OK, A Retraction From Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow spends two minutes retracting her misstatement from Monday about retired Congressman Steve Stockam and his notice of the Oklahoma City bombing.

I've sat through it (and the 30 second commercial!) so you don't have to.  I rarely watch Ms. Maddow but I always marvel that a big-time television host can hold a gig with a face locked in a permanent sneer.  Still, no one can accuse her of talking out of both sides of her mouth.  And her target audience is lefties, so I guess it works for them.

Comments

[BVHPA]

Mad cows are funny when they spook at you.
================

[Thomas Collins]

Maddow should be fired immediately. This is journalistic thuggery at its worth.

No doubt Maddow, who if not a liar at best is guilty of reckless disregard of the truth,
will keep her job while Juan Williams, who in a statement about tolerance articulated a fear shared by a substantial number of airline passengers, loses his job.

[glasater]

I've never watched Maddow on TV but did watch this interview with Art Robinson--an R candidate opposing DeFazio in Oregon’s 4th district--with a bunch of interest.
Robinson probably doesn't have a chinaman's chance but he sure gave Maddow the quickstep around the dance floor.
Maddow did have to get in the last word/nasty shot.
What a disgusting person.

[Frau Ernst]

Which black "leader" was it who confessed a breath of relief to see it was a white person behind him at night on a quiet street?
It is quite possible that NPR threw Williams under its short bus in order to throw mud on Fox.

[lyle]

Who is Rachel Maddow and why should anyone care?

[Thomas Collins]

I just listened to Maddow's statement. She attributed her misstatement to an editing error. I think the fact that Maddow appears on the air at all is one big editing error.

[Frau Ernst]

Forgive me, Mr. Maguire, for not reading your earlier post which answered my question. Rev. Jackson was honest and so was Juan Williams. Now it's offensive for UK Muslims to *smell* bacon. What's next?

[MarkO]

I'm with lyle.

[anon]

She smells a slander suit. A winning one.

[Rick Ballard]

A very good Geraghty piece on the Cornered 'Rat Defense. His piece directly below the one cited illustrates the failure of the defense as used by the Boxer campaign.

I hope Maddow and Olberman stay on the air in front of ever dwindling audiences, just to provide the proper "faces" to associate with proglodytes.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I strongly encourage Stockham to bring it. I don't care if he is a public figure, this clearly was malicious intent.

BTW a friend of mine, who is a Judge told me last year she thinks the most accurate person on TV for political matters is Rachel Maddow.

WE haven't talked since.

[Rob Crawford]

Which black "leader" was it who confessed a breath of relief to see it was a white person behind him at night on a quiet street?

Jesse Jackson.

[Old Lurker]

I'm with Lyle too.

[Dave (in MA)]

Wax on, wax off.

[Dave (in MA)]

Frau, In a million years I'm never going to understand how it could be offensive to smell bacon.

Mmmmmm, bacon.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Dave, I talked about your Deval Patrick report on the radio today. Do you feel famous?

[Dave (in MA)]

I hope not.

[Jack is Back!]

Does MSNBC really believe they have a winner in their programming that features Olberman, Madcow, Shultz and Ratigan plus the spittle-fueled cheerboy Mathews? Aren't they interested in audience numbers which promote additional advertising and price of said ads? What kind of business model is this? No wonder even Microsoft wants nothing to do with them anymore - perhaps that is where Stockman can go to retrieve his reputation - the Gates Foundation. Aren't they all about funding improvements in education? They can start with educating Maddow, Gwen Ifil and the Widner Law School.

[Rick Ballard]

OL,

Maybe we could hold a "Whose concession speech will you be happiest to see?" contest? Perhaps we should do it on a state by state basis, given the multitude of choices. I can narrow it to three in Florida - Grayson, Klein and Crist but I'm having difficulty in narrowing it further. Massachusetts presents a similar problem for me between Patrick and Frank, although Frank has the edge. California, Washington and Wisconsin are much easier.

[caro]

I would think that Brits would rise up over this Bacon story.

Bacon Butties, Mmmmm Mmmmmm. LUN

[lyle]

"Maybe we could hold a "Whose concession speech will you be happiest to see?" contest?"

Oh, dear. Too many to choose. No, wait...Obama's. Am I getting too far ahead of myself?

[hit and run]

TM:
I've sat through it (and the 30 second commercial!) so you don't have two.

Heck,I don't even one,much less two.

[That's not what I hear. TM (And the "two" braino is fixed - SpellCheck is still not GrammoCheck)]

[Dave (in MA)]

A Deval concession speech would probably be a gracious bow-out on his way to either a cushy slot in the Obama admin. arranged by their common handlers, or a return to the private sector where he's made his fortune. Frank's, on the other hand, would almost certainly be a spittled rant about the stupidity of the electorate and would be highly entertaining. I'm more hopeful about our chances of unseating Deval than I am about getting rid of Barney, though.

[Porchlight]

That's a tough one, Rick, if we can only choose one speech per state.

I think Frank would have to be close to the top of my list.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I'm more hopeful about Barney. I think he is done.

[Threadkiller]

A concession speech from Karl Rove would please me most.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://disney.go.com/pooh/images/meet/eeyore/ph_bi_eeyore_thumb.gif>
Jane, I live a lot closer to Barney's constituency than you do. I don't think these people are going to flip to Bielat. If Barney loses, it's going to be because enough Hopenchangers stayed home 11/2. I hope you're right.

[Danube of Thought]

Since TM didn't do so (and I'd rather not watch the two minutes of Maddow), would somebody be willing to summarize whatever it was she was retracting?

[centralcal]

Here you go DoT: From Inside Cable News:

On Monday night, Rachel Maddow apparently made the following rather shocking claim:

MADDOW: Yes, this has happened to a smaller degree before. In 1994, in the first mid-term election after the last Democratic president was elected, we got a slate of candidates that included Helen Chenoweth of Idaho and Steve Stockman of Texas. These two were so close to the militia movement in this country that Mr. Stockman actually received advance notice that the Oklahoma City bombing was going to happen.

As Mr. Coleman amply demonstrates, this pabulum has debunked on the public record for 15 years:

Telephone toll records indicate that the fax was sent about 10:50 a.m. EDT, about 50 minutes after the bombing, a federal official said.

It’s pretty reckless to make such a claim on national television when a few minutes with Google would prove it false.

[Clarice]

She accused Stockman of having advance notice of the Okl city bombing.

THEY'RE BACK!!!!:

"n an interview with CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room, while promoting their new movie about their ordeal, "Fair Game," Wilson called Vice President Dick Cheney a "traitor" and claimed Cheney "betrayed the national security of our country" for being involved in leaking Plame's covert identity.
Wilson insists Cheney was involved in the disclosure, although the only person who has admitted to breaking Plame's cover is Richard Armitage, the former Deputy Secretary of State who said he leaked her name inadvertently to journalist Robert Novak"

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/20/wilson-blasts-cheney-as-traitor/

[maryrose]

I want to see Babs Boxer concede in California even if I have to stay up all night to see it live.Please call me Ex-senator.

[not_bubarooni]

Good luck Clarice...

I tried to start something the other day but hardly anyone would bite...

[Danube of Thought]

Thanks, CCal and Clarice.

[centralcal]

Me, too, maryrose!!!

Babs
Dingy Harry
Bahney Fwank
and the disgusting guys in Florida

[bunky]

Clarice: W could have ended the whole thing years ago. Too bad.

[Sue]

IMO, CAIR is doing more to harm Muslims than help them. Whenever I hear CAIR is involved, I automatically assume it is a shakedown.

[Captain Hate]

Rick, I want the bearded Marxist's concession speech most; although I'm tempted to agree with TK.

[maryrose]

CAIR is an absolute shakedown based on the model of Jesse Jackson 's scam Rainbow Coalition

[Danube of Thought]

Just surfing around, thus far vie seen two withering questions being raised about NPR.

Why is Nina Totenberg still working there after expressingbthe wish that Jesse Helms would get AIDS?

Why is Bill Moyers still there after comparing the GOP to the Taliban?

My hunch is they are going to regret this one in spades.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Jane, I live a lot closer to Barney's constituency than you do. I don't think these people are going to flip to Bielat. If Barney loses, it's going to be because enough Hopenchangers stayed home 11/2.

I lived in his district for 16 years and I think you are right. I spoke to a friend of mine there recently. He's a business owner, very successful and very smart. He assured me he was voting for Barney.

But I am practicing wishful thinking.

[Danube of Thought]

*i've*

[Clarice]

DoT, truer words were never spoken.

[Old Lurker]

Rick, talk about a Target Rich Environment.

[Old Lurker]

Wrong year to vote for my gal Lindsey?

[Captain Hate]

Was this the October Surprise that the NPR idiots are always fixated on?

[Captain Hate]

DoT are you sending copy to Tammy Bruce? She just talked about those two items in reverse order.

[narciso]

Four years, early, OL, Politico is back to their old tricks, btw, with stories right out of the 'wardrobe' cabinet, totally out of whle cloth, which Levin and the SRLC has responded back,

[Rick Ballard]

OL,

You'll have to wait 'til the '14 primary to hear Lindsey announce his intention to pursue other interests (unless BOzo offers him a cabinet post). Snowe and Lugar will have the opportunity in '12.

[RichatUF]

Juan Williams fired? Wha...seems just the other day Beck was laying out all the funding Soros and his money laundering groups were passing out to NPR. Seems that the ProPublica model is going national.

I think it was linked above but some are unhappy with Hurricane Sarah? Interesting criticism 2 weeks before the campaign.

[narciso]

That's what I was referring to, Rich, anonymous sources, which seem quite ill informed, but that's a 'bug not a feature'

[Danube of Thought]

No, CH. Articles about both are posted on Lucianne.com.

[RichatUF]

Here's one of the partners in the making of Fair Game: Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ? and Participant Media. Curious.
________

Soros has been ladling money to media groups, to puff up their "investigative arms", and donated $100 million to HRW? Humm wonder what he's got up his sleeve.

[Rob Crawford]

He's buying himself some "war crimes" tribunals, Rich.

[sbw]

Jane -- He's a business owner, very successful and very smart.

Voting Barney? If he can't see the rot, he isn't looking. If he can see the rot and doesn't care, then he isn't smart.

[Rick Ballard]

Pew Generic - +10R

The crazed and cornered rat tactics might save some seats in a +3R environment but the Dem "firewall" appears to have been constructed of cheap 1/4" plywood veneer over balsa wood studs.

[Jack is Back!]

I agree with Rob Crawford on this.

He can't spend enough to keep the Dems in control and he knows that Issa is panting and slobbering at holding hearings and issuing subpoenas. So, how about a little private NGO type war crimes investigation channeling NPR, The Guardian, MSNBC, The NYT and other apologists and propagandists.

[Melinda Romanoff]

JiB-

Battlespace preparation.

[Jack is Back!]

So Nina Tottenberg can ask for Jesse Helms to die of AIDS but Juan Williams is fired because he has some trepidation flying with Muslim men on the same flight? I knew if we elected John McCain this kind of shit would happen.

/pledge week snark

[RichatUF]

Rob and JiB-

He seems a lot angrier over Iraq than just someone who disagreed with the policy. Very strange.

narciso-

I'm stumped as to why the "real" Republicans would be leaking to the media more Pricess Sarah stories. I suppose some are getting started early to make sure she doesn't have a seat at the table when 2012 rolls along. Anyway.

Rick-

+10 at Pew? Pew even gave the write up the number 666. Really.

[Dave (in MA)]

"A Retraction From Rachel Maddow"

re·tract verb \ri-ˈtrakt\
transitive verb
1: to draw back or in

Come to think of it, that would probably be my reaction, too.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://www.eric-goldscheider.com/maddow.html>Subaru?. Oh, come on.

[Dave (in MA)]

"Yard boy". LOL

[maryrose]

Juan Williams will be on OReilly tonight. He really looks shaken up and shocked over this disgraceful behavior on the part of NPR. Some gal fired him over the phone and said she was sorry it had to happen during pledge week and
that nothing he could say would change her mind.

[centralcal]

I posted this on the other thread too - From the LA Time:

Reporting from Washington — As National Public Radio weathered a storm of criticism Thursday for its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams for his comments about Muslims, Fox News moved aggressively to turn the controversy to its advantage by signing Williams to an expanded role at the cable news network.

Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning, in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary, the Tribune Washington Bureau has learned. The Fox News contributor will now appear exclusively and more frequently on the cable news network and have a regular column on FoxNews.com.

"Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

[maryrose]

Thank you centracal and kudos to Roger Ailes= that shows real class.
I also want to see Leeza Meirkowshi's speech [concession of course on election night. I'm betting she doesn't show up at all if she loses.

[Rob Crawford]

He seems a lot angrier over Iraq than just someone who disagreed with the policy. Very strange.

Be kinda interesting to know how much he was getting from Oil for Food, or whether he was in line for a sweet-heart deal if sanctions were lifted. Signs of the latter would be him funding some of the anti-sanction propaganda.

(Or maybe it's just that, like Soros, the Baathist party has its roots in Naziism.)

[narciso]

He was also again involvement in Afghanistan from the beginning, and one can't forget that
his fiddling with the baht and the reminbi around 1997, was what opened up a vacuum in South East Asia and Gemaa and Abu Sayyaf chose
to fill

[Danube of Thought]

Taranto excerpted this imaginary dialogue between the Dems and America from a WaPo piece by an obviously frustrated Greg Sargent:

Americans: "So, the economy is pretty bad and there's high employment. You think you can do something about that?"

Democrats and Obama: "We can spend a trillion dollars we don't have on pork and stuff."

Americans: "No . . . that's not what we want. We'd really like you not to do that."

Democrats: "You're stupid. We're doing it anyway."

Americans: "That's not going to help us get jobs!"

Democrats: "Sure it will; millions of them … though they may be invisible. You'll have to trust us they exist. And guess what else we'll do: We'll create a giant new government program to take over health care."

Americans: "That has nothing to do with jobs!"

Democrats: "We don't care about that anymore. We really want a giant new health care program. We're sure you'll love it."

Americans: "Don't pass that bill. You hear me? Absolutely do not pass that bill."

Democrats: "Believe me; you'll love it. It has … well, I don't know what exactly is in the bill, but we're sure it's great."

Americans: "Listen to me: DO. NOT. PASS. THAT. BILL."

Democrats: "You're not the boss of me! We're doing it anyway!"

[Clarice]

DoT, I regard Taranto my daily fix. He's so bright.

Here's good news from Geraghty at NRO:

"Here is what pollster the Tarrance Group is telling the Carly Fiorina campaign:

The race for the US Senate in California is an actual dead heat, with both Fiorina and Boxer standing right at forty-four percent (44%) of the vote. Six percent (6%) of voters are voting for one of the other candidates, and 5% are undecided . . .

It is also important to note that Boxer’s negatives are fully institutionalized to the point where she has never once broken the 45% level in terms of her ballot strength, and there are a “hard” fifty-three percent (53%) of voters who believe it is time for a new person.

Conclusions

The final eleven days of the campaign are entirely about weight of message. The trajectory of the last two weeks of tracking clearly shows that the Fiorina campaign has been pitch perfect in terms of message, and have a message arc that can and will close the deal. The Boxer campaign has also shown that they are now past the end of their message arc and do not have a playbook for what to do thematically in the last eleven days. "

[Porchlight]

she was sorry it had to happen during pledge week

WTF? LOL, these people are beyond parody.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

DoT, that is exactly what our federal government has been like for decades.
Americans: Please secure our borders & enforce out immigration laws
Government: No..okay we will..no..okay we will build a fence...um...no.
Americans: Please let us produce energy.
Government: No..maybe...em,err,No..okay only windmills..
Kennedy: NO
Government: No

It is sickening.

[Rick Ballard]

"do not have a playbook for what to do thematically in the last eleven days."

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Beep beep.

ACME Political Strategy Group

Arley K. Evor
President

[bgates]

from a WaPo piece

Not so - that was by the redoubtable Frank J Fleming at Pajamas Media.

[Danube of Thought]

The Juan Williams gift just keeps on giving. Stay classy, NPR.

[Melinda Romanoff]

DoT-

Taranto clipped that piece that Greg Sargent rather obviously stole from FrankJ.

They didn't even give PajamasMedia any credit.

[narciso]

Not surprisingly, Martin, was all wet, in the LUN

[Melinda Romanoff]

bgates-

sorry 'bout that.

FrankJ gives Iowahawk a serious run for his money.

[Frau Ernst]

NPR is Soros's new piece on the side, I guess. This attack on an honest - and Christian- reporter exposes the left's hatred of *Fox* and any turncoat who appears there. Mara Liasson is also criticized often for appearing on Fox. Look for her lips to be sealed from now on, or for her glancing down to her prepared NPR comments.

You cannot top the carp of NPR's Dana Davis Rehm's handling of this, either. I hope she gets what she is looking for.

"While I am saddened that Mr. Williams has lost his job with NPR, this episode serves as a reminder that we should be looking for similarities among religions and cultures rather than differences," Imam Feisal Rauf said."
I see an opening at NPR for Rauf.

[boris]

When Juan expressed hypothetical nervousness over muslim garb on a plane ... NPR fired him.

Even after Juan expressed actual nervousness over some tea party rhetoric ... FOX promotes him.

(IMO tea party does more to exclude extremism than muslims do)

Lesson: FOX = fair and balanced, NPR not so much. Suck it up FOX haters.

[Danube of Thought]

Actually Taranto did creditbFleming. He had excerpted Sargent immediately before.

[MarkO]

Nothing will happen to NPR. No regrets. Mara's spot just became much safer, however. Beck looks omniscient, if charmingly nerdy. There are many terrorists. They can come from many states, countries and profess many religions. The difference, which I don’t hear being made, is that the Muhammadan terrorist are not merely adherents of Islam, they KILL in the NAME of the religion. That is a salient fact.

[Extraneus]

That is a salient fact.

It sure is.

[Danube of Thought]

Another difference is that the Mohammedan terrorist far outnumber all other kinds combined, and have launched more attacks and slaughtered more innocents than those others as well.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

Both Pew and the latest AP note that BOzo is losing the female Muddle. I wonder how much of the loss is due to the economy and how much is due to watching Mr. Bi-partisan conducting his own cornered rat campaign.

It may be that the cornered rat campaign is going to backfire big time, compounding rather than diminishing the losses.

[Captain Hate]

she was sorry it had to happen during pledge week

Hopefully she'll end up really meaning that because, according to somebody at AoS, the NPR website has been getting hammered with comments all day and the vast majority are negative with many claiming to be from current donors who vow to not re-up. Granted, some of that might be disinformational garbage but, going on the historical patterns of charity between conservatives and libs, they might be taking some serious pipe on this.

[Jane]

I'm still mad at Juan for his "tea parties are racist" BS. I wouldn't give him a $2m contract for that.

[Captain Hate]

It is pretty funny, Jane, that we're having a pity party for Juan when the chances that it would be reciprocated are about nil. Although I think that's why we're the good guys.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

"I'm still mad at Juan for his "tea parties are racist" BS. I wouldn't give him a $2m contract for that."

Crap - Much of Fox News primetime is barely watchable as it is. All Beckel and Juan Williams do all day is stand in front of a mirror and practice spewing out lib talking points and lies so they can cram as many into whatever segment they happen to get.

[centralcal]

Not a great big fan of Juan, either, but I do think that NPR may feel repercussions beyond just the right. Per Politico:

Not all the NPR-bashing is coming from the right.

Michael Meyers, the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, a liberal civil rights group in New York City, blasted NPR executives for firing Williams, saying he was “shocked, deeply saddened and appalled” by NPR CEO Vivian Schiller’s comments that Williams views should have been kept between himself and “his psychiatrist.”

Politico prints excerpts of Mr. Meyer's letter and he really lays into NPR.

[Melinda Romanoff]

DoT-

"Never mind." - Emily Letilla

I think I got that one right.

[narciso]

Meyers is another standup guy, one of the few that don't demagogue, but stand on principle

[Extraneus]

Ace: The Point to Take Away From L'Affaire Williams

Matt Welch:

Williams’ firing is a clarifying moment in media mores. You can be Islamophobic, in the form of refusing to run the most innocuous imaginable political cartoons out of a broad-brush fear of Muslims, but you can’t admit it, even when the fear is expressed as a personal feeling and not a group description, winnowed down to the very specific and nightmare-exhuming act of riding on an airplane, and uttered in a context of otherwise repudiating collective guilt and overbroad fearmongering.

Right. We can twist and contort ourselves in fear of Muslims, but we can never admit the reason we are twisting and contorting ourselves -- and repudiating our highest principles -- is out of fear of Muslims. That might make them feel bad about scaring the shit out of us.

[Danube of Thought]

My hope--and it is passionately held--is that in the coming days the loathesome Nina Totenberg will be sliced, diced and examined in minute detail in a very public manner. I've been waiting for that shrew to get hers since the Bork hearings.

Every sanctimonious word that Schiller woman said about NPR's "standards" can be belied over and over again by Totenberg utterances. And while Juan is an analyst, she is billed as a correspondent.

[MarkO]

To abuse the band "America," she's one poor correspondent.

[Jane]

Fox has not let up on the story since the News hour. They plan to bring NPR down and I'm down with that.

[narciso]

Yglesias shows the same promise he had at Dalton and Harvard, in this pawning, in the LUN

[Clarice]

Heck, even Whoopi said the firing was wrong--and this is PLEDGE WEEK,for heaven's sake,though, as Rush notes when aren't they begging for money?

[Captain Hate]

They plan to bring NPR down and I'm down with that.

Dear God, where will all those people with severe speaking tics and lateral lisps (make that "lishpsh") ever find gainful employment? A world without "Morning Sedition" sounds absolutely heavenly.

[narciso]

Meanwhile one of the stringpullers in this saga, gets their just desertss

[narciso]

And this is how Ms. Schiller came to public attention, in the LUN