At the gym, on television No. 1: A few minutes of the interview ABC News will air next week with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, injured in a shooting in January, and her husband astronaut Mark Kelly. Though shot in the head at nearly point-blank range, Giffords has steadily worked to regain mobility, communication skills and strength. Her husband retired as an astronaut following his space shuttle flight in order to help her.
On television No. 2: That lacquered sack of crap Al Sharpton moralizing about the many shortcomings of Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno failed to use his position and stature to prevent horrible wrongs when he could have done so, but Sharpton -- who has never apologized for claiming prosecutor Steven Pagones was one of the men who assaulted Tawana Brawley
and who refused to pay the verdict which held he had slandered Pagones
with his false accusation, nor for inflaming tensions in the Crown Heights riot instead of working for peaceful outcomes -- is most definitely not the man to sit in judgment of him. Compared with the strength of character shown by Giffords, never has the morally miniscule Sharpton seemed so small.
4 comments:
i actually sent an email to the head of msnbc, all-but-begging him not to give sharpton the 6:00 slot...or any slot, frankly. sigh. amazing to me that the channel that gave rachel maddow - whip-smart, polite, and passionate - a platform can sink so quickly and so thoroughly. (and yes, ed schultz is a putz, too.)
i'm with you on pagones: i read both of the books that came out about that case...and what sharpton did should've landed him in jail. (as should his refusal to pay the judgement against him.)
also? sharpton just plain SUCKS on camera, which in this day and age is probably the biggest sin of all.
I can't understand it, either -- I regularly disagree with Rachel Maddow but am pretty sure I could converse with her because we could probably find something on which we didn't disagree that we could talk about, and she would be, as you say, polite enough to want to do that. Why she isn't their lead instead of Sharpton, Schultz or O'Donnell is beyond me.
O'Reilly's just as big of a jackass but he's got years of broadcast history behind him, so I can see Fox giving him a show if they want some ratings. Sharpton had no history and no ability; giving him such a prime slot is a mark of (Krauthammerism alert) unseriousness that I would question were I a shareholder.
i'd kind of hoped - and it's what i wrote to msnbc - that they'd give peter alexander an actual NEWS show in their 6:00 time slot. call me crazy, but it would be nice if there were actual reporting going on after 4:00 p.m.
do you remember when brian williams had the hour-long news broadcast at 10:00 pm on msnbc, back when brokaw was still the evening news guy at nbc? it was really great, because they let the news "breathe"...in that they had interviews with newsmakers that lasted more than a half-minute. now, though, they "interview" other pundits in one large (forgive me) circle jerk. endlessly.
my love for maddow is largely based on the reporting done on her show. whether you agree with her conclusions or not, you'll find lots and lots of facts in support of those opinions. like buckley, and will, she BUILDS AN ARGUMENT, rather than just spouting an argument...loudly. the other thing i love about maddow is that i think you're wrong: you could actually talk to her about the things you don't agree on...and you'd find each other interesting. i don't think it's politesse, i think she (and you) genuinely enjoy debate. learned, informed debate. who the hell else on the tube can we say that about, anymore?
now: go back to "occupy oklahoma," you socialist thug, you.
More than some others, Maddow does project more of an air of allowing people to think differently than she does.
And heck yeah it would be great to have a real newscast and report and interview the actual people involved instead of a spinmeister throwing opinion at the the issue (in the same way monkeys throw feces, actually). You'd think a network deep in the ratings hole might say, "What the heck have we got to lose?" and give that a shot, but apparently not.
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