Rachel sells out

 

 ***Edited to add today’s pre-show music playlist at the bottom of the post. It was dedicated to Rachel Maddow.***

Rachel Maddow has officially jumped the shark. I was hoping she could maintain her integrity in the face of the corporate  Comcast dictates, but apparently money trumps all, even for her.

Last night, I sat through the excoriating hour of Kasich with Shuck Toad. Then the Tweety-Trump hour, which was painful, but at least Tweety made some news  by badgering and interrupting D’ump so much that he actually answered a question. Of course, it accompanied his foot being inserted not just in his mouth, but so far down his throat that it came out of his asshole. 

As fucked up as it was to hear the front runner for the Republican nomination for president say that women should be prosecuted for trying to get an abortion, it was even worse to hear Rachel Maddow misrepresent Bernie Sanders’ reaction to the statement when she relayed it to Hillary Clinton!

Let’s look at how she described what he said, and what he actually said, shall we?

Maddow to Hillary Clinton:  “I spoke with your Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders after this happened and he was critical of Mr. Trump’s remark, but then he also said that this is basically another Donald Trump stupid remark, uh, that the media will cover ad nauseum, um, as opposed to something like his position on um the minimum wage or climate change or taxes that might be more deserving of extended attention. Do you think this was just another Donald Trump stupid comment and that the media might be making too much of this?”

That was the exact quote from Rachel Maddow to Hillary Clinton as she blatantly mis-characterized what Bernie Sanders said to her. Watch for yourself. The quote comes in at the 9:23 mark:

 

Of course, you want to hear what Bernie actually said in response to D’ump’s heinous statement about punishing women who seek abortions. Here’s the actual transcript, with the video following:

MADDOW:  After, uh, the word spread that Donald Trump had made those remarks today about abortion, that a woman needs to be punished, uh, if she seeks an abortion and abortion should be banned, you said today that was shameful.

What is shameful about it?

SANDERS:  Well, I think it is — shameful is probably understating that position.  First of all, to me, and I think to most Americans, women have the right to control their own bodies and they have the right to make those personal decisions themselves.

But to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension.  I — I just — you know, one would say what is in Donald Trump’s mind except we’re tired of saying that?

I don’t know what world this person lives in.  So obviously, from my perspective, and if elected president, I will do everybody that I can to allow women to make that choice and have access to clinics all over this country so that if they choose to have an abortion, they will be able to do so.

The idea of punishing a woman, that is just, you know, beyond comprehension.

**Editor’s note: That, above is how Bernie answered the question. With outrage and disgust. Apparently, it wasn’t the answer Rachel wanted, so she pressed on, leading the witness, if you will…

MADDOW:  And Mr. Trump has made — is making headlines on — on this issue today, obviously, because of what he said.  It’s sort of, you know, taken the media day by storm.

Um, that said, I think there may be a case to be made — and I’d love your — just your response to this, your perspective on this, uh, that his opponent, Senator Ted Cruz, is more extreme on this issue.  And I say that, in part, because one of his national co-chairs on his Pro-Lifers for Cruz coalition, is a man named Troy Newman, who once wrote a book saying that abortion providers should be executed.

Is Ted Cruz even further out on this issue than Donald Trump is?

SANDERS:  Well, you — you know, you’re living in crazy world there.  And that is why, uh, you know, the Republican Party, if they continue in this direction, will be, as I mentioned a moment ago, a fringe party.

Uh, look, they have nothing to say.  All they can appeal is to a small number of people who feel very rabid, very rabid about a particular issue, whether it’s abortion or maybe whether it’s gay marriage.  That is their constituency.  They have nothing of substance.

You know, you mentioned a moment ago, Rachel, that the media is paying attention to Donald Trump.

Duh?

No kidding.  Once again, every stupid remark will be broadcast, you know, for the next five days.

But what is Donald Trump’s position on raising the minimum wage?

Well, he doesn’t think so.

What is Donald Trump’s position on wages in America?

Well, he said in a Republican debate he thinks wages are too high.

What’s Donald Trump’s position on taxes?

Well, he wants to give billionaire families like himself hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks.

What is Donald Trump’s position on climate change?

Oh, he thinks it’s a hoax perpetrated, shock of all shock, by the Chinese.  You know, on and on it goes.

But because media is what media is today, any stupid, absurd remark made by Donald Trump becomes the story of the week.  Maybe, just maybe, we might want to have a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America.  Donald Trump will not look quite so interesting in that context.

MADDOW:  Are you suggesting, though, that the media shouldn’t be focusing on his call to potentially jail women who have abortions?  Because that’s another stupid —

SANDERS:  I am saying that every day he comes up with another stupid remark, absurd remark, of course it should be mentioned.  But so should Trump’s overall positions.  How much talk do we hear about climate change, Rachel?  And Trump?  Any?

MADDOW:  He said that he cares more about nuclear climate change, which is a term that he’s invented.

SANDERS:  Nuclear climate change?

MADDOW:  That’s just what he comes up with when he’s asked on the subject.

SANDERS:  All that I’m saying is that Trump is nobody’s fool.  He knows how to manipulate the media and you say an absurd thing and the media is all over it.  And my concern is that today in America, you’ve got millions of people who are struggling economically.  They want to know how we’re going to expand the middle class.  Overwhelmingly, people think we should raise the minimum wage.  Vast majority of people think climate change is real and a threat to our planet.  They want to do something about that.  What do we do?  Vast majority of the people think the wealthiest people in this country should start paying their fair share of taxes.  But if we don’t discuss those issues, it creates the climate for people like Donald Trump to do much better than he really has a right to do.

So, Bernie did mention this being another “stupid thing” that Trump said (it is), and that the media will hyper-focus on it for the next 5 days (they will), and he said it at the prodding of Maddow herself, who then turned around and characterized his entire reaction to the Trump idiocy as

just another Donald Trump stupid comment .. that the media might be making too much of …

To add insult to injury, the “panel” – Maddow, Tweety, and Steve Kornacki – spent the remainder of the hour that should’ve been filled with Bernie Sanders (if we’re being fair here, which we most definitely are not), doubling down on Maddow’s mis-characterization of what Sanders actually said, and snickering (yes, snickering – watch the video) about his chances at winning.

So now I can lump Rachel Maddow in with the rest of the corporate shill media, who value money over integrity, their power over the truth.

Never fear dear reader/listener. You can find lots of independent media to fill the hours you used to spend with MSNBC MSDNC MSRNC MSBS with many of the offerings listed at TheLiberal.Media. Enjoy and share, liberally.

Today on the show, it was Driftglass Thursday. Stop by the Driftglass blog and congratulation him on his 11 year blog-iversary and check out the Professional Left Podcast too… 

And Howie Klein helped me to explain the real reason why Comcast and the rest of the corporate media doesn’t want Bernie Sanders to win; his goal of getting money out of politics would hurt their windfall profits from the billions spent on political advertising every election cycle! 

Howie mentioned the special “Bernie Congress” Blue America fundraising page which allows you to donate to the candidates and members of Congress who are worthy of Blue America support and have endorsed Bernie’s candidacy. Yes, he does help those who support him.

Now I’m going to play some calming music to try to bring my blood pressure down. I’ll be back tomorrow with Kelly Carlin and Boca Britany Somers, radio or not!

Today’s Pre-show music, dedicated to Rachel Maddow