Sarah Palin Has No Idea What Happened with Martin Bashir

A world class idiot. Image from source, Raw Story.

MSNBC fired (or accepted the resignation of) Martin Bashir, after he made a very well-phrased suggestion that Sarah Palin eat shit. More or less. Palin had made a typical really bad analogy comparing the budget to slavery. Bashir gave a history lesson on the horrors of actual slavery, along with an allusion that Palin might deserve a very specific punishment afforded some particularly unfortunate slaves in the past. This begat a Right Wing World freak-out, followed by a very sincere (and I think, more thorough than necessary) apology by Bashir, followed by more faux outrage, followed by his dismissal.

So, the man apologized profusely, continued to take a critical drubbing and then was run out of his job. Apparently, FOX "News" thinks more should have been done to him, and has--as far as I know--not even broached the question of whether or not Palin's original comments were over the line. The question would be academic anyway, because Palin hasn't the first, foggiest clue what she herself is talking about.

Palin learned the art of the non-answer, either on the pageant circuit, the news studio, or the political stage. So, I will acknowledge that she has a very specific talent, and an aptitude for learning this one "stupid human trick." She can talk around any topic, sprinkling words that sound like she's saying something, maybe even something related to the topic. If you were a conservative fan, or an indifferent person who isn't paying attention, her peppy delivery, confident demeanor and that sparkling glint off of her lip gloss would make you think she's just a firecracker!

But Martin Bashir got something very, very right. He said, in part. . ."America’s resident dunce, Sarah Palin, scraping the barrel of her long deceased mind, and using her all-time favorite analogy in an attempt to sound intelligent about the national debt. . ." He also said, ". . . Given her well-established reputation as a world class idiot, it's hardly surprising that she should choose to mention slavery in a way that is abominable to anyone. . ."

In her response to questions by another of America's lesser lights, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Palin proved Bashir's assessment accurate. Responding to the question of whether or not Bashir has been sufficiently shamed, Palin replied,

“My role is to accept his apology and be humble enough and to, you know, accept it and move on,”  So far, so good, though "role" was probably not the right word, she's hardly humble, and she had to throw in a "you know." She continued.  [Story continued below]



"But I just hope that unprovoked attacks like that don’t result in people being hesitant to jump in the arena anyway, to get out there and serve the public or start a business or really commit themselves to changing within their family, their community, their world, doing whatever they can despite the fact that, in this world, you are going to be hurt and attacks will come your way." Utter word salad, stream-of-consciousness, nonsense. The "attack" wasn't unprovoked. And what arena are these mythical "people" stepping into. . .starting a business and. . .changing within their. . .what? Martin Bashir is now going to be out there randomly criticizing people opening their own restaurants or, I don't know, putting a Florida room on their house?

But she didn't stop with that random, run-on sentence. She finished with this doozy: “The target of the attack is usually more significant than what the attack, the articulated words used, actually are, and that’s part of that doubled standard.” So, the target--Sarah Palin--is more significant than what Martin Bashir said about her, and that's a. . .double standard?

She has no idea what she herself is talking about. Martin Bashir's mistake was in assuming she had any clue what had come from her own mouth. She is a world class idiot.

[Excerpt]

Sarah Palin: People might be afraid to ‘start a business’ because Martin Bashir attacked me
 
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday responded to Martin Bashir’s resignation from MSNBC by saying that she was used to being the victim of liberals, but she hoped that the former host’s attack did not stop other people from starting businesses. On Wednesday, Bashir had announced that he was resigning from MSNBC after suggesting that Palin deserved to eat human feces the way that slaves were once forced to for her remarks comparing the federal debt to slavery. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

FOX "News" Sunday Jumps the Shark

Despite the "liberal media" allegations, the Sunday political talk shows on network television are decidedly right-wing biased. Over and over again--no matter which party has more power in Washington, D.C.--studies have shown that guests and commentators are weighted heavily to the right. I don't really know why this is, if Republicans are just more apt to want to go on, or if Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain actually live in the green room.

So, when you start with the fact that the shows are canted to the right, you can only imagine what comes out of the likes of FOX "News" Sunday. This week, the main topic was the surprise nuclear weapons and sanctions reduction deal with Iran. Of course, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) thinks it's a bad thing, and unleashes quite a number of conservative talking points unrelated to the deal, to depict President Obama as weak, indecisive, etc. The counterpoint was fairly soft with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Who?) providing support for the president, but without swatting down Corkers corkers.

That was par for the course, something that you might see on Meet the Press, had it been on this morning. But then, the vaguely creepy Chris Wallace brought out former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Ostensibly, she was there to talk about current political controversies, though her depth of knowledge on the subject is. . .what exactly? She has no credibility on much of anything outside of her half-term as governor of a small, remote state. And she doesn't disappoint, with her shallow, fragmented, "pageant" answers to each question. She has nothing of value to say, and it is clear every time she opens her pretty (for nearly 50) mouth, and spews her patented word salad.



But the real reason Sister Sarah was there was to respond to the MSNBC/Martin Bashir "controversy." Bashir (who I suspect was looking for the viral video he ended up getting), had been outraged about Palin's earlier comparison of the budget to slavery of all things, and had given a particularly nasty lesson in slavery to his audience. He then (after a series of insults toward Palin, all of which were absolutely true), he insinuated that the punishment given to slaves in the story, maybe ought to be visited upon Mrs. Palin. Well, Right Wing World went wobbly on its axis!

Since the story had to do with urination and defecation, the implications were quite vivid, so I get it, sort of, why Palin (who made the original, offensive comments) might be PO'd. But who is she that she needs to be tippy-toed around anyway? So, Bashir was apparently called on the carpet, and ended up giving the most thorough, detailed, over-the-top with effusive apology I've ever seen. Way more than Palin deserved. And so, Palin was gussied up and put before the F"N"S cameras nine days later.

If Wallace had just had her on for that purpose alone (even so belatedly), I could forgive the appearance. But he asked her about the important issues of the day, and given her complete lace of gravitas, I find the notion idiotic that she'd be asked her opinion on much of anything. But that wasn't all! No, no! In the completely pointless, regular feature "Power Player of the Week," Wallace had a puff piece on Mitt and Ann Romney, having a folksy family breakfast! Just like back in the campaign, when they did the same thing.  The Romneys aren't even liked in Right Wing World, so I can't see how they're any more relevant than Palin.

In all, it was the most pathetic Sunday show I've seen in years. And in this bunch (Hello, David Gregory!), that's really saying something.

Conspiracy Corner: The Right-Wing Media Food Chain

This clip from Martin Bashir is an excellent deconstruction of how a crazy conspiracy theory goes from an ultra-fringe blog, to the bigger right-wing sites, to The Drudge Report, onto FOX "News," to crazy-ass questions at important press conferences, and sometimes--sadly--all the way up to and from Capital Hill. Kudos to Bashir, and his guests Ryan Grim of Huffington Post, and Jonathan Alter, who I've liked since his days on The Al Franken Show.