Someone's getting sacked over this one.

[Adjuvant]

Yeh, it's I, the proponent of free speech. This example, however, is not someone screwing up in their "off time". It's pretty unbelievable, actually.

No matter how you try to paint it, it's hard to not interpret this as offensive. In any event, the subject matter doesn't belong in "humor" on national news.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/msnbc-host-makes-fun-mitt-romney-black-grandson-023826137.html

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That kid is going to want some explanations when he's older and has to deal with this awful stuff.

 

[Kyriakos]

Heartwarming that they named the adopted black child as a token. I am sure the child will be helped by this too. No reason to care about actual people when you are trying to make a dumb joke showcasing you are a moron of a tv person.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Yeh, it's I, the proponent of free speech. This example, however, is not someone screwing up in their "off time". It's pretty unbelievable, actually.

Well, that certainly didn't take long. Homophobes who are public figures have rights to make complete fools of themselves without being fired. Idiot MSNBC talking heads, not so much.

 

[Berzerker]

MSNBC went down hill after firing Olbermann, his constant ripping of GWBush for Iraq was the best our media had to offer at the time.

 

[Formaldehyde]

They probably ran out of camera lenses that weren't covered by spittle.

 

[Berzerker]

Well, that certainly didn't take long. Homophobes who are public figures have rights to make complete fools of themselves without being fired. Idiot MSNBC talking heads, not so much.

I see nothing at all wrong with any company firing an employee for uttering such despicable homophobic comments while at work.

the latter wasn't at work, the former was

now if they were getting the Duck crowd's ratings maybe they wouldn't get fired

 

[timtofly]

Yeh, it's I, the proponent of free speech. This example, however, is not someone screwing up in their "off time". It's pretty unbelievable, actually.

No matter how you try to paint it, it's hard to not interpret this as offensive. In any event, the subject matter doesn't belong in "humor" on national news.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/msnbc-host-makes-fun-mitt-romney-black-grandson-023826137.html

I am sure they cleared it all up in the next segment, "Was that racist?"

 

[Evie]

Read about that earlier today. It's disgusting.

One way or another MSNBC has every right to fire them or not - as did ABC over Duck dynasty. Whether or not they do will say a lot about them. (And no, freedom of speech doesn't protect the right of celebrities to say asinine things and not get fired. It protect the right of media to determine who they give a mike to)

 

[Adjuvant]

Crying to keep her job?

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/melissa-harris-perry-gives-tear-filled-apology-mitt-173256120.html

I think she means it. The case made, as she herself comes from a background of mixed ethnicity, that the presentation took a transitive turn from its (political, less than well-meaning) original intentions, rings true.

I imagine other members of that panel might not be invited back. We may never know what actions NBC took behind the scenes for those who propagated the initially intended message.

Do you think it's enough? I don't know how I feel, honestly. Maybe chalk it up to incredibly poor discretion, but the damage is done. It's set a precedent and dulled us all to the next time a public figure makes an equal or greater faux pas.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

She's good at acting sorry. I think her primary motive is to keep her job.

 

[Kyriakos]

A bad story all around. I don't like this circus either way, whether it is some blown-up tv person saying idiocies, or crying in remorse (real or not). This is not anything sane people need or can be helped by. :/

 

[Antilogic]

You gotta wonder who greenlit this filler segment in the first place.

 

[Gori the Grey]

It's a funny little entertainment we've devised for ourselves over the last few years: hire a shock jock, a redneck, a snarky political commentator; wait for them to get too shocking, too rednecky, too snarky; then jump on them and express our moral outrage at that one comment that crosses the line; tearful apology. Rinse, repeat.

I'm trying to think why we keep playing this game.

 

[warpus]

Wait, is that similar to us dressing our kids like prostitutes and then complaining about too much sex in the media?

 

[Kyriakos]

At least in its original version, the concept involved also somewhat funny chair throwing.

Now all of the news-tv is a Jerry Springer show.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Wait, is that similar to us dressing our kids like prostitutes and then complaining about too much sex in the media?

I don't think so, warpus. That's just hypocrisy. This is like we're staging opportunities for moral outrage. My suspicion is that, in this era where we're asked suspend most moral judgment in the interests of tolerance, we actually hunger for some inviolable standards, so we've created this game in which we license certain individuals to push up against the limits of the tolerable, so that when they push past, we can castigate them.

 

[Kyriakos]

I just watched her video of apology...

?

If anyone actually views that "breaking down" as not entirely theatrical, then, yeah, things are not looking good at all bro.

While her original comment was pitiful, the apology is a lot more insulting (albeit in ways less related to the original flame of the material).


Link to video.

 

[Adjuvant]

I felt it. It made me tear up.

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, i suppose she was going for the orchestrated effect of "trying so much to not cry that i am moving my elbows up and down all the time with voice in sychronicity cause i mean to not cry, but i did in the end cause emotion beats all".

Right.

I respect your own honest reaction to that, but i don't respect her because in my view that was another vile act.