Right wing blogger Caleb Howe pretty much nails it with his commentary:
It’s funny because - wait for it - frank racism is okay when you’re Progressives, especially, black Progressives!
A Romney son lives up to his principles and adopts a child in desperate need of a loving, stable family. Why do I say “desperate”? Because more black children are put up for adoption care and into foster care than children of other ethnic groups. Because these black children have the hardest time finding adoptive families. Many white Americans would rather go anywhere else than adopt a black child, especially a black boy. Not this Romney fellow. He does the right thing. For this you laugh at him.
A Romney son manages to put the racist element of Mormon theology - now repudiated, but essential to the church for decades - behind him. For this, he gets no credit, just ridicule.
Now, if we dig a little deeper, MHP, we can’t help but confront some ugly facts. Facts which I’m sure you, an expert on The State of the Race, are intimately familiar with. To wit, three quarters of black American children are born into single mother households. Among black Americans, rates of child abuse and neglect, and rates of child poverty, are higher than other ethnic groups - with the exception of Native Americans on some indicators. Abortion rates are also quite high among black Americans. Let’s face it, the Romney kid is getting something that most black kids don’t - two loving parents in a stable, resource rich environment.
Not to mention the obvious fact that you’ve got more than a few white folks in your family tree. Were they mismatched? Are you? After all, nobody would confuse you and Michelle Obama for sisters. Of course, those white folks would never claim you the way the Romneys have claimed their baby boy.
You done fucked up. I don’t want to tell MSNBC their business, but if they fired you, they wouldn’t be wrong.
Didn’t see it, don’t watch that network. But based on what little I have read about it, they were completely, irresponsibly out of line and should be severely disciplined for it.
Is that the entirety of the comments made on MSNBC that caused so many people to erupt in anger and fury? “One of these things is not like the other”? Is that all that was said?
ETA: And since I see from your quote and from the article that you linked to that is wasn’t even said by the person that is supposedly being pitted.
I rate this Pitting a 2. I’d give it a 1, but I don’t want to cheapen the 1 rating.
Which “they” do you think should be disciplined and what for? Near as I can tell it was one person who sang a line or 2 from a song. Are you saying the entire cast and crew of the show should be “severely disciplined”?
ETA: What Pia Glenn did was stupid, but the reaction I’m seeing seems way out of proportion to the incident.
I find your outrage strained and your reasoning stretched. I watched the clip and it’s a bunch of people talking about photos and making up “captions” for them. It was harmless (if also witless) banter and no harm was done to anyone. It wasn’t even using a politician’s kid or grandkid as political fodder, since Mitt Romney isn’t a politician anymore.
Why don’t you try describing the racism you see or hear in their comments. I don’t hear it, but it may be that I’m just not sufficiently sensitive to pick up on it. I mean, I didn’t hear anyone talking about “that nigger baby is doomed to a life of crime, because black are naturally more criminal than other races” or something, so I assume that the racism was coded or subtle or something. Please, enlighten me.
Relax everybody, I’m quite sure Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal will come rushing to MHP’s side. Just like they did with Phil Roberts.
Clearly, these two are staunch defenders of freedom of speech. No way in hell will these two let MHP get railroaded like this.
Seriously tho’, I’m with Bo on this. MHP wasn’t the one spouting the offensive remarks. And honestly, I’m not sure how she should have handled the situation. Should she have admonished her guest right there on the show? That would have been WAY awkward.
Also, I’m willing to give MHP a pass considering her track record. She’s done way more to bridge the gaps of inequality than the likes of Rush or Bill O’reilly.
Mellisa isn’t my favorite TV personality. There’s something about her that works my nerves.
Maybe it’s the lisp? I know that’s very petty, but it does distract me a little. Also, she need some bangs or something. I think her forehead must have little moons orbiting it.
She sucks for having picked on the grandkid. She apologized and she sounded sincere. But it was certainly a mean thing to do.
She was showing interesting pictures and allowing her panel to provide humorous captions.
It is true she didn’t say anything bad about the kid. But when Pia started singing, she busted out laughing. Now, she’s a smart lady. She chose that picture for a reason, and it wasn’t just to talk about how gorgous the baby is (he is no more gorgeous than any other baby-looking baby).
It’s not the worse thing in the world, and I don’t agree with Caleb Howe’s assessment (so I guess I don’t endorse the pitting all that much). But she needed to apologize and I’m glad she did.