WTF did I just see on MSNBC?

[PCIntern]

They had a header:

REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES

OK...fair enough...

then...

They had:

DEMOCRAT PRIMARIES



************************************

WTF? I mean, WTF, man...

I say...WTF?

[alstephenson]

1. What a bunch of B.S. I saw the same thing on Sunday morning on.....

the George Stephanopolis show!!! He certainly knows better, so WTF????

[screembloodymurder]

12. From this day forward, I propose we call Republicans, Pubicans.

Definition: A small hair that tends to crawl up and irritate your ass.

[MADem]

2. Didn't you realize that MSNBC is actually GE-GOP?

Olbermann is a mere BONE to the hungry dogs; a bit of bread and circuses to keep you confused. But that outfit is owned by one of the TOP TEN Pentagon contractors and pulls BILLIONS out of our economy each year. Our tax dollars at work!!

They want McCain to win. They're trying to "funnel" their viewers to make McCain "The Option." You watch.

[PCIntern]

3. Yeah, I'm well aware of their

predilections.

but come on now...this is just unbelievable...in league with Faux's cross party assignations...

Wotta bunch...

[MADem]

5. Tim Russert, with his little eraser board, had a BUSH button on the underside of his lapel.

Nothing's unbelievable with them.

They're all cheesy baaastids. Trust them as far as you can throw them!

[PCIntern]

6. did he really?

On the air?

[MADem]

9. At the Jefferson Jackson dinner. He was giggling and flashing it to his GOP pals.

Including his bestest buddy, George.

See here for the background: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time%20for%20change/31

[truebrit71]

27. Pllllllllllease tell me someone has a picture of that...

...I despise that smug, porcine bush-enabler....

[MADem]

33. I am not aware of one. But enough people reported on it that its veracity

isn't in dispute. Fatboy Timmy sat at the knee of Jack Welch, and was told if he played ball he'd be able to afford that overpriced Nantucket island home off Cape Cod on a news editor's/talking head's salary...

[cascadiance]

14. I'm wonder if they will be dumped when Microsoft becomes Microshoo!

and they want to use the Yahoo news instead of MSNBC...

[Der Blaue Engel]

4. We should e-mail/call them and put them on notice every time they do it

and copy Keith Olbermann, since he works there too.

[rodeodance]

7. What is a good way to do that??

[PCIntern]

8. go to the MSNBC.com page

and fill in the "Contact Us" or equivalent box...

then your IP address and chip numbers will be forwrded to the approprate agencies.

that is all....

[Fridays Child]

10. Who framed the idea that such uses of "Democrat" represent some sort of slur, anyway?

I know it upsets a lot of Democrats but I don't really get what the big deal is.

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. I'm trying to figure that out too.

Seriously. Is it in the Republican playbook that bad grammar is designed to insult?

[jayfish]

16. The People Who Coined The Term.

IIRC, the initial users of that term were pretty up-front about it being unflattering. It says two things:

1) The Democratic party is not democratic
2) The GOP is the real party of democracy

[Fridays Child]

19. Whatever the obscure origin of this issue...

...it's safe to say that the vast majority of Americans do not see a significant difference between Democrat and Democratic. So, my question is why do we keep taking the bait.

[jayfish]

22. Some Lite Reading...

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/07/060807ta_talk_hertzberg

The job of politicians, however, is different, and among those of the Republican persuasion “Democrat Party” is now nearly universal. This is partly the work of Newt Gingrich, the nominal author of the notorious 1990 memo “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” and his Contract with America pollster, Frank Luntz, the Johnny Appleseed of such linguistic innovations as “death tax” for estate tax and “personal accounts” for Social Security privatization. Luntz, who road-tested the adjectival use of “Democrat” with a focus group in 2001, has concluded that the only people who really dislike it are highly partisan adherents of the—how you say?—Democratic Party. “Those two letters actually do matter,” Luntz said the other day. He added that he recently finished writing a book—it’s entitled “Words That Work”—and has been diligently going through the galley proofs taking out the hundreds of “ic”s that his copy editor, one of those partisan Dems, had stuck in.

In days gone by, the anti-“ic” tic tended to be reined in at the Presidential level. Ronald Reagan never used it in polite company, and George Bush père was too well brought up to use the truncated version of the out party’s name more than sparingly. Not so Bush fils—and not just in e-mails sent to the Party faithful, which he obviously never reads, let alone writes. “It’s time for the leadership in the Democrat Party to start laying out ideas,” he said a few weeks ago, using his own personal mouth. “The Democrat Party showed its true colors during the tax debate,” he said a few months before that. “Nobody from the Democrat Party has actually stood up and called for actually getting rid of the terrorist surveillance program,” he said a week before that. What he meant is anybody’s guess, but his bad manners were impossible to miss. Hard as it is to believe from this distance in time, George W. Bush came to office promising to “change the tone.” That he has certainly done. But, as with so much else, it hasn’t worked out quite the way he promised.

A slur is a slur is a slur. Which ones you or I decide to be offended by is, I guess, a personal thing.

Jay

[Warren DeMontague]

23. I honestly don't think the 99% of the population who aren't political junkies give a shit.

Really, I don't think they pick it up as a slur, either consciously or subconsciously.

[PCIntern]

30. Not one inch...

I should think that liberals would have to agree that how the debate has been framed, the language used, and the low-level, subterranean, misuse of English, as well as The Big Lie is EXACTLY what has been so successful over the years.

to wit: the choice of the words: Pro-life

the implication of course is that if you're Pro-choice, then you're Pro-death.

Not subtle and not just for political junkies IMHO.

[Warren DeMontague]

38. Right, but the fight re: Roe v. Wade is actually ABOUT something tangible.

I never say "pro-life", I always say anti-choice.

Frankly, I'm astounded that we don't fight harder for reproductive rights, as well as for the right of consenting adults to run their own lives and control their own bodies in ALL respects, when the American People are overwhelmingly pro-choice and DON'T want government controlling their most personal decisions. And the anti-choice movement is actively anti-contraception, as well- using the anti-choice movement's own statements on oral contraceptives, the HLA plank as written in the GOP platform would outlaw the pill. So why aren't our people out there, every day, saying that the GOP goal is criminalization of most, if not all, forms of birth control? Talk about framing the debate.

But, no, I don't think calling us the "Democrat Party" is really that big of a deal. Yes, I will correct people when I have the chance, but usually I have bigger fish to fry than that.

[Fridays Child]

31. Neither do I. And, to the extent that it is seen as a slur, I think that only shows...

...how out of touch beltway insiders are from the rest of the country. It just doesn't "play in Peoria."

[Skittles]

32. American ignorance is not the point N/T

[Warren DeMontague]

39. While there's a lot of ignorance out there, ignorance & "not giving a shit" are not the same thing.

I correct people on this when I have the chance, but honestly I would think we as a party have more important things to get our shorts in a bunch over.

[Dorian Gray]

25. It's the GRAMMAR

that offends? I didn't get what was so negative about DEMOCRAT primaries! I saw no pejorative.

[LiberalHeart]

29. No, it's that Democratic is a positive...

Note the difference in these two sentences:

The US is a Democrat country.

The US is a democratic country.

The GOP doesn't want anyone getting the credit for the democracy.

[Dorian Gray]

42. I, of course, see the difference in the two sentences

but I still don't see how the first one is negative. Incorrect, maybe, but not insulting.

[uppityperson]

40. Me either. I have bigger fish to fry.

[AndyTiedye]

11. The MSM Has Their Orders

NEVER call us the Democratic Party, ALWAYS the Democrat Party.
ALWAYS use the words "moderate" and "maverick" EVERY time McCain is mentioned.

more to come, they are just getting started.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. We should call them RapePublicans

[Lance_Boyle]

17. what's the beef?

This stupendously unimportant "ic niggle" is asinine.

[JuniperLea]

18. It's rude to misspell or mispronounce a name...

And a company who makes its living presenting the news should know better. I'm betting they do know better.

[Lance_Boyle]

21. Until Democratic politicians object to being called Democrats,

I'll continue to ignore the non-issue of the pseudo-transgression.

[rcsl1998]

41. Whatever You Say, Lance_Boy...

[SoCalDem]

34. Sorry..it's not asinine

It's IS a part of the campaign waged by the RNC and the screaming-head right wingers, to belittle the democratIC party..

A NAME is a very important part of who or what something(one) IS.

If your name is Robert, and your boss insists on calling you Rodney, or Robbie, or Bertie...and you have asked several times for him/her to NOT do it..and you have reminded and shown him/her exactly what your name is...and they continue to do it...deliberately and in public, it's a very passive-aggressive thing they are doing to you.

It shows an utter lack of respect, and shows that they don't even consider you important enough to call you by your correct name..

It's NOT accidental or inconsequential, and when they laugh it off and say "don't be so touchy, Rodney, Robbie, Bertie..whatever-the-hell-your-name-is", they push the whole issue onto YOU when you dare to mention that they have your name wrong.. then YOU become the one who is "thin-skinned", and abrasive for daring to bring it up. If you pretend to take it as a joke or a simple oversight, or even go along with it, you are seen as a pushover who will continue to accept more slights and ridicule.. The bar keeps moving..

The fact that this is the mass-media doing it, is worse than just a boss, because the media shapes opinion.

[MADem]

35. No, it is NOT unimportant. Why don't you do a little homework and look into

the history of that abbreviation, with the "rat" insinsuations, before you make such an uninformed assertion?

It's designed to both insult Democrats AND telegraph a meaning to ardent, mouth-breathing GOP tools.

You know it's a far-reaching issue when it hits Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(phrase)

[Lance_Boyle]

36. believe it or not, I've been around long enough to know this 'issue'

It is pure NONSENSE. The *only* reason it has a wiki entry is that certain professional offense seekers have latched onto it as a point to wail and cry over, much to the glee of the righties. The solution is simple - stop being offended by it, or start calling yourself a Democratic Party Supporter instead of a Democrat.

[MADem]

37. You keep shopping that rightwing theme, it doesn't make it true. NT

[sakabatou]

20. The header guy is from FAUX!

[Dorian Gray]

24. Am I missing something obvious?

[Balbus]

43. No, because you're not insane.

[liberal1973]

26. No kidding wtf?

From Adolf Hitler to Gorbels have used that slur. Its Democratic Party douches.

[rumpycrunch]

28. I saw this too!

People really need to get their act together. Yikes.