemn without naming them. Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan wrote honestly. That's not a claim Eve Ensler can make.

Ensler's V-Day has two 'events' coming up and we wondered about this editorial in terms of damange to the vents but as one who walked in Juarez in a 2005 event V-Day put on (and will not be participating in Ensler's latest attempt to grab headlines) noted, "She made that the issue and then she just dropped it. Three years later and not one damn thing for that issue." Why is that? Well maybe she's a grass hopper, maybe she has the attention cycle of a gnat or maybe she lets others determine for her what the 'big issue' of the day is?

People have a right to know -- when someone endorses a candidate -- what the person's politics are. When Eve Ensler thinks she can join in the public trashing of a woman, when she thinks she can slam Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem and get away with it, we think people have more than a right to know where she's coming from.

"Pimped" was offensive. It took but honesty to report on it, to comment on it. It's not a surprise so many public liars took a pass.