David Schuster’s unfortunate choice of words leads to his suspension from MSNBC:
NBC News President Steve Capus sent the following statement to Media Matters for America:
NBC NEWS STATEMENT REGARDING CHELSEA CLINTON COMMENT:
On Thursday’s “Tucker” on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.
What Schuster actually said was that using Chelsea Clinton to make phonecalls on her mother’s behalf was the equivalent of ‘pimping her out’.
SHUSTER: But doesn’t it seem like Chelsea’s sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?
I understand why Schuster has been suspended. That comment was way out of line. I think a lot more people should be suspended for the things they say, especially on talk radio. For example:
Summary: On The Savage Nation, a caller identified by Michael Savage as “Kojo” asked Savage: “[D]o you know how the AIDS got there [Africa]?” Savage responded: “It got there because it was spread from eating green monkey meat, my friend. If you study the science — but I don’t think you have the capacity to understand science, my dear friend Kojo.” Later, Savage stated: “See, we don’t live in Africa where people settle arguments with machetes. We live in a country where we settle it with arguments. Something you apparently don’t know anything about. … Couldn’t use the machete so his mind went blank. There, that’s what we got. There’s multiculturalism for you. There’s immigration for you. There’s the new America for you. Bring them in by the millions. Bring in 10 million more from Africa. Bring them in with AIDS. Show how multicultural you are. They can’t reason, but bring them in with a machete in their head. Go ahead. Bring them in with machetes in their mind.”
This isn’t to question Schuster’s suspension, but just to point out that not everyone has the kind of pull to get idiots suspended from their jobs when they says intolerable shit.
A few days ago Robin Morgan dismissed Caroline Kennedy’s support for Obama as a kind of vile Electra complex for her dead daddy. That made the rounds with lots of cheers but nary a complaint by feminists who see Clinton as an icon.
I expect that this kind of talking point will be overlooked by Clinton supporters, just like Gloria Steinem’s “Women are never frontrunners” op-ed.
Electra complex? Well, that’s prurient.
While looking for the original Robin Morgan piece, I found this on a Hillary blog, here:
http://connect.hillaryclinton.com/blog-entry/Clevelandgrrrl4hillarys-Blog/Second-Wave-Feminist/40002
5841
“We know that there is a huge gaping hole between those who recall John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. vs. Daddy Pappa Rip Your Head Off Rapper of the Year.”
Nice to know that the Clinton people are keeping the debate on such a high level.
Here:
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html
Morgan actually connects Obama, through Caroline Kennedy, to Chappaquiddick and Marilyn Monroe’s suicide.
Ah, poetic license!
You’re right, and I recall that comment, too. Oddly, even though it was so over-the-top, I hadn’t thought of it since then — at least until right now.
Maybe one of our resident computer literati could dig it up and leave us a link.
Regarding Schuster, I think he suffered from temporary lexical Tourette’s syndrome. Despite the pejorative connotation, it is a very, very rough synonym for what he seems to have mean by his comment. Again, as with the previous comment, those type of comments are immediately filtered out or translated in my brain. I’m sure he didn’t mean his comment literally.
I saw that apology. What he said WAS inappropriate, but it is out of the ordinary for Shuster. He is usually very professional and he chose the wrong words there. Not like Matthews or Tucker or many others on any given day.
I do question their making an example of him, of all people. While I understand the outrage, I hope he returns to the air soon.
understand he’s to apologize, again – on the evening news.
Good publicity for Clinton.
But have you ever heard of a candidate doing this?
Clinton Appeals For Cash At Campaign Rally”
Not only that, but MSNBC must really feel they owe her something because they broadcast almost the entire Tacoma rally today. But just a brief mention and clip of Obama’s rally in Seattle right afterward.
I agree that his comment more reflected a disgust at a family member supporting a candidate than it was a sexist attack. I think the Clintons are overly sensitive to any charge that they are being unseemly by campaigning for Hillary.
But c’mon. This is getting silly. His comment was no worse than one hears daily in heated political discussions. Hillary simply does well when she’s the victim. I bet she has a moment on air shortly before the next elections where she “tears up” about how the media has treated Chelsea.
But this stuff backfires. It reminds people of the politically correct 90s that most average people recoil at (and they also associate liberals with pcness). This stuff will just drive Hillary’s negatives higher and get her the sympathy vote of the media and Republicans being mean to her.
Sigh. This is what we have to look forward to with a Hillary candidacy.
is a Shuster Suspension like a Romney Suspension? (ie, does this impact the delegate count in any way?).
It was a stupid choice of words and people were rightfully offended by them…so he sincerely apologized and that should be the end of the story. Chelsea Clinton is an adult now and for some reason, though she’s heavily involved in her mother’s campaign, she is still being sheltered from the press as if she’s that awkward teenager during her father’s tenure in the white house. What’s up with that?
It’s not over over at TalkLeft. On and on and on.
And then there is this:
link
Matthews said drug use, Penn ramped it up to ‘cocaine’.
Booman, you can always one up on these issues, yeah ok to say drug, but very very bad if one of Hillary’s team mentions which drug.,…which does make a difference, doesn’t it, mairjuana is relatively accepted but not cocaine, but yet he did concaine but dare not speak of it..
Is it then ok to lie about it and say Mark Penn brought it up, oh I forgot he mentioned which drug!!!!!!!
the issue is that Shaheen raised the issue of drug dealing, and then Penn raised it to cocaine dealing, which is a stereotype for young black men.
Just channel surfing and caught Mary Hart on ET (why do they still put her behind a glass desk?!) saying something about “Obama’s cocaine past….”
Mena, Arkansas. What’s that duffel coming out of the sky?
I’ve been writing about Penn’s type of behavior under the lede of FALSE CONTRITION. Penn’s technique is to appear to dismiss the attacks on Obama — thus flippantly walking away from the damage they may have done. Penn’s second technique is use the topic as a pretext for making further charges, even while he purports to oppose this type of strategy.
Even though readers here are intelligent enough to understand these points without my help, I wanted to point out that it’s this type of behavior that galvanized my opinion against the Clinton campaign. Rather than resorting to exotic theories about “Hillary haters” to dismiss any opposition, it would prudent of the Clinton campaign to acknowledge that these mistakes were part of their intentional strategy and then refrain from this tactic in the future.
I can tell that everyone who wrote comments here today are male. Funny that.
Um, not me. 😉
Did my name give it away?
Or am I not allowed to discuss sexism?
Of course not, Bob. You know all boys are meanies. And double standards only apply when the girl is the victim. Boys aren’t allowed to be offended when girls play victim and their daddies call up TV networks and scream at executives because some mean boy was a mean meanie to his daughter or wife.
Jeez, Bob. You’re such a meanie. And a sexist too.
I’m so mad I could just cry. Which camera should I look at when I do it? Oh, that’s right. I’m not a girl. Crying only works for girls. Damn!
Boo.
No, you’re not. It’s a girl thing, you wouldn’t understand it.
I’m not surprised that David said this on Tucker’s show, I suspect he was encouraged to be a bit slimy. He’s normally a good reporter.
is apparently going to address the apology on his show.
Is it me or do the Clintons just thrive in this type of political pie fight? Hillary couldn’t have picked a better issue. She certainly didn’t want it to be a debate over her foreign policy beliefs. So we now have to stop all political debate to argue over the use of the word pimp and get to talk about how unfair the media is to the Clintons. Jeez. Shoot me now because I cannot take this if this is going to be “debate” during the general if Hillary is the nominee. I tell you. We are being held hostage while the baby boomers resolve their issues from high school. Is lil’ Bush and Rove going to win or will Bill and Hill finally prove that the baby boomers are progressives that made America safe for a right-leaning female corporate schill (what, should I have said “whore”?).
Yeah. We are on the verge of a number of primaries and caucuses in the next few days where Clinton is the underdog. Why talk about them? Let’s talk about this sexual insult of the Clintons’ daughter.
SFHawkguy, I’ve seen your name around. Doesn’t matter what the logic is. Anything that can in any way be intrepeted as sexist is red meat for some Clinton supporters. (Is red meat sexist?) I’ve pointed out sexist insults coming out of the Clinton supporters but it’s invisible to them.
So be it.
Let’s compare apples and apples and check what I posted:
Since there have been so many posts re Schusters comment and suspension, I doubt that this will get read but what the hell. By focusing on the Schuster comment, the focus has been once again be directed exactly the way the media heads want it to be. Wake up folks! If schusters comments are unnacceptable, what the hell do Matthews never ebnding slurs directed against women reflect? Or how about having on the variety of pigs and slanderers such as buchanan. This is pure and simple BULLSHIT! Schuster is the latest piece of meat needed to misdirect the anger!
His record of reportage has been so on target that he had become a threat! Pure and simple.
Its better to see that Nora bitch with here stupid laugh and her ridulous laugh or that Fox lineup of abhorrent group of pigs! Give me a break.
Now, msnbc can tout their desire to portray themselves and presenters of the news!
WAKE THE HELL UP and FOCUS!
All they did was get rid of a potential threat to their message!
So who is the whore?
Schuster is put on the tube based on nothing more than his abilities with his mouth. MSNBC could not make enough money pimping his sorry opinions and are now using this pathetic excuse to kick him into the gutter they got him from.
BLOCK FOX, MSNBC AND CNN!
I have had these three channels blocked from my TV for two years now and I have no lack of news. There are newspapers and the internet. Either of which are trying to shove their right-wing propaganda and hate-mongering down my throat.
The added benefit is that I no longer have the blood pressure problems I had when watching that fascist garbage each day.
Shuster should iron Chelsea’s shirts.