MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry has drawn fire after objecting to a seemingly innocuous reference by a guest to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) as a “hard worker.” Harris-Perry suggested that the use of this term for someone like Ryan is insulting to people who once picked cotton or mothers without health care.
Harris-Perry offered her correction with the guest Alfonso Aguilar, Executive Director of the American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership, after Aguilar said If there’s somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it’s Paul Ryan.”
Harris-Perry warned “[I] want us to be super careful when we use the language ‘hard worker’ . . . Because I actually keep an image of folks working in cotton fields on my office wall, because it is a reminder about what hard work looks like.” She then continued by noting that “in the context of relative privilege, I just want to point out, that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who don’t have health care who are working, we don’t call them hard workers. We call them failures, people who are sucking off the system. Really, y’all do! That’s really what you do!”
Aguilar objected to the point and said “This is very unfair. I feel that we cannot generalize about the Republican Party.”
I am not clear about how many people actually call working mothers “failures” but it is not clear why we cannot recognize hard-working people in different facets of life, including Republican leaders.
MSNBC cannot be compared to Faux News. And that’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart says. Most viewers of cable news/ opinion shows supplement their info from many different sources I would hope.
Dust Bunny Queen – “Sometimes I think it will be a good thing to have society collapse for a while. At least we will have some attrition of the deadwood and useless people who contribute nothing to society like Melissa Perry will just go away…….. and the hard workers who know how to make something, create things and work hard to survive will.”
I’ve been feeling this way for some time.
Introspection kills at the micro and macro level.
randyjet – “I find it FAR more outrageous that he has not seen fit to call out FAUX for its outright falsification of news on its news programs, and I have yet to see any outrage at O’Reilly or Hannity for their lies and outrageous statements.”
Libtards always love to repeat this statement but never have an example to back it up. Please point to one lie that either has told.
No Rick, the sentence I was referring to was the one in which you quoted him @11:08 AM. If you are referring to a different time, it would’ve been clearer to include that in your comment. However being so petty about grammer is a bit silly and that is why I called YOU on it with my comment @11:22. Aren’t there more important issues to focus on than occasional mistakes in grammer or spelling?
Ross said …
Legislators are not working 80% of the time, they are raising money. Only roughly 20% of the time are they actually working on the people’s business and solving problems.
Can we get them to change that to 95% & 5%…we might have less inane legislation as a result….for more judges to legislate by interpretation from the bench with to boot. Better yet, how about a part time Congress…to be called in to session once a year unless the leadership felt twice a year was necessary due to outbreak of war. However, the one session would continue, round the clock annually until a actual annual budget was passed and appropriations formulated. I’m guessing they’d get to it with more dedication than today if they got no sleep.
I figure they now work 90% of that 20% working on the interests of those who pay them money in fund raising, with “the peoples’ business” being barely addressed.
Can someone advise me of any issue just now that demands a new law? 😀
Other than my idea about sleepless days and nights to get a real budget passed….given we’ve now gone 7+ years without accomplishing one.
T. Hall
1, October 28, 2015 at 11:22 am
BTW, Ricky, I devastatingly smashed your contention about Second Amendment jurisprudence
Weak thinkers congratulate themselves. The rest of understand reality.
What is heartening is to see the MSNBC ratings. It shows the wacky left ranks are tiny, but they are getting wackier as they become smaller and more insular. The hateful and wacky comments that come from their hosts are very important. I hope NBC continues to subsidize this losing business. It is just precious that Brian “I was @ Pearl Harbor” Williams is their anchor. LOL! What a freak show.
T. Hall
1, October 28, 2015 at 9:47 am
Incidentally, you’re “Makers” included increasingly bigger banks…
Annie
1, October 28, 2015 at 11:22 am
Rick, T.Hall used “your” correctly in that sentence. “You’re” would’ve been incorrect.
“Rick
1, October 28, 2015 at 11:08 am
T. Hall
1, October 28, 2015 at 10:49 am
“Rick: Your comment was poorly written and is probably why it makes no sense.”
“People who don’t know the difference between your and you’re make poor grammar Nazis.”
Rick, T.Hall used “your” correctly in that sentence. “You’re” would’ve been incorrect.
BTW, Ricky, I devastatingly smashed your contention about Second Amendment jurisprudence in the Albuquerque thread and your cowardly response was a box of crickets
Hall – I didn’t think that highly of your labors on the 2nd Amendment. You were dead wrong.
Still wrong, Rick, as always. Or perhaps you don’t believe in honest mistakes.
Thanks anon, I thought that existed somewhere, was about to go look for it.
Yet Professor Turley appeared on his show MANY times. Why would JT appear on the Olberman show so OFTEN if that were the case? Olberman may have had his issues, but he was a better commentator/ political opinionist than O’Reilly, Hannity, Kelley, or any of the clowns on Faux News. MSNBC has only one tue heavyweight left, Rachel Maddow.
Good find, anon.
=========================================
DBQ sez there’s too much wealth in this country, that’s what makes us soft.
It’s good that you’re out of that coma, but could someone have not brought you up to speed. We had a little something economists are calling The Great Recession. I’m sure you can google it.
Olbermann has spiraled out of control since leaving MSNBC in 2011. The record speaks for itself. He’s toxic. That too is what is attractive to some folks.
Bruce, He went back to ESPN a year or so ago and had a little watched show on ESPN2. He is now too crazy and self-absorbed to even do sports. I had hoped he might return to the funny Sportscenter guy from back in the 90’s, but he is just too crazy, angry, and narcissistic to hold a job. Al Gore fired him for Chrissake! Olbermann sued Al Gore for firing him from MSNBC. He’s also litigious. That may be the attraction for some as well.
T. Hall
1, October 28, 2015 at 10:49 am
Rick: Your comment was poorly written and is probably why it makes no sense.
People who don’t know the difference between your and you’re make poor grammar Nazis.
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/11/05/olbermann-suspended/
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/21/farewell-keith/
Keith’s career has always been as unpredictable as his style. The public has always been drawn to him by his refusal to compromise and his fierce independence. Those characteristics that are so central to his success with viewers often led to conflicts with his respective networks. He is the ultimate lone wolf in an industry known for its pack mentality. -Jonathan Turley
FAREWELL KEITH
1, January 21, 2011 jonathanturley Media, Society
This evening my friend Keith Olbermann announced that he is leaving MSNBC and that Countdown will end this week. His departure will be a great disappoint for millions of viewers but I have little doubt that Keith will continue his unique brand of commentary and coverage in a different forum. I will personally miss our conversations on and off the program. Keith has been a unique voice in our society and I trust that we have not heard the last of that voice on myriad of issues confronting this nation.
I have known and worked with Keith since the 1990s and his first news show, The Big Show with Keith Olbermann. He has held a number of positions on different networks — all with equal success. The public has always connected with Keith’s wit and often wacky style. He is one of the smartest individuals I have ever known. He also genuinely cares about the issues addressed on his show.
In an age of blow-dried, robotic anchors, Keith gave the public something different and magnetic. He invented his own genre in news — a style later mimicked by others in their own programs.
Keith’s career has always been as unpredictable as his style. The public has always been drawn to him by his refusal to compromise and his fierce independence. Those characteristics that are so central to his success with viewers often led to conflicts with his respective networks. He is the ultimate lone wolf in an industry known for its pack mentality.
There are certain classics in American culture. They include the 67 Mustang, Wrigley Field, and every John Wayne film. For many news junkies, they also include Keith Olbermann. Intense, irreverent and insightful, Keith is unique. For that reason, his fans and friends will not allow him to be gone from the airways for long.
Thanks, Keith, and Godspeed.
Jonathan Turley
___________
The “pack mentality” is now on full-display in the comments threads, here.
Olberman should have stuck with announcing sports.
When I hear this idiocy, that a common phrase like “hard worker” is somehow racist…..or that using the word “too” as in too much or “too” little is a slur against women, I just feel like the world has gone completely off the rails and that liberals are just plain crazy.
Too much wealth in this society….oops, used that bad word too…….has caused people to be too soft. With no real struggles, like people face in the rest of the world or like our ancestors faced in the past, the libtards have the luxury to be able to focus on imagined slights and made up harms. Perhaps if they actually had to be HARD WORKERS and concentrate on the basics of living, they wouldn’t have time to be so insane.
Sometimes I think it will be a good thing to have society collapse for a while. At least we will have some attrition of the deadwood and useless people who contribute nothing to society like Melissa Perry will just go away…….. and the hard workers who know how to make something, create things and work hard to survive will.