“But Enough About That. What About the Clintons?” The MSNBC Obama Victory Atrocity

McCamy Taylor

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Thu Jun-05-08 12:53 AM
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“But Enough About That. What About the Clintons?” The MSNBC Obama Victory Atrocity

Edited on Thu Jun-05-08 12:57 AM by McCamy Taylor

. I. Obama’s Victory!

David Gregory: “But Enough About That. What About the Clintons?” He said this today on his MSNBC show Race for the White House lead in, after a brief mention that Sen. Obama had secured the Democratic nomination.

And this, in a nutshell, describes what is wrong with General Electric’s news organization. These guys do not love Barack Obama. They love to obsess over Hillary Clinton. Last night, I switched on the election coverage to MSNBC by habit and caught KO and Chris Matthews talking about what the evening would mean to….

…. Hillary Clinton!!!!.

WTF????

I grabbed the remote control and punched in the numbers for CNN. Wolf Blitzer and Co. had a great big score board on their stage that looks for all the world like the Vegas Strip. It was counting down the delegates for Obama in letters that are taller than my husband (and he definitely ate his Wheaties when he was growing up). Everyone was talking about Obama. What a great campaign Obama had run. What a historic night this was for America now that Obama was about to become the Democratic nominee.

Yes! This was what I craved as a Democratic viewer. This was why I turned on the television. I wanted to see this historic moment hyped like News Years Eve 1999. Talking about a losing candidate’s campaign was nothing but a bummer. Who would put two guys in suits at a desk and have them nitpick Hillary when they could give us play by play action while flashing lights on a scoreboard showed a countdown to victory? Someone who was less interested about ratings and more concerned about their own circle jerk, I guess.

So, how did CNN’s programming decision pay off? Do we even need to ask? Sure, ask. From the NYTs.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/cnn-beats-networks-for-obamas-speech/

CNN’s Ratings During Obama Speech Are a Milestone
:applause: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :applause:
By Brian Stelter
It is extremely rare for a cable news channel to draw higher ratings than the broadcast networks, but CNN apparently managed to pull it off on Tuesday night, when its telecast of Barack Obama’s victory speech attracted 4.73 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Snip
Fox News Channel, a cable cousin of the Fox broadcast network, is normally the top-rated news channel, but on Tuesday it placed third for the night, drawing an average of 2.45 million viewers at 10 p.m. By contrast, CNN’s ratings during Mr. Obama’s speech represented the largest primary night audience for cable news this year.

Note, too, that ABC interrupted its regular programming to show Obama’s speech. It was the only major network to do so. As I have discussed elsewhere, the Mouse has a longstanding disagreement with Sen. McCain over A La Carte Cable and will be unofficially endorsing the Democratic Candidate this election season. NBC did not so the same, because General Electric is supporting the senator from Arizona, the man who has never met any form of radiation with which he could not form a bipartisan agreement.

II Hillary is a Babe

“Hillary Is One Hot Shit Kicking Feminist Babe”
Michael Moore said that, back in the days when people in the film industry were still allowed to say nice things about Sen. Clinton.

You know the rumors that all hard core right wing politicos fantasize about Ann Coulter in a leather dress? I am beginning to suspect that journalists have the same kinds of fantasies about the junior senator from New York.

We’ve been such naughty boys, Hillary! Punish us!

Ha! As if she had time for whiny wimps like Jonathan Alter and Howard Fineman, when she is married to America’s number one sex machine. Keeping that Big Dog on the porch probably keeps her plenty busy.

And then there is the week that all those bad boys in the press spent talking about Hillary’s cleavage.

If you look real hard, you might be able to convince yourself that you see a little hint of a shadow. But hell! Grown men getting off on something like that is worse than boys stealing the bra and panties ads from the Sunday papers.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708010003

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on July 30, MSNBC devoted a total of 23 minutes and 42 seconds to segments discussing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) "cleavage." MSNBC broadcast separate segments on this topic during the hours of 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. ET, skipping only the noon and 4 p.m. hours. During the same period, CNN devoted 3 minutes and 54 seconds to coverage of Clinton's cleavage, while Fox News devoted none.

Media Matters says that John Harwood compared it to Barry Bonds rubbing down with flaxseed oil (suggesting that John Hardwood really knows how to party).

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707290003

Eugene Robinson defends our right to look down Hillary’s blouse.

http://co-mediamatters.com/items/200707300004

That itsy bitsy flash even caught Amy Robach’s eye---and she has a pair of her own. "We'll probably be watching even more so what she picks out every morning, every evening, so unfortunately I think it hasn't ended for Hillary Clinton."

Who knew libidos ran so high at General Electric’s 24 hour News Network? Maybe it is a side effect of all the radiation from their nukes. Makes them want to breed like bunnies in order to start a new race of mutants.

And as if that was not enough, there is this rumor

started by KO’s boy pal Michael Mustow of the Village Voice last summer and propelled by foreign newspapers, a few mainstream periodicals, conservatives, and (if you believe the bloggers) Clinton's Democratic rivals in the state of South Carolina. This is a three or four nosebleed story, as the Japanese would say. Too bad, Huma has a boyfriend.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/05/28/2008-05-28_yes_im_hot_for_hillary_clintons_body_wom.html

III. Tomorrow is Another Day---Except at General Electric

Today, Obama is the nominee and Sen. Clinton has indicated that she is going to endorse him or some other word that means the same thing as soon as she can get the caterers together and rent a hall big enough for her 18 million supporters. That means that everything is different at MSNBC, yes?

Not necessarily.

One thing is exactly the same. There is a great big picture of Hillary Clinton for all the fan boys to drool over. Next to that is an itsy-bitsy picture of Barack Obama. If you did not read English, you would assume that the smiling Hillary had won the nomination and the little Obama had lost.

Some things are different. General Electric is wearing its support for John McCain more openly. Look at the front page of the MSNBC. com webpage to the promo for the Brian Williams interview with Obama.

Obama: GOP will attack on patriotism Not “Obama criticizes McCain for the 1001 things that McCain deserves to be criticized for.” Nope. Even though this should be a fluff piece for Obama, it is critical of Obama. It says Hey look! This is my biggest vulnerability! At first this feature also had a subheadline about Obama being a “ very risky choice”. Buyer’s remorse anyone? I guess someone decided that looked too anti-Obama, because they scrapped that on the main page and moved it inside. The bulk of the article is all about how important it is that Democrats become unified. Obama says that it is essential hostilities between the Obama Camp and the Clinton Camp cease as soon as possible.

MSNBC hopes that all the Republicans who were drawn to the article by the questions about Obama’s patriotism got that. MSNBC has been spreading the message which Rush only recently began promoting---“Chaos at the Convention”---all the way back since January. As I document in my journals, on the night of the New Hampshire Primary, Pat Buchanan (who masterminded the 1972 Democratic divided party) announced/decreed that this year’s Dems would be divided by race and gender. And so it has been, with the help of lots of little Freepers, like the ones calling Rep. Clyburn today posing as Clinton supporters using nasty words. And the one last night who told the world that he was the guy who fed Drudge the photo of Obama in African garb not Clinton. And Nora O’Donnell, who did a segment called “Convention in Chaos” on MSNBC on the day of the Wisconsin Primary in which she reminded Republican voters in that state that they could same day register, cross over and vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in order to keep the Democrats from getting a nominee.

KO did his part to keep hostilities high, by calling Clinton an “albatross” and “not in reality”. This after he announced that she was going to endorse Obama and start campaigning for him, presumably encouraging her 18 million Democratic voters to do the same. If he does the same for every high profile Democrat who campaigns for Sen. Obama, John McCain should be a shoe in this fall.

IV. MSNBC’s June 4 Election Coverage. It Wasn’t Obama’s Victory. It Was Hillary’s Blunder

I am going to repeat this, to make sure that it sinks in. I was kidding above (or mostly kidding) when I said that the good old boys at MSNBC get hot and bothered thinking about the Hillary Clinton Nutcracker.

Although Media Matters has a summary of Tucker Carlson describing his Hillary S& M sexual fantasies on air and he does describe that nutcracker.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707180009

MSNBC has been going on and on and on and on (like the Energizer Bunny) about what a bad campaign Hillary and Bill Clinton have run and about how little money she has been able to raise and about what wicked awful people they are and about how high her negatives are, because if they can portray her a total loser then Barack Obama looks like the guy who beat the total loser. And that is not much to celebrate, is it? Or, as the Lord of Lies Pat Buchanan has said every primary night since Pennsylvania, what about the states Obama did not manage to beat the total loser in? You people who think that Buchanan is a harmless old coot, you have been warned.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24968237/

RUSSERT: Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton. I mean that's a very big story, no matter how many times, weeks, days people have heard it or want to discount it, tonight, it will become official. And I think we have to recognize it.
MATTHEWS: Is the criticism within the campaign of Hillary Clinton tonight, and we know from history, there's always going to be that, is any of it directed inward?
RUSSERT: What do you mean, Chris?
MATTHEWS: Do they blame themselves for screwing it up?
RUSSERT: Yes.

See? Obama did not win. Clinton screwed up. That is what MSNBC's five month nonstop Hillary Clinton obsession has been all about. Portraying the Democratic Primary as Hillary Clinton's Heroic Fall (with Barack Obama as some bit player who comes on at the end of Hamlet to rule Denmark after everyone in the line of succession is dead).

DAVID GREGORY, MSNBC HOST: Thank you very much. Chris and Keith, good evening to you. There's a lot going on, panel. We have a lot going on.
This thing is moving very quickly. Rachel, the news of the day to really chew on is vice presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That's what she said on her conference call, that she's now open to it. Has the campaign for the number two slot begun?
RACHEL MADDOW, AIR AMERICA: It's bigger than that I think. Because I think it's a story about Hillary Clinton. Can she get the vice presidential nominee, is that her goal at this point and let us not lose sight of the fact, she apparently is not running for president anymore.
For me, at least, it's been an open question until at least yesterday.
The aggressive language we saw from her campaign and she's going to pivot, and the question at hand is whether she is going to be VP, this is news itself.
GREGORY: Why signal this now, today, Pat, on the precipice of this big announcement?
PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Here's why; because the nomination battle has just begun. What's the prize that's going to be sought and who's going to win? The Hillary Democrats in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will decide this nomination.
Hillary Democrats in Colorado, who's got a claim to them? Both McCain and Barack Obama are going to go after them. Barack Obama will praise Hillary tonight. I wouldn't be surprised to see McCain praise her.
She is saying, I'm not giving up this estate. I still have a say over where they go, 17 million voters. Whoever gets the majority of them wins the presidency of the United States.
GREGORY: Gene, if you're Barack Obama, do you not still sit here and say, I understand the math, but I also understand the soul of this campaign, which is about turning the page from the Clinton's, not running with the Clintons.
EUGENE ROBINSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Exactly. Barack Obama certainly gains some if he takes Hillary Clinton on the ticket. He loses some too.
I know a number of people who say he can't possibly do that. This is supposed to be about new politics, not old.
But the important thing, I think, is he becomes the nominee tonight. The power, the royal flush hand, poker hand, is his. It's not Clinton's anymore.
GREGORY: It raises an important point.
ROBINSON:He's not pressured to do anything.

Poor Eugene Robinson. He needed to be over at CNN where the night belonged to Obama.

“But Enough About That. What About the Clintons?” The MSNBC Obama Victory Atrocity

Hillary, Nutcrackers & Sexism