Mr. "Pimped Out" Booted Out, For Now

David Shuster, MSNBC fabulist, channeled his inner rapper and got his bad self suspended for describing Chelsea Clinton as a "nappy-headed ho".  Oops!  Hard to keep track of these MSNBC outrages - here we go:

On Thursday, Shuster guest-hosted Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show, "Tucker," and in referring to Chelsea Clinton's role in calling superdelegates on behalf of the Clinton presidential campaign, he asked if she was "sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

The Politico has some interesting emails between Shuster and the Clinton campaign; Media Matters has transcripts of Shuster blathering in various venues.

And folks who remember the Libby trial may remember that David Shuster routinely made stuff up.  His story-telling will not be missed.

Comments

[kim]

Like Penny's ex, can't tell if he's stupid or just a liar.
===============================

[MayBee]

Politico has the email exchange before Shuster apologized. He is a hack, but I can't say he's wrong on this point:
It is a fact that chelsea has made calls to superdelegates, as your campaign colleagues have acknowledged. It is also a fact that the campaign has reacted quite harshly to any media who have sought to interview chelsea. That was the point. By slamming any reporter who seeks to chat with chelsea while simultaneously having chelsea do campaign tasks such as trying to convince super delegates to support her mom, that's the reference.

Still, saying she's being "pimped out" is always going to be unacceptable on a news channel.

[Diane Lander-Simon]

David Shuster is such a weany. It's about time he got a smack down. I hope they never bring him back. He's not bright, he's ot insightful. He's like the snotty kid on the playground who pushes kids down the slide. His tenure at Fox on the Whitewater non-story has tainted him forevermore. He should get out of broadcast and go teach journalism - as in Learn From My Mistakes!

[PaulL]

Is Shuster suspended with pay?

We wouldn't want him so short of funds to make his mortgage that he has to pimp out his daughter.

[BarbaraS]

You people are overlooking the point that Chelsea is sacred not to be tampered with. All during Bill's presidency talking about her was a no-no. Other president's children (mainly republican) could be trashed at will but not Chelsea. She is above all that. You don't hear about her dring beer while underage but in college. You certainly never heard of her shacking up with her boy friend. Mark my words, this girl is being groomed for a xsecond or third term of the presidency. The idea she can be prominent in Hillary;s campaign but out of limits to the press shows how arrogant the Clintons are.

[Jane]

I have two thoughts on the matter, no three. 1. Shuster is an ass, but it doesn't sound all that different about how all of MSNBC talks about the right on a daily basis. Clearly the Clinton's are looking for press. 2. Chelsea is perhaps overstepping her bounds - except that is not possible for a Clinton. 3. We are headed for the Fairness Doctrine which scares me more than the first 2.

On that note, WAKE UP! It's not-so superduper Saturday. What will happen. Will the Huckster gain ground? Will the messiah have a second coming? Does anyone know if the RW cried yesterday? Let the games begin.

[steveaz]

Shuster is the victim of racism.

Here's why. If he had used a classic Anglo vernacular, like, "tarted," he'd still have a job.

But, no. He used a hip-hop vernacular, "pimped-out." And it cost him his job. Just like Imus' ghetto-mouth cost him.

CRAZY. In the 90's, Oakland tried to make Ebonics an official teachable language in its public schools. And in 2008, journalists are getting fired for speaking it!

[Soylent Red]

Jane:

I think you are correct. This incident is driven more by the untouchable-ness of Chelsea, and by the Clintonian tactic of shrieking victimhood at every setback, than by any actual concern for Chelsea, propriety, etc.

Steveaz nails the reason why. "Pimp", "pimping" and so forth has become common vernacular for people of Chelsea's age group. The are shows on TV titled "Pimp my (ride) (house), etc"

If I were Shuster I would immediately claim I was just trying to "keep it real" for the twenty-somethings and connect with the age group who uses such terms, and who Chelsea ostensibly represents.

I would then tell the editor "Damn dawg! Why you got to be hating? Das straight whizzack!" and go back to work.

[Sue]

I agree with the remarks about Shuster and the Clintons, but dang, I just can't get all worked up about him getting his hand slapped.

[Syl]

Scarborough, and even Mika, have been slapping him around pretty good lately on Morning Joe.

Obviously the problem with Shuster is excess partisanship (he hangs out with the netroots who are his fans) which colors all his political 'reporting'.

But I do, in fairness, have to say that when the issue is straight reporting of live situations where politics/spinning is not a factor, at least in the early going, he can be quite good.

When the attempted car bombings happened in London and Glasgow, I channel-hopped to catch all the reports coming in. Shuster did the best job of anyone on any network, collating the information and separating what was confirmed from rumors. I imagine work like that is what got him where he's at--before his mind got polluted by politics and he lost his objectivity.

[Syl]

BTW, I caught Huck's speech at CPAC on MSNBC. Alex said that even if you didn't agree with his politics, his speech was impressive.

And it was. Huck talks about families and small businesses and the working guy and everyone these days calls it populism. But when Reagan talked about the same things he was admired for it. Go figure.

Alex had McCain's campaign mgr on after to discuss Huck's speech (forgot his name) and he brought up an interesting point that I haven't heard anyone mention...

He said that Huckabee had said earlier that staying in the race and continuing with the primaries, even though McCain is the presumptive nominee, will keep the Republicans in the news cycles instead of ceding all that territory to the Democrats.

And he (and McCain) are just fine with that.

Sounds good to me. (someone should mention this to Krauthammer.)

[centralcal]

At MSNBC they are just "performance artists." Question is who is writing the script? The script writers who bash Bush, the right, etc. all seem to be on the same bias page. Unfortunately, the lefty script writers seem to be torn. So we have drooling apologies from Matthews, from Schuster, et al.

How long before Olbermann gets a turn at drooling before the cameras?

GE must be so proud of their investment!

[clarice]

Off topic--R.I.P. Charlie Fawcett
What a Guy!

[MayBee]

Yes, I do think Shuster has a point with his own defense, but he is a hack in general. The problem after seeing his reports on the Plame case is that, like Olbermann, I just never know when their reports are accurate anymore.

Again, though, the point he was making about Clinton was actually being discussed on The View (I saw a clip while I was working out) before he made his gaffe. Each of the hosts of the show got a call from Chelsea and they were discussing the calls on the show. Apparently, many people including Arianna Huffington got all bent out of shape because when they spoke what Chelsea had said, they used this tiny soft voice. "Disrespectful!" The critics said. "You are mocking The Chelsea!"
It is odd how protected she is supposed to be, given that she is an adult that has chosen to be active in their campaign.

[kim]

Let's bring back a fine old underused word: tout.
==============================

[anduril]

OT OT OT OT

Belmont has an excellent, understated response to Rowan Williams' suggestion that Sharia law should be accommodated in England. Williams is a man who claims to be a socially conscious Christian, but seems to have no regard for the "little ones," the "wretched of the earth":

Probably the single most devastating critique of Rowan William's advocacy of Sharia law in Britain comes from a Muslim woman writing in the Independent.

Look around the Islamic world where sharia rules and, in every single country, these ordinances reduce our human value to less than half that is accorded a male; homosexuals are imprisoned or killed, children have no free voice or autonomy, authoritarianism rules and infantilises populations.

What's more, different Muslim nations claim to have their own allegedly god-given sharia. ... There is no agreed body of sharia, it is all drafted by males and the most cruel is now claiming absolute authority. In Pakistan, on the statutes are strictures on adultery introduced by the military dictator Zia ul-Haq. Women activists in that country have given their lives protesting against the injustice of those laws where women suspected of adultery, or rape victims, are punished in hideous ways and the man goes free. The Iranian theocracy changes its regulations from year to year, capriciously playing with the lives of females. ..

Two Iranian friends chose to die rather than live under the demeaning religious orders. Go to Afghanistan if you fancy a 12-year-old bride – a practice approved by the mullahs. That's sharia for you. Many women, gay men and dissidents came to Britain to escape Islamic tyrants and their laws. Dr Williams supports those laws and, by default, makes the refugees victims again.

Four years ago, a Saudi woman in her fifties came to my home. She was divorced from a Saudi prince who had sent her away and kept her children. What she said about sharia cannot be repeated. She had money, this princess, but no parental rights and she howled like a child in excruciating pain in my living room.

Yet, family disputes, says Dr Williams, would be easier, within sharia. For whom exactly? The polygamous men who live in this country, yes, certainly. Not for their wives who will be told that God intends them to lower their eyes and accept unjust verdicts.

It goes on and on. But what's clear from the public reaction and the commentary by many British Muslims themselves is that Rowan Williams had no idea what he was talking about and is in shock over the reaction his remarks have received. But I think it is nearer the truth to say Rowan Williams did have an idea of sharia -- except that that it was of the hand-clapping, colorfully costumed, group-smiling sort that bore as much relationship to the real thing as a Disney cartoon tiger does to a man-eater in the Terai. One commenter at a British blog said that Rowan Williams reminded him of one of those well-meaning "mad souls who frighten children" and are best sent to run along with a pound coin for a cup of tea.

The really scary thing about Rowan Williams is not that he is deviant but actually representative of a certain type of soft-left individual who believes in Global Warming, organic food, and the "inevitability" of certain kinds of social engineering. How much better informed are the supporters of certain US Presidential candidates than Rowan Williams, for example? And its better than even odds that despite the intellectual bankruptcy of Williams ideas that these will presently become the conventional wisdom.

Ignorance is a form of entropy. And the West is running out of energy. Rowan Williams may have run out of energy sooner than the rest. He sees the future and it is now.

[kim]

I like 'flog'.
======

[kim]

Just as feminists tossed women over the gunnels about Clinton, so has the left tossed them about Sharia.

The dissonance is enough to drive one to BDS. The only cure is Obamism, God help us all.
=================

[capitano]

What a guy indeed! I knew of Fawcett from George Crile's book -- Charlie Wilson's War -- but not his full bio. Wow! Hedy Lamar's lover? (Not Hedley.)

As for Schuster's comment, don't hate the messenger. It was in keeping with the times, as Patterico pointed out a few days ago with this link.

[MayBee]

How about "Hawking", Kim? No Hawking, Chelsea.

[Porchlight]

Shuster is an ass, but he's right about Chelsea. Bill got put back in the prop room after SC, and Off Limits Chelsea is now being trotted out, partly to remind Hillary's older female base of why they think Hillary stuck with Bill all these years. (Thoughts they might not have while seeing the transgressor himself out on the stump.)

centralcal, I believe GE has wanted to dump NBC for years. The problem is finding a buyer.

[clarice]

Hedy Lamar was something herself. Did you know she was quite a mathematician and invented a code breaker which she patented and was used in WWII.

[capitano]

Clarice - yes, but only because my wife is a film history buff. And you left out the most important part -- she was a knockout.

[Jane]

Glenn linked to Extreme Mortiman's post regarding Shuster, which talks about Olberman using "pimp" but talking about Petraeus so it was okay. More interesting to me was reliapundit's comment following the post, because he nails the democrats perfectly.

(link under my name)

[Marty Davis]

Twelve years ago two upstart cable TV networks manifested in the cosmic etherland. Fox News and MSNBC joining "serious news" CNN. What has happened since is nothing short of a journalistic breakdown.

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.

[clarice]

All you have to do is change channels, Marty. I agree much of the coverage is uncivil..MSNBC is however the worst by a long shot. OTOH, spare us the govt mandated fairness pablum.

Hannity & COlmes warring talking points shows may make your teeth itch but no one makes you watch it, and it's less coarse than public executions.

[Rick Ballard]

It's time to destroy the MSM - starting with the NYT, which still has the Pulitzer earned by the "lies in defense of a greater truth" told by Walter Duranty hanging on the wall.

Let us embrace their destruction in order to restore the "civil" in civilization because none have done more to destroy it and make slaves of us all.

I have absolutely no desire to return to those halcyon days when "civil discourse" was actively promoting the enslavement of the entire human race nor do I believe for a milisecond that your suggestion is driven by any more than a desire to crush dissent.

Sorry, you're knocking on the wrong door.

[Sue]

New ground rules must be enacted to set clear boundaries governing appropriate and inappropriate on-air behavior, opinion and analysis.

You mean like enacting our own HRC like Canada and Europe? Who would you like to see in charge of the thought police?

[hit and run]

Syl:
Scarborough, and even Mika, have been slapping him around pretty good lately on Morning Joe.

Really? I mean, Joe "You think she [Jeri Thompson] works the pole?" Scarborough is slapping Schuster for using "pimpedout"?

[centralcal]

Jane: I agree, reliapundit has them nailed!

Clarice: your comments to Marty are right on too. Change the channel Marty, or don't watch any of them. Express your personal choices with your clicker, but not with government or institutional mandates on "fairness."

Free markets will decide. One has only to look at the decline in media circulation and viewers to see that. Either they self correct or they self destruct.

[Other Tom]

Well, if fate decrees that someone must be treated unfairly, by all means let it be David Shuster.

As the priceless Ann might say, if I expend any sympathey for Shuster I won't have enough left for my puppy. (I hope that, over time, readers will forget that Ann came up with that one, so I can gradually begin to claim it as my own.)

[Other Tom]

sympathy...

[hit and run]

I thoroughly enjoyed Jonah Goldberg’s article yesterday, comparing the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

I agree with everything in his article, except, I do have one small quibble. The article ended:

On the Democratic side, if you strip away the crass appeals to identity politics, the emotional pandering and the helium-infused rhetoric, you’re pretty much left with a campaign about nothing.

I think "campaign about nothing" misses the mark.

I say the campaign breaks down into:

The Naked Pursuit of Power by Any Means Necessary

--VS--

The Emperor-Has-No-Clothes Pursuit of Transformative Change for the Sake of Changing the Transformational Pursuit by Means of Pursuing the Change That Transforms Us

Therefore, to paraphrase Jonah's last sentence, I would conclude:

"On the Democratic side, if you strip away [everything else], you're pretty much left with a campaign about…" nudity.

[Syl]

Hit

Scarborough is turning into a first class a**hole though he belives himself to be ironic, sarcastic, and clever. blech

I was pointing out, though, that both Joe and Mika have been in the habit of shutting Shuster up lately. There is no love lost between Joe and David and it shows. Mika just wants everyone to be nice. Sigh.

[clarice]

It'll take a great deal more pilates classes before I'm about to hop aboard a campaign based on nudity,Hit. You'll have to ride out on that float alone. (Well. maybe Jane will join you, bit I won't.)

[clarice]

**bUt I won't***

[Jane]

Not a bloody chance. Mud-wrestling is as far as I go.

[hit and run]

And you think the mud wrestling is with clothes on?

How quaint.

[anduril]

Gabe Schoenfeld plugs his latest article (linked in the blog), asking (in re Risen, James) whether there is A CIA Cover Up?

I can't quite put the title of the blog together with its content--maybe the article explains.

[MayBee]

I'm just waiting for Elizabeth Edwards to do as she did with Lynn Cheney, and say that Hillary is upset because she obviously doesn't love her daughter for who she is.

[Cecil Turner]

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

Fine, why not have the Clintons start? We can have Bill apologize to everyone he's ever harassed (okay, narrow it down to the sexual ones . . . we don't have all day here), and Hillary can stop pretending she was too busy digging through political opponents' FBI background checks to notice her husband's philandering . . . and apologize to those she slandered for pointing out the emperor's scanty wardrobe. Okay, that thought experiment didn't take very long. The idea that the Clintons were ever mistreated by the media is so much risible nonsense. And the fact that the MSM continues to fawn over them (and their perceived slights) is a better indicator of the decline of journalism than anything nasty one might say about them (most of which usually turns out to be true, anyway).

Speaking of which, it's way funny to watch Shuster get away with months of pernicious lies . . . and then get tripped up by telling the truth about Hillary!™ using her daughter to wheedle superdelegates. And I suppose the nutroot response will be an attempt to rein-in right wing media (maybe because their hate created the atmosphere that made it possible for Chelsea to be savaged by her mother's putative media allies, or some such). Whatever. Pass the popcorn.

[clarice]

The article in the Weekly Standard indicates he thinks Risen printed state secrets--particularly codebreaking and communications secrets and imperiled national security--not that this is revenge by the CIA because he embarrassed the agency.
Risen

[Topsecretk9]

Gabe Schoenfeld plugs his latest article (linked in the blog), asking (in re Risen, James) whether there is A CIA Cover Up?

the chapter in question is about Operation Merlin:

PLAME: Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons.

COURIC: When senior administration officials leaked her name to reporters, they may have exposed other spies and damaged operations targeting Iran. CBS News has learned that she was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen.

COURIC: Are you familiar with that?

PLAME: I don’t think I can tell you.

COURIC: He said the idea was to give the Iranians blueprints for the bomb that were seriously flawed to set them back. Does that sound like something the counter-proliferation division would do?

PLAME: I think I can say it sounds like a good idea.

COURIC: Were you surprised to read about Operation Merlin in the press?

PLAME: Indeed.

COURIC: Is that problematic for the CIA?

PLAME: Leaks are always bad news.

COURIC: She should know, revealing for the first time that the leak of her name had serious repercussions.

PLAME: I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases to see did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?

COURIC: And what would be the ramifications of that?

PLAME: Well, it was very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on.

Never did find out the actual source(s) Judy Miller went to jail to protect.

[Jane]

H&R -

Now that's just silly. Have you already started drinking?

[Syl]

Cecil

While I agree the media has been kind to the Clintons (and then some) over the years, in this election cycle they have switched their allegiance to Obama. I think it was Kurtz quoting some stuff that said Obama got 80% favorable coverage vs clinton's barely 50%.

[hit and run]

Huckabee explains his economic philosophy at CPAC:

"I didn't major in math," the former Arkansas governor told a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting. "I majored in miracles."

Oh wait. Sorry. That's his campaign strategy for staying in the race.

[Cecil Turner]

the chapter in question is about Operation Merlin:

Dare we hope Risen will be forced to admit Plame was one of his best sources, unravelling the VIPSter connection? I'd also note the venue is Alexandria, which suggests the government is serious.

The Justice Department openly uses the eastern district, called the rocket docket, to get an advantage. The court is viewed as deeply conservative and extremely pro-government.

[hit and run]

Jane:
Now that's just silly. Have you already started drinking?

Oh gosh - talk about silly. "Started"? Why in the world would you assume that I have stopped?

[Cecil Turner]

. . . in this election cycle they have switched their allegiance to Obama.

Shuster's firing over this nonsense suggests the Clintons retain substantial clout in the media biz. (Though I'll accept your point about Obama-fandom as well.)

[hit and run]

Syl:
in this election cycle they have switched their allegiance to Obama

Six threads ago Tom made a predicted an Obama backlash.

Though without the requisite 70% probability to make it a true Bold Predictionâ„¢.