It goes to what's valued and what's not . . .
and, if you paid attention this year, you saw that race was valued and gender was not. Bill Moyers wasn't interested in anything to do with gender. Nor was Dr. Kathy -- the chatty gas bag who was supposed to provide viewers with 'hidden meanings' but mainly came off like a dithering fool. Race? Moyers addressed it and addressed it. (Or addressed the way TV does -- which means Black and White. Screw the rest of the races in the country, apparently.) It was always time to celebrate the 'historic' nature of Barack's run and always time to avoid exploring Hillary's 'historic' nature.
A CBS exec steered us to a piece by Brian Montopoli that went up in May 2007 and found Brian explaining to readers that the CBS News site had decided to close off comments on Barack stories due to the fact that some people were leaving racist comments. Strangely sexism was never a concern.
Below are some of the comments left to an article trashing Hillary (stay tuned for who wrote it). Sexism was never a problem to CBS, they never felt that any of the following comments might be objectionable -- why would they be, they only insult women. As you read over them try substitutions of race and grasp that CBS wouldn't -- by Brian's article -- allow them to be posted about Barack.
Hildebeast wishes to cloak herself in the "accomplishments" of BubbaZipper''s admin.
"You are all emotion and no logic. ie, a woman."
"How about, Sayonara baby, or should that be, bimbo."
"Women have some legitimate gripes about how they have been treated. But they just look like babies when they whine and complain."
"She can't help it. Like many women, equality to them means they are GIVEN chances and GIVEN advancement and GIVEN nominations and GIVEN anything their hearts desire."
"Hillary is the caricature of that desperate, grasping woman, who when told the man does not want or need her, claws and clings to his pants leg screaming and blubbering, while he staggers away -- draggin her proste body across the floor."
"Scened from Fatal Attraction come to mind."
"she is after all a broken old woman with low self-esteem"
"Show me any woman that looks good, and I'll show you a man carrying the load for her."
It just never ends but our patience did and we didn't go through the entire comments. Women defending Hillary were also subjected to ridicule (those defending Hillary with male screen names or those whose gender was not apparent from their screen names were not). "Give me a kiss," "get a clue little girl" and references to "your broom" were popular things to say to women who supported Hillary. "Bimbo" and broad" were popular terms for Hillary as was "Billary." Orion manages to get in "sweetie" three times -- and still accuse her of "*** the boss" to climb "the corporate ladder." Not content to call her Bush -- or, just as popular, "Bush in a pansuit" -- JohnGaltWho shares she "really is starting to look alot like George Bush." "Bitch" is also very popular and spelled "Bitch" even when it's not at the start of a sentence (such as "The Bitch . . .") -- in fact, it pops up so frequently, someone must think it's a first name ("The Bitch is Done . . ." gloats Omar following others' lead to capitalize the "B") It's suggested that "Maybe if she did a Playboy spread she could get some votes."
What prompted all this blatant sexism? A better question is "Who?" Katrina vanden Heuvel. It was her piece of garbage attack calling for Hillary to drop out (from The Nation that CBS reposted in May) which inspired and fed the attacks on women. How proud she must be.
A reposting from The New Republic in March demonstrated that while CBS would refuse to allow racists posts regarding Barack, the would let in a two-fer -- more attacks on Hillary mixed in with attacks on Jewish people.
"tuckerndfw" couldn't shut up about what he so 'colorfully' termed "Jew money." He uses it three time while explaining that the Jewish people (or maybe their "Jew money"?) will kill Barack because -- unlike Hillary or John McCain -- he doesn't take their orders. (No word from "tuckerndfw" if he takes "Jew money.") "b-easy63" should have been banned for his March comments (would have prevented a great deal quoted earlier re: Katrina's nonsense) instead he was allowed to continue to 'contribute' to the 'discussion' and was 'kind' enough to include his 'theory' that Hillary went out and got women for Bill ("she is not even interested in him sexually"). Of coures "b-easy63" 'advances' the discussion with things like sharing his belief that Hillary has "body odor" or other lies he either made up or just decided to repeat (Chelsea does not recoil from Hillary, that's so outlandish and such a lie that it's really offensive, but, hey, fits into the 'she's so evil, she's not even a good mother!' trash, doesn't it?). When done trashing her with lies about her mothering, he repeats lies about Hillary's father and explains that the "abuse" is why Hillary needs "shock therapy" and not "a kick in the pants." He calls her a "monster," a "sociopath" and so much more. "b-easy63" was also allowed to share his anti-immigrant position (it's one reason he supports Barack -- big surprise) and to post such 'cheery' statements as, "If you are gay, then you are a homosexual. If the clinical term bothers you -- get over it." ("Obama is my first choice, then McCAin, or I will write in Obama," the independent "b-easy63" shares.)
One shares that Hillary's "angry," a "political hit woman," has to be "dominant" and "let them know who'''s boss"" (we've reproduced the spelling and punctuation in these as they are displayed at CBS) while another offers that she's "HITLERY" -- still another works in "silly drunken wench." Popular 'sources' for Barack supporters attacking Hillary are the left and liberal Andrew Sullivan (no, he's neither) and The Clinton Chronicles (don't miss The Clintons Trail of Blood which is posted in several installments to the Katrina article) . Another recommends this 'art' excercise "draw a Hitler mustache on her picture". "jesterbelle" 'raises' the discourse with "Swear if the witch wasn''t a politiican, she'd be a gold diggin'' w*h*o*r*e." Another shares they find her "a outspoken man-hating bigot" and her supporters are "the divorced woman, and the crusty man-haters, and the liberal male self-hater."
The New Republic article was by Jonathan Chait who also felt it was time for Hillary to go -- remember there are no real differences between The Nation and The New Republic -- it's why Katrina would still be publishing so many TNRs in her magazine if she hadn't been called out and if Little Lee-Lee hadn't self-destructed. Why CBS chose to republish this garbage is a question that needs to be answered. The title alone should have made them steer clear: "Hillary Clinton, Fratricidal Maniac." We assume Chait would be happy to gather all the unsold copies of the issue his story ran in and have an autograph party during which he could hand out the Hillary "nut crackers" that so obviously 'inspired' his writing.
What CBS wasn't bothered by, "phillysage" noted right away: "'Barack Obama, Matricidal Maniac'--you can bet the farm they''''d never let those words appear on a major media website."
Brian Montopoli's May 4, 2007 piece is entitled "CBSNews.com Turns Off Comments on Obama Stories" and from that article:
"It's very simple," Mike Sims, director of News and Operations for CBSNews.com, told me. "We have our Rules of Engagement. They prohibit personal attacks, especially racist attacks. Stories about Obama have been problematic, and we won't tolerate it."
The Rules of Engagement? It notes:
There’s legal language nearby. Here's the plain English: no libel, slander, no lying, no fabricating, no swearing at all, no words that teenagers use a lot that some people think aren't swearing but we do, no insulting groups or individuals, no ethnic slurs and/or epithets, no religious bigotry, no threats of any kind, no bathroom humor, no comparing anyone to Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot. We expect heated, robust debate, but comments should be polite and civil. We consider this to be public space so behave and write accordingly.
You'll notice that sexism isn't specifically mentioned. CBS might want to consider adding that to the policy considering the crap they've allowed. (We were told by the CBS exec that we could find this sexist garbage in the comments of any story mentioning Hillary. We only focused on two.) You may also notice that they didn't follow their own rules. Hillary has b.o. and her daughter recoils, she's a sociopath whose father "abused" her and now needs "shock therapy" doesn't qualify as libel? (Slander is spoken -- someone might need to explain the law to CBS.) "No comparing anyone to Hitler"? They didn't bother to impose that "rule" with regards to Hillary, now did they? In fact "b-easy63" has broken everyone of those rules (even if you don't include his 'observations' about Latinos and the LGBT community).
Here's a question for CBS, if "CBS cares" wouldn't it be better to demonstrate that via action and not a bunch of badly lit public service announcements?