My letter to the Washington Post (in re MTP today)

[dsc]

Dear Editor:

The following is quoted from the official transcript of Meet the Press, 11 January, 2004:

MR. BRODER: I saw the same kind of contrast when I was out there earlier this week. Gephardt gave a pep talk to about 175 union business agents and staff people who’d come in from around the country. I’d say it was about 98 percent male and the median size of these guys, about 6’3”, 250 pounds. Then I went over to...

MR. RUSSERT: My kind of guy.

MR. BRODER: Then I went over to the Dean headquarters, they’re young, they’re female, they’re gay, and they’re small. And I thought to myself, I hope those Gephardt guys don’t run into the Dean people. You know it would be a bad scene.

I am astonished at the depth to which your paper's star columnist has chosen to take our discourse. First, it is so utterly stereotypical. I am trying to imagine, without success, any columnist thinking he could do this sort of thing to supporters of Al Sharpton or Carol Moseley Braun. It is literally unthinkable. I realize that close-minded people like Mr. Broder will be astonished to hear this but gay people come in all shapes and sizes. We are, or at least some of us are, Mr. Russert's kind of guy. Astonishing, but true. We are, drum roll please, real live humans just like any other.

But Mr. Broder's statement has even more problems. As astonishing as it may seem, there are some laborers who actually think gays are decent people. And I have even heard that most of them respect women and wouldn't beat them up for sport. Of course, your close minded columnist wouldn't know that, or at least shows no evidence of actually knowing that. So Mr. Broder managed to smear laborers with nasty stereotypes too.

But, like the commercials, there is still more offensive things in Mr. Broder's bizarre statement. Some of us, for reasons which apparently escape Mr. Broder, find violence against women and gays to be something other than a laughing matter (the transcript doesn't mention laughter but it was there). It is hard to find a gay who doesn't know someone who was, or wasn't himself, attacked for being gay. For those of us who have been there it is no laughing matter. Mr. Broder should know better.

I know that gays and lesbians are among the last minorities for which conduct like Mr. Broder's is still acceptable, so I won't even bother asking you to discipline him for these hurtful and bizarre statements. But, you can, and should, be issuing apologies to Dean's supporters, Gephardt's supporters, gays and lesbians, and women in general. People in that same discussion wondered why the people on the Dean blog would be so down on the press. Your paper, in the person of Mr. Broder, gave a text book example. Your readers deserve better. Your country deserves better. Do better.



end of quote

I did this on my own and not via the Dean Defense forces. This conduct is what helped us get Bush instead of Gore. Bigotry like this must be stood up to and stamped out. I make no apologies for standing up to this clowning clown and telling him he did a poor job.

[Fleshdancer]

1. Holy crap!

I'm glad I slept in this morning. I would have thrown my television set right out the window if I watched that nasty exchange.

Your letter is right on target, thank you for writing it.

I want to say more but I'm too shocked right now.

[SharonAnn]

2. You're right! Don't let them get away with this kind of

"labeling" and badly written crap.

[Cheswick2.0]

3. I'm not young, I'm not gay

I am a woman, but I am not small. At 5'10" I am not affraid of much. But union guys don't bother me, what an idiotic comment from broder.

[KoKo]

4. Broder said that! The "Dean of Washington Press" made that disgusting

remark? Of all the times I've thought he was nothing but a WH operative disguised as a "moderate," I never thought he would stoop that low. Scratch the surface of these "kindly seeming old pros" and you find a Robert Novak or worse.

If that's the transcript, I'm going to e-mail the WaPo and complain also.

I turned Russert off after Kerry because I can't stand the show. I can't say I'm sorry I missed that. Russert was bad enough, but this is totally low and disgusting.

[dsc]

7. Link

Read it and weep for the state of our public discource.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3916793/

[Eloriel]

5. Superb letter

Thanks for writing it.

I do have to add something to your post:

I did this on my own and not via the Dean Defense forces.

It's not clear from that remark that Dean Defense is an all volunteer effort not connected to the campaign. I just wanted to make it clear. It is a citizen Media Watch activist group, focused on the Dean candidacy and campaign, trying to keep things honest and accurate in reporting on Dean.

Eloriel

[hellhathnofury]

6. Glad I slept in.

[anti-bush]

8. Context

You have to look at the context of this. They were talking about the contrast between the supporters of the two candidates.

They said that Gephardt's supporters tended to be less college educated, older, and union members.

Dean's supporters tend to be younger, more educated, and more affluent.

Dean's supporters are the types you would see wearing Birkenstocks and driving Volvos, Gephardt's supporters would be wearing work boots and driving Crown Victorias.

This is all a true assessment of where the support tends to be.

To emphasize this, they said that at Gephardt rallies they were 98% male, and they were the 6'3 250 pound type guys. At Dean's rallies, they were young, female, gay, small.

This was a compare and contrast, and wasn't a negative to Dean. It was an honest assessment of where the core supporters of these two tend to differ. Don't get your feelings hurt.

[Eric J in MN]

11. Is there evidence of this Birkenstock sandals thing?

I have never been to Dean rally but do most of his supporters wear sandals?

I saw Howard Dean on tv accept the endorsement of a doctors' group, and while I'm not sure if the camera ever panned down to their feet, I don't think the doctors were wearing sandals.

[stickdog]

14. That's a fucking load of horseshit.

No "context" could possibly forgive that exchange, and I can't believe that ANYONE would suggest otherwise.

In what "context" is up really down?

[anti-bush]

19. The exchange:

Some parts edited down, but you can read the whole transcript if you like.


MR. BROWNSTEIN: ...I mean, you look at Gephardt and Dean, and they have assembled virtually mirror-image coalitions at this point. Gephardt—less affluent, fewer college graduates, older, sort of the brawny New Deal coalition from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson; Dean—more upscale, many more college graduates, younger, more socially liberal, pretty much the Democratic Party since the 1970s. And it’s almost as if you have different generations of the Democratic Party being summoned here and, you know, we’re going to see which one is larger in Iowa....

MR. RUSSERT: David Broder, to that point, John Zogby, in his analysis of the polls this morning said that “Look at the parking lot of the Iowa caucuses and if you see Volvos and people getting out of them with sandals, it’s a good night for Howard Dean. If you see Ford Crown Victorias and people wearing wing-tips, it’s Dick Gephardt.” Young voters overwhelmingly for Howard Dean. voters over 60 in Iowa, they’re still attached to Dick Gephardt.



The point they were making was that Gephardt tends to have the labor types, and Dean the more white collar types. I ask again, what was wrong about that?

[KoKo]

16. anti-bush, you have no idea what Dean Supporters look like or you wouldn't

make such an uninformed, ridiculous comment here on DU.

[anti-bush]

18. I didn't say it

They are the ones who said it. I was relating what they said on MTP. I watched it.

I didn't get the impression that they were bashing Dean or his supporters in any way. I got the impression they were contrasting his supporters with Gephardts.

Is there anything wrong with that?

[lovedems]

9. They really do think we are a stupid society

I think Burger King sucks ass. But then again, I drink Latte. They do think we are stupid.

Edit: you forgot the pushing away their Burger King wrappers and coming out the basement voters. But that was another pundit wasn't it.

[stickdog]

10. Great letter. Un-fucking-believable transcript.

It's amazing. The whores want to stop Dean so much that they've already stooped to gay bashing on national television.

What's next?

[madison]

12. you can also write directly to David Broder at...

Thank you for writing that. I, too, listened with horror this morning to that sneering exchange. I almost threw up.

These craven media whores are destroying what little legitimacy is left in public discourse.

I hope more people will write letters, but you can also send them directly to David Broder, at: [e-mail]

[dsc]

13. He is cc

but I used [e-mail]

[KoKo]

15. I just e-mailed the WaPoo Ombudsman. Here's the link if anyone wants

to go after this also:

https://washpost.com/contactus.nsf/contact?OpenForm&Generic

ON Edit: I figured if Broder's that low down he will just throw his e-mails out so I figured I'd let the Ombudsman get an earfull. Maybe you could send copies of the letters you write to him.

Blast the WaPoo over this.

[KoKo]

20. BTW, maybe Media Whores would be interested in this?

:shrug:

[dsc]

21. I am emailing daily howler

too.

[rumguy]

17. "My kind of guy" - fucking media whore....the media whore of the year!

[asjr]

22. I saw that also and

was taken aback and thought How could he say these things? and then remembered whose program he was on. Russert's combative attitude is really growing thin. I am going to e-mail him and ask him when he is going to put Shrub on the hot seat.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

23. it's a superficial description of a REAL divide

The Corporate Media Whores try to spin in a certain way, but there is a difference between the blue-collar, private-sector industrial unions that have endorsed Gephardt and the socially liberal, half-white collar public sector unions of the SEIU and AFSCME.

A big difference? The SEIU/AFSCME are not as threatened by offshoring and "free trade" like Nafta, while that's the major threat to the industrial unions. The industrial unions are staffed with large, blue collar white men who are often socially conservative, while the service unions have significantly more women, African-Americans and Latinos.

This is nothing - the anti-LGBT rhetoric will hardly be disguised during the general election.

[stopbush]

24. Hmmm. I'm 6'2", weigh about 200 lbs, married, 2 kids,

almost 50. When I got out of high school, I worked as a forklift driver in a warehouse where I was a Teamster. I went to music school and spent my post-college career in NYC as an opera singer, conductor and oboist. Being in the arts, I've worked with many gays...and lost many outstanding friends and colleagues to the ravages of AIDS. And, being in the arts, I often had to work an non-arts job to make ends meet. I worked as a waiter, a bartender...and as a "foundation excavator" (ie: a ditch digger) on construction sites in NJ so I could afford my place in NYC as well as voice lessons and coachings.

Later, I got into marketing and have spent at least part of my time over the past decade as an article- and copywriter.

So, I've worked with gays, Teamsters, you name it. Yet, in all my travels, I've seldom run into anyone as ignorant, racist or prejudiced as Mr Broder and his gaggle of giggling press whores.

BTW - I've never voted for a repuke and I never will.

[anti-bush]

25. Am I misreading this?

I think I may have misread what you guys are contending here. Are you saying that Broder called Dean's supporters "young, female, gay, and small" as in "they are all small, young, gay females" ?

That is not what he said. If you listened to the inflection in his voice, he was saying "They are young people. They are females. They are small in stature (compared to the large union laborers). They are gay." He was describing more than one type of person who is typical of Dean's support.

Is this the source of confusion? Cause I don't really understand otherwise what was bad about what he said.

[dsc]

26. I watched it

and while he didn't call them all gay females. He clearly did call them all gay or female.

[spooky3]

27. did you see the comment about "bad scene?"

I think people are reacting to that line, i.e., why would Broder assume it would be a "bad scene" if he's simply proposing that the groups differ demographically?

I'm surprised no one has called him on his less than scientific way of assessing whether the groups actually differ demographically in the ways he describes. Some journalists think their own anecdotes or worse, their own interpretations of anecdotes, are The Way The World Is.

[dsc]

28. kick

kick

[NV1962]

29. Good letter. Amazing exchange there... - n/t