NEW YORK — MSNBC host Martin Bashir resigned from the network Wednesday, nearly three weeks after making graphic remarks on his show about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
“I deeply regret” the comments, Bashir said in a statement. “It is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues, at this special network, will be allowed to focus on the issues that matter without the distraction of myself or my ill-judged comments.”
The uproar began last month when Bashir suggested that someone should defecate in Palin’s mouth because of a remark the former vice presidential candidate made comparing the United States’ indebtedness to China with slavery.
“When Mrs. Palin invokes slavery,” Bashir said, “she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance, she confirms (that) if anyone truly qualifies for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, then she would be the outstanding candidate.”
Bashir apologized days later. But the controversy continued to rage, with Palin’s political action committee writing to Griffin and NBC News President Deborah Turness seeking discipline for Bashir, and Palin cancelling a scheduled interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer.
It appears they are dropping like flies over on MSNBC. Alec Baldwin’s show was also cancelled, ostensibly because of harsh anti-gay remarks he made off the set.
Keith Olbermann also lost his position at MSNBC. Several years ago, Ed Schultz was furloughed for a week for harsh language aimed at conservative commentator Laura Ingraham. Chris Matthews has been off and on various time spots, although not necessarily for specific reasons.
Sarah Palin will make stupid statements regardless of whether Martin Bashir points them out or not or loses his temper. Palin apparently milked the situation for all it was worth. Her constant braying is irritating but hardly worth losing a lucrative position with a network news station. In fact, today she was at Liberty University, shrieking and bellowing about the “War on Christmas.” It’s obvious what her motive is, considering she just wrote a book entitled Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.
I hear vile stuff all the time on Fox News, yet no one ever seems to be banished. It appears that non-stop ranting about the President of the United States and the Senate Majority Leader are fair game, regardless of the veracity of the comments or the truth. Nancy Pelosi is also good cannon fodder on that news network.
I can do nothing about assume that MSNBC just has much higher standards than Fox News. I hope MSNBC will continue to insist on professionalism from its journalists and commentators.
The issue that Sarah Palin intended to bring up was that high national debt can have an adverse effect on future standards of living.
She compared it to slavery thereby taking attention away from the actually issue and focusing it on her choice of metaphor rather than the actual issue. Then Martin Bashir had his turn to even further take the national spotlight away from the point SP was trying to make. This happens every day. We are simply unable to discuss issues in this nation.
“She compared it to slavery thereby taking attention away from the actually issue and focusing it on her choice of metaphor rather than the actual issue. ”
Proverbs 22:7: Just as the rich rule the poor, the borrower is slave to the lender.
This is what she was talking about. Martin Bashir is a jackass.
No one here is defending Bashir. He was gross.
If indeed Palin was quoting scripture, she should have stuck to the Good Book instead of ad libbing. I distinctly remember her saying the word “slavery.” Big difference.
It sounds like 2 jackasses to me. One is vulgar, the other is just…well…limited.
What is so wrong with what she said? What is so different about what she said, and what then-senator Barrack Hussien Obama said in 2006?:
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.
I’ll tell you what is different: Sarah Palin actually believes what is taught in Proverbs 22:7. Barrack Obama said essentially the same thing, as political rheotoric to appear to be a fiscal conservative…and has done nothing but run up the tab since taking office. Another thing that’s different is Sarah Palin had to intentionally qualify her statement as not being “racist”, because she knew from past experience that this is the hostile media’s final-defense line: Call the speaker a racist. What I doubt she anticipated was the utterly vile comments Bashir would make in response, and the crickets that would be chirping away as we waited for the media to condemn Bashir. Nope. Instead, those few who were calling out Bashir were accused of “over-reacting”.
“I hear vile stuff all the time on Fox News, yet no one ever seems to be banished.”
Please provide specific examples, so I can look to see if this was a case of an actual Fox News Employee making these statements, or were they statements made by a guest or commentator.
I never said Fox News said the same thing. I said I hear vile things on that news station. I didn’t write them all down. Glenn Beck usually had something tasteless said daily. Not vulgar, tasteless. He didn’t vanish.
I don’t know what Sarah Palin believes or doesn’t believe. I am not part of her club. However, she is an American and she knows that the topic of race and slavery are still extremely sensitive issues in this country. The fact that she qualified her comments ..that they weren’t racist… proves to me she knew she was treading in dangerous waters. Saying something isn’t racist doesn’t make it so.
A smart, political leader wouldn’t go there. She did. Bashir was vulgar and a boor, not because he said it about Sarah Palin but because he said it at all. I hear vulgar things on TV a lot though and no, I can’t give you an example. I don’t write stuff like that down.
“I hear vile stuff all the time on Fox News, yet no one ever seems to be banished.”
Gee, I must have missed it when someone at Fox News suggested taking a dump in Pelosi’s mouth.
However if that suggestion were made it would, in fact, be the most intelligent thing that’s ever come out of her mouth.
“Glenn Beck usually had something tasteless said daily. Not vulgar, tasteless. He didn’t vanish.”
You sure about that? Seems to me he and FNC parted ways rather abruptly.
” I hear vulgar things on TV a lot though and no, I can’t give you an example. I don’t write stuff like that down.”
Ok, so what you are saying is if the C-word or T-word isn’t used, you don’t write it down? These words have been used plenty by the likes of Bill Maher, Ed Shultz, Cher, and there is narry a peep from the left, all applied to women on the right. But when Rush Limbaugh uses a derogatory word to describe Sandra Fluke…we’ll the left went bonkers. Let’s see if this noted selective moral outrage persists when/if personalities on the right are applying terms like these to Hillary Clinton next year.
The outrage will be there. But then again, no one called Mitt the D word either.
I think it has to do with air waves. Maher is on cable. You not only have to subscribe, you have to actively turn to that channel at that time. All sorts of people say tasteless things about other people. I think Limbaugh is seen as being influential. Maher, not so much. I would probably put Limbaugh on the same relevance plane as Jon Stewart. There’s the difference.
I can’t help what Cher says. I listen to some of her old music. Schultz has been fairly well behaved lately. Is he a time bomb? Not sure. Is Sarah Palin a time bomb? Absolutely. I find what she says horribly offensive.
I don’t care if Palin says stupid things. She sets herself up and then makes all sorts of money from it. She obviously knew what she was doing with her slavery remark. It probably gained her a cook million plus bragging rights about taking out a liberal. He was a dumb ass for taking the bait in such a vulgar, unnecessary way.
Glenn Beck didn’t just vanish. We knew he was going out to be his own man. Actually one person did disappear. He called the president a racist and a few other things. He wasn’t pulled for that. I can’t think of her name now…initials. Not sure what she did. She was intelligent, mature and not a member of their T & A club.
She went by her initials.
Would there have been all the hubbub if she had said, “servant to the lender”? I generally think Sarah Palin is an inch deep and an inch deep but she can claim something than no commenter on this or most local blogs can-she has been a governor and a vice-presidential candidate. In addition, she makes a heck of a lot of $$$ being a doofus. As to Bashir-I refer to Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”