As some of you may know, last week a pretty big house was dropped on MSNBC employee Joe Scarborough for making insulting, sexist remarks about Hillary Clinton's reaction to her victories on Tuesday. It was in all the papers (from NPR)
Tuesday night — when Hillary Clinton was delivering her victory speech, after she won the primaries in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio — MSNBC host Joe Scarborough live-tweeted this bit of advice to her:
"Smile. You just had a big night."
Suffice to say, women - were not amused.
"Said no one to a man, ever" tweeted one.
Another offered: "Women LOVE it when you say this."
And on it went, until comedian Samantha Bee was prompted to launch the hashtag "Smile for Joe," thereby prompting a slew of women to post selfies.....
.@JoeNBC pic.twitter.com/YZHVIKxE8O
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) March 16, 2016
In addition to MSNBC employee Joe Scarborough making an absolute preening ass of himself for the 1,578th consecutive day, MSNBC employees Chris Matthews and Michael Steele and Lawrence O'Donnell also thought it would be just a spiffing idea to cut away from Secretary Clinton's actual victory speech on Super Tuesday to weigh in on the timbre of her voice. Because they are such helpful lads.
All of this, collectively, constituted whatchacall "news" and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Chuck Todd still likes to pretend that "Meet the Press"is a "news" show. Ergo, he covered this "news"...
...in the creepliest and most awkward way possible: by passive-voicing his way completely around the insulting, sexist remarks about Secretary Clinton from his NBC/MSNBC colleagues and frequent co-panelists,
Joe Scarborough and
Chris Matthews and
Michael Steele and
Lawrence O'Donnell
without ever mentioning their names or their network affiliations (actual transcript with emphasis added):
CHUCK TODD: When we come back, when male pundits say Hillary Clinton is shrill or yells too much, is that legitimate criticism or is it sexist?
...CHUCK TODD: So some people saw and heard, they heard a presidential candidate celebrating a huge night in which she took a huge step in winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But when others heard it many of whom were men, when they heard her speak, they called her "a bit shrill, loud, hyper aggressive." Some even said she "lacked grace." And then there was the admonition that Clinton should smile more...
MSNBC employee Joy-Ann Reid and MSNBC employee Jose Diaz-Balart didn't exactly cover themselves with glory either, going right along with the okey-doke and agreeing not to go to Scarborough Fair either.
I guess the sight of Melissa Harris-Perry's career impaled on a pike (at the entrance to the MSNBC cafeteria) as a warning to anyone else who might be thinking about messing with Phil Griffin's management decisions had the desired effect.
excerpted from Driftglass
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