It is convienent outrage but That Obama swept all the states in play this weekend is still in the newscycle so if this exagerated offense was supposed to distract the electorate it didn’t. On another note I am arguing this point with a democrat on a conservative woman’s blog about a liberal David Shuster..only the conservatives and I an Independent, are pointing out the double standard. The democrats are aruging that David Shuster called Chelsea Clinton a whore. Really I am not making this up. My last comment on the subject #85 on that topic Michelle Malkin’s blog. Yes I cut and pasted the transcipt and stated to show me where he said what they claim, and then I told them you are making stuff up because that is how you “Feel” oh yeah alot of women come tuesday in Virginia will be able to emotionally identify with Hillary…Mission Accomplished.

Ree: While I’m reading ICN and typing; on his syndicated radio show, Bill Cunningham is constantly talking about “John Wayne McCain” and “Barack Hussein Obama!”

If Chelsea is going to be on the stump for her mother, she ought to be available to the press–like the 9 year old she blew off last month.

I don’t agree with a lot that David Shuster says, but I was watching Tucker when he made the comment and it didn’t offend me. I am a 57 year old woman with a 30 year old daughter.

There has been coverage about the references to Obama being called muslim ect..they discuss the fairness of the smears and that these issues, have already been addressed and settled. In context of the opposition to Obama’s running for President.

I heard Bill O’Reilly say one on the Factor, he slams the left for their, his words, vicious behavior on the blogs and he wouldn’t brook it from the right, then he stated, I mean like “Juan McCain” I know because I was discussing this very point with Marty on Chickaboomer. Because you know the right has many colorful names for Hillary Clinton and Bill never brings that up! I told Marty I habitually watch the Factor and for the first time in a long time, I changed the channel to comedy central. Bill O’Reilly showing his bias -if it isn’t okay with him for the right to call John McCain, Juan McCain. Then it shouldn’t be all right with him for the right to call Hillary all those names. By the way, they put themselves out there. I don’t think they should be called anything obscene but other then that if they can’t take the heat, they need to get out of the kitchen.

Prediction: Assuming a Democratic Congress, and irregardless of whether Hillary, Obama or McCain is the next President, the Fairness Doctrine will be reinstated. But this time, it won’t stop with talk radio.

“Fairness” will also be applied to both over-the-air and cable TV. And possibly also to segments of the Internet and pay (Sirius and XM) radio.

IOW, if this matter happens on 2/9/09, David Shuster would probably go to jail!

Ree, do you hear this on mainstream news programs? or on blogs and talk radio? There’s a difference, or there’s supposed to be.

I think it was staged! I just heard Bill Press on Fox stating everyone feels all right about saying whatever they want about the Clintons but you don’t hear people speaking the same way about McCain or Obama…really he doesn’t, what rock has he been under? I hear Obama constantly being called Muslim and Osama er I meant Obama. I hear McCain being called Juan McCain and McShamnesty. Bill Press playing the victim card for Hillary Clinton “the media is unfair to Hillary Clinton” No it isn’t!

You want me to agree that Shuster should be suspended for being able to get some attention for an issue, that wasn’t being reported on else where? I don’t think Shuster is dumb or incompetent so where does that leave me in opining about his comment - his soundbite? Is this to cause a distraction from some real news in the newscycle? Is this to drum up ratings for the network..is it both? Is he being coached and by who and is it expensive GRIN. Yeah, I know this is serious.

Is that what you’re honestly saying? The poor Clintons get attacked all the time, but not Bush/Cheney????

These two families have taken the brunt of the most vile and repugnant slanders of all-time. I don’t recall anyone equating Clinton to Hitler (like Olbermann, Moveon, others have with Bush).

You’re living in a cave if you honestly think the Clintons are victims more than Republicans are.

The Bush twins have received plenty of negative comments and criticisms, including a story in the NY Times about Jenna being arrested twice (she was never arrested).

Great summation of the Libertarian point of view. However we both know that’s not the way the world works. In the real world, Imus gets fired. Opie and Anthony get fired. Michael Savage gets fired. Not because what they do is more severe than anyone else, save maybe Savage, but because there’s an agenda at work.

I don’t have a problem with the back and forth between the networks. I do have a really big problem with the disengenuous back and forth between the networks. If you’re going to attack, attack with the facts. Not the spin you want to put forth and the hyberbole you use to make the other guy look worse than he really is. The average viewers are neither plugged in enough or care enough to figure out what the real story is. They just lap it up like mother’s milk and take it at face value. Under these condistions the marketplace is incapable of functioning as it should because everybody is guilty, therefore nobody gets punished. And the legal system will not step in. Nor should it.

People only get punished when there’s an agenda at work. It just so happens in Shuster’s case that the punishment was arguably appropriate. But nobody seems to care about that because all they’re talking about are the agendas…

“SUPER DELEGATES” this will effect the outcome of the Democrat’s nominee for President. It isn’t even the samething as just campaigning for your mother or father.

Marty Davis is a woman and if you look she is in Spud’s blogroll. Marty has insider knowledge click on her link that is what she blogs about. Chickaboomer is the name of her blog.

Pimping, it isn’t just for street walkers anymore GRIN.

You’re missing MY point, bigred. It never would have been said about Liz Cheney or one of the Bush girls - it never would have occurred to anyone, even tho’ they did the exact same things campaigning for their folks as Chelsea is doing.

It has always been acceptable to say things about the Clintons that would be considered beyond the pale about anyone else. It’s just part of the mainstream culture that Clintons, any Clinton, are fair targets.

It’s not ok for a commentator to say about anyone, including a Clinton.

The point is, again, if it was about Liz Cheney or a Bush daughter, it wouldn’t have become a story in the mainstream media, and there would be no suspension.

Shuster should be canned. He’s a joke. Period.

Alison: Sorry but the dude is making absolutely no sense. He pontificates well but is really saying nothing!

Why should there be a truce between the networks? This guy can’t be serious! Having three competitive cable news networks is great for the consumer, far better than before 1996 when it was only CNN. Why should O’Reilly, Matthews or even Olbermann be reigned in for giving opinions and commentary?

The marketplace (and if that fails, the legal system) will ultimately determine who will or should be reigned in!

As for the ‘pimp’ comment, I think there’s a generational divide in terms of reaction. As someone who is 30 years old, I’ve been hearing the term ‘pimp out’ for 15 years, and prostitution doesn’t always come to mind. People ‘pimp out’ their cars, their homes, etc. MTV has a show dedicated to ‘pimping out’ things. So I personally don’t find it that offensive, but I can see why others might. That being said, it probably is a term better suited for Real Time with Bill Maher, as opposed to a news program on a cable network.

Shuster’s words were perhaps ill-chosen and merit a reprimand, but certainly not a suspension. He rightfully apologized; that should have been the end of the story. He is one of the few interseting anchors/hosts on MSNBC. Given the hours that he’s on the air every day, it’s inevitable that something slip off the cuff. Once again, a Stalinist move — speech should never be punished in a free society.

I agree that they’re throwing Shuster under the bus. Obermann has said equally distateful utterances, but nothing has happened, and as already mentioned, Scarsborough’s remark about Thompson’s wife was equally sexist and in poor taste.

I actually had hopes for the Democracy there for awhile with the writer’s strike and all. The numbers showed people were atually watching the debates and following the race. Record turnout in many states–but now the strike is (probably) over so it’ll be back to the usual swill they pass off as “news”.

And look, if you took away the “let’s beat up on the other networks” sthickt from some or their faux indignation at the political party of their choice, you wouldn’t be leaving some people with very much material for an actual show. Oh yeah, except for news and that’s not what they are really there for now is it?

The decline and fall of American television news standards was chronicled by Paddy Chayefsky in his prescient script for the 1976 movie “Network” directed by Sidney Lumet. The greedy, corrupt, amoral TV network sacrificed news anchor Howard “I’m Mad As Hell” Beale to the Gods Of Ratings by letting the “Mad Prophet Of The Airwaves” say and do anything on the air.

It took two years for the new cable TV networks to start slip slidin’ away. The seminal (no pun intended) event was the 1998 Clinton/Lewinsky sex scandal. The wall-to-wall news coverage of the 1994 O.J. Simpson slow speed freeway police pursuit and the subsequent murder trial provided a glimmer of what was to come.

With the suspension of MSNBC’s David Shuster for his on-air Chelsea Clinton comments, it behooves the TV news industry to conduct an inventory of standards and practices.

To invoke a Clintonesque phrase: It’s time to end “the politics of personal destruction.” Journalism has been jettisoned in pursuit of ratings.

It is time to reign in the likes of Fox News Bill O’Reilly, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and rewrite the attendant philosphy, practices, and standards banning no-holds-barred slander.

It is time to call a truce between warring cable TV networks, and show hosts. New ground rules must be enacted to set clear boundaries governing appropriate and inappropriate on-air behavior, opinion and analysis.

The David Shuster incident is opening the door for network news management to collectively agree that enough is enough and declare a truce to restore television news to the level of credibility the networks - and viewers - deserve. To invoke a diplomatic term: peaceful coexistence.

Let us embrace the “civil” in civilization.

Unless it was staged!

And Spud I have a question for you. What exactly ARE you supposed to call it when a candidate declares that the press aren’t allowed to talk to their “child” when the “child” is 27 years old? No other campaign has issued such edicts regarding their adult children on the campaign trail for them. And what do you call it when the candidate then uses the “child” to phone “Superdelegates” and beg them for their vote (and this nomination may very well come down to those superdelegate votes)? What do you call it when a candidate has the “child” phone the panel members of the View on ABC to ask them to vote for her Mom? You and I both know that those phone calls were very well-timed in hopes that the View panelists would then TALK about their phone calls on air (free publicity) and that the vastly female audience of the View would suck it up and then go out and vote for the candidate too? They are using her. And they are continuing to use her and this whole Shuster kerfluffle to garner more press attention at a time when we know the Hillary campaign is hurting for money. What has the news cycle been for the past 24 hours concerning the candidates? Pimpgate. Hey maybe Hillary can work up a tear or two over this and get another 24 hours worth of media attention.

And let’s get honest about something else here–don’t you think that the Democratic party would rather have the debate on CNN or Fox News since they get much better ratings with their debates than MSNBC? The Pimpgate mess was a really good excuse to pull the debate from the ratings-challenged MSNBC and give it to a higher rated network. And hey if Shuster loses his job in the process? Big deal. He’s small fy. But don’t tell me that MSNBC had to kiss butt to the candidate the way they are now because it was the right thing to do–since when has MSNBC cared about what was right?

But once again, Keith has said things THOUSANDS of times worse about people, yet no apology was ever issued. The fact that the Clintons were the supposed victims here is the entire issue, and of that I am certain.

IMO, we may be hitting critical mass… and end of Mr. Shuster’s career in front of the camera at MSNBC may be in sight.

We are discussing this subject here too.

http://imustimes.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/lockdown-david-shuster/

Shuster having what is described as an Imus moment because for some reason when Imus made an on air mis step last April his was the only one in cablenews history that has ever counted.

Shuster is an obvious liberal, isn’t this out of character for him to say something negative about the Clintons? Isn’t the result of what he said, to make Hillary Clinton appear more sympathetic by trying to paint her as a “victim” of the Media? Was this staged for Clinton’s benefit when the delegate count finally started getting reported correctly showing Obama in the lead? Did Shuster take a dive? What is the perception, we are left with, that the MSM is hostile to Hillary Clinton NO IT ISN’T!

On a side note, there is a soundbite, I have heard recently on cablenews, re the Clintons “infulence peddlers” is coming up alot.

Maybe it’s best that Chris Jansing escaped from MSNBC. She has too much integrity than to be linked with this type of nonsense.

Btw, for how long is Shuster suspended? Was a date given?