Bizarre, Media, Politics, Society

MSNBC Host Suggests Someone Should Defecate In Palin’s Mouth . . . MSNBC Silent On Controversy

220px-Sarah_Palin_by_Gage_Skidmore_2220px-5.5.07MartinBashirByLuigiNoviI find myself not only in agreement with Sarah Palin but angry at her treatment by a MSNBC host. Palin recently canceled a NBC interview with Matt Lauer over the failure of MSNBC to discipline host Martin Bashir for saying that someone should defecate in Palin’s mouth after she compared federal debt to slavery. While I once worked for MSNBC, I have been shocked by the effort of the network to be the Fox News of the left — with hosts often blindly supporting the President, seriously comparing Holder to Moses, and even defending the surveillance of journalists (which Bashir did) in defense of the Administration. For civil libertarians, it has been a blow to see MSNBC yield to a type of cult of personality around Obama while basic civil liberties are being denied by this Administration. However, Bashir was able to hit truly a new low and the lack of a serious response beyond an on-air apology sends the message that anything goes when the target is a conservative and critic of the President.


First let’s start off with Palin’s remark:

“Our free stuff today is being paid for by taking money from our children and borrowing from China. When that money comes due… it’ll be like slavery when that note is due. We are going to beholden to the foreign master.”

A bit over-the-top, yes. Unprecedented, no. Many people warn of the dependency on China as the holder of our debt. Moreover, the use of the noun slavery to refer to such dependency is hardly shocking. Standard dictionaries include the following definitions of slavery beyond actual human bondage: “The condition of being subject or addicted to a specified influence. 4. A condition of hard work and subjection.” In other words, Palin was using the term in a recognized and hardly unprecedented fashion. Moreover, the Chinese debt is a serious problem that has been discussed by both liberals and conservatives.

Bashir however seemed eager to attack Palin on the use of the word slavery as opposed to her obvious point. Indeed, it was Bashir who seemed to go off the deep end with a lecture on horror of slavery which no one (including Palin) had questioned.

He quotes Palin and then says:

“So here’s an example. One of the most comprehensive first-person accounts of slavery comes from the personal diary of a man called Thomas Thistlewood, who kept copious notes for 39 years. Thistlewood was the son of a tenant farmer, who arrived on the island of Jamaica in April 1750, and assumed the position of overseer at a major plantation.

What is most shocking about Thistlewood’s diary is not simply the fact that he assumes the right to own and possess other human beings, but is the sheer cruelty and brutality of his regime,” Bashir added. “In 1756, he records that a slave named Darby ‘catched eating kanes had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.’

This became known as ‘Darby’s Dose,’ a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of inhumanity. And he mentions a similar incident in 1756, his time in relation to a man he refers to as Punch. ‘Flogged punch well, and then washed and rubbed salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper, made Negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth’ . . . She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate.”

It was unhinged and unfair and disgraceful. However, some Palin critics immediately attacked Palin as insulting African-Americans by even using the word slavery. This was raised by Jake Tapper in a later interview:

TAPPER: You can understand why African Americans or others might be offended by it, though?
PALIN: I — I can if they choose to misinterpret what it is that I’m saying. And, again, you know, I’m sure if we open up the dictionary, we could prove that with semantics that are various, we can prove that there is a definition of slavery that absolutely fits the bill there, when I’m talking about a bankrupt country that will owe somebody something down the line if we don’t change things that is, we will be shackled. We will be enslaved to those who we owe.

Once again, I do not share the condemnation of Palin as somehow dismissing or lessening the crime of slavery in this country. Nor do I think she was lecturing African-Americans. I do not see how any reasonable reading of her comments can produce such interpretation. However, in today’s environment, everyone seems on a hair-trigger to condemn and unleash the type of disgusting retort of Bashir. There seems to be a view that opposing figures like Palin deserve no consideration or decency in the treatment of her comments.

Bashir later apologized:

“I wanted to take this opportunity to say sorry to Mrs. Palin, and to also offer an unreserved apology to her friends and family, her supporters, our viewers, and anyone who may have heard what I said. I deeply regret what I said and that I have learned a sober lesson in these last few days that the politics of vitriol and destruction is a miserable place to be and a miserable person to become.”

What was missing was any discipline from MSNBC.

Perhaps this outrageous comment might produce some needed soul-searching at MSNBC over its decision to become an echo-chamber for the White House. However, there is no evidence of it in the silence from MSNBC.

Various people came forward to defend Bashir and question whether even an apology was needed:

Basically, as Jason Easley pointed out at the time, Palin was essentially telling African-Americans that they don’t really know what slavery is, and it takes someone like Palin to explain it to them. If you think that’s offensive, well congratulations, you are a normal functioning human being. It is with that backdrop that Bashir made the following comments on his show on Friday

I do not see it that way and I am no fan of Palin. I fail to see how her original or later comments sought to tell “African-Americans that they don’t really know what slavery is.” That is equally unfair to Palin. I fail to see why our current political divisions justify taking every comment of an opposing figure to the worst possible meaning, particularly when the meaning seem quite evident.

Do you think an apology is enough in this circumstance when a host says that someone should defecate in the mouth of a conservative leader?

153 thoughts on “MSNBC Host Suggests Someone Should Defecate In Palin’s Mouth . . . MSNBC Silent On Controversy”

  1. I became interested in Palin after hearing her first speech at the RNC. After reading Palin’s book, I became a fan. I met Sarah Palin only once. What Bashir said is nothing compared to what others have said and done to her for her political opinions. It pales in comparison to the many lawsuits filed against her which eventually drove her to resign from governor of Alaska. I understand why she resigned, but her resignation has been my greatest disappointment in her. Bashir just got caught up in the partisan game like Couric and other pundits have done in the past. I don’t think it is that big of a deal. I am satisfied that he recognized his error and apologized.

  2. Oky1,
    While I don’t regard Alex or his PP website credible sources for the most part, I had heard about that story. I think I will follow up and see what I can find out.

    Years ago, I went to a seminar presented by an attorney who had represented brand new parents. Seems they had little or no insurance, and the hospital said they were not going to release the baby to go home with them until the bill was paid. The lawyer saw an opportunity to teach the beancounters a lesson and have some fun at the same time. I don’t think he charged them a dime to write a letter to this effect (paraphrasing from memory–after all, this was about 40 years ago):

    Dear Big Hospital:
    I understand you have decided to keep baby Doe, since Mr. and Mrs. Doe cannot afford the large sum you charged them to deliver baby Doe. My clients are sure baby Doe is in good hands with your many qualified professionals on staff. They would, however, like some assurances.

    Mr. and Mrs. Doe desire baby Doe to attend the best schools, and want you to make certain she is enrolled in a good day care and Head Start program. They would prefer the child attend an upscale private elementary school, but if the public school has good teachers and curriculum, that will be fine. However, they had plans for their child to attend an Ivy League college. Since there is a long waiting list, please start the the enrollment process to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth right away. Although not Ivy League schools, they would not object to you enrolling baby Doe in Vanderbilt or Stanford.

    In the meantime, your hospital is responsible for all the child’s clothing, medical care, educational opportunities and any legal expenses she might incur. Mr. and Mrs. Doe also expect to be able to visit baby Doe as she grows up in your excellent and committed care.
    Yours truly,
    Arlo Fudpucker, Esq.
    Attorney at Law”

    The hospital was on the phone the next day pleading with the parents to take her home. I never heard whether they wrote off the bill, but IIRC, that was one of the conditions the attorney was stipulating for them to come get the baby.

  4. Palin must take big strides to make the news and get interviewed. So if some things come out of her mouth that look, smell and taste like itShay, be glad that you did not step in it. This Bashir guy stepped in it. Some of the dogs in the dogpac think she is kind of cute for a granma dog but otherwise do not know why she is in the news. Why did she resign her job as Governor? She went South didn’t she? Going South means that one starts playing the Southern Strategy game of politicians. When you pal up to the bigots you fall in with them. Hence the name Palin.

  5. Bashir should be voted thumbs down like Palin was and will be in any election in which she runs for office.

    Beyond that davidbluefish nailed it.

    The thing to fix is not merely the symptom of an individual’s sicko trash talk which can be addressed with a suspension of Bashir for a month while MSNBC sorts out whether to can him or not.

    The more importhat thing to do is to wake up and realize that we Americans have been divided on purpose.

    The purpose is to weaken our ability to react to a savage feudalistic mentality that is gorging on us.

    We are a degenerating society that revels in a verbal civil war as if a society divided against itself can perpetuate itself in the long run.

  6. I think most of our readers knew she was full of it, but I have to agree this kind of remark is over the top and inappropriate. Talking heads have been canned for far less than this.

  7. If someone isn’t filling it with sh-t, we all have to suffer from sh-t coming out. Sounds like its a win-win for society that she cancelled with Matt and society doesn’t have to be inflicted with 5 minutes less pure dumbness.

  8. **Mike 1, November 21, 2013 at 8:43 am

    Tell you what … maybe, just maybe, she gets a fulsome apology AFTER she issues a fulsome apology for her stupid analogy. **

    Mike,

    I’m not a Palin fan, but she said is absolutely correct about Debt being slavery.

    That being the case means your comments hurt your creditability with the readers here.

  9. To state that Bashir words were analogous to saying someone should shit in Palin’s mouth is a simplistic interpretation..I don’t use foul language or hateful rhetoric on my posts because I don’t want to be like them. I’m a progressive leftie, love Bashir…not too fond of Palin. I thought his apology was way more than luke warm…

  10. I do not think that the Bashir guy was right. Someone had already itShayed in Palin’s mouth and that it evident by what comes out. It is biologically wrong to think that the itShay could come out the wrong end so to speak and when she speaks people listen–even if they have to hold the nose.

    The author acts like siding with President Obama has the equivalent of siding with a beast. Fox News is the Reichsministry. Palin needs a job there. Heil Hitler.

  11. I think everyone is overreacting on all sides… What she said is not that big a deal, actually quite reasonable even. He completely misunderstood, but what he said is not that big a deal, either. I’d say we all have better fishes to fry. Moving on.

  12. I notice govt website seem intentionally rough to navigate to find info one’s looking for.

    I’m looking for US Senators who sit on the Oversight Committee over the Federal Communications Commission if someone knows how to find the link.

    http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/committees/d_three_sections_with_teasers/committees_home.htm

    Besides the despicable Palin comments I might as well get a laundry list of complaints while I’m calling for action against MSNBC.

    What should been the punishment MSNBCMartin Bashir?

    We’ll & then I call.

    http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/

  13. Tell you what … maybe, just maybe, she gets a fulsome apology AFTER she issues a fulsome apology for her stupid analogy.

    Since many of us have a nodding acquaintance with the law and with English grammar … recall that Bashir did not say that someone should shit in her mouth. What he said was that “if anyone qualified for discipline” like that of Thistlewood, then she would be the “leading candidate.” That two letter word IF is an awfully big word.

  14. Why on earth MSNBC hires a person Ike Bashir is beyond me. Palin is a nut, sometimes a dangerous nut but Bashir is a nasty, vile person who has no limits on his speech or his tactics. Trying to replicate the worst of the fanatic right wing is NOT the way to go.

  17. Why should anyone in Bashir’s position have to “learn a lesson”? How can you reach his level of national prominence and not know right from wrong?
    Just what the progressives of this country do not need are mouthpieces as inherently flawed as the Rushbo types. I say MSNBC proves a point and cashiers the guy. Not that I watch MSNBC anyway.

  18. Fox so-called news is definitely detrimental to the intelligence of its audience, making them less knowledgeable than if they watched nothing at all. Somehow, some entity needs to offset that damage. Being as offensive as Fox is isn’t the answer. Palin doesn’t deserve personal attacks. She is what she is. The problem is in giving ignorance the same credibility as wisdom and labeling them “conservative” and “progressive” respectively.

  19. Personally I’d be happy if Palin ‘retired’ from the public eye. But, this is totally inappropriate and a lame apology doesn’t cut it.

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