Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust
After years of drought, this is an historic election year. If ever
there was a time to want to get into the game, 2008 is it. And David
Shuster has to be kicking himself in his own head. Loose lips sure do
sink ships, and sometimes at the most inconvenient moments.
This particular week's voting, the so-called "Potomac Primaries," is
extremely significant. Obama's sweep of Virginia, Maryland, and the
District of Columbia, may have been the unofficial clincher on the
Democratic side. There are still many states remaining on the primary
schedule, most noteably Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but Obama's
momentum at this point may be unbeatable.
He hasn't just won, he's won with significant margins of votes. He may have reached the state of unstoppability.
There's every likelihood from here on that he'll run the table, as
demographic group after demographic group -- unions, white men, blacks,
many women, incomes 50-plus, incomes 50-minus, disgruntled Republicans
and independents -- scrambles onto Barack's bandwagon. It's not over for
Hillary Clinton, but the path ahead for her is steep and bumpy at best.
Same thing for the hapless John McCain who is wooing his own people
with so-so results. He carried all three states, also, even if many
Republicans held their noses as they voted for him. Besides, that
annoying latter-day Gomer, Mike Huckabee, is digging his heels into his
beloved Flat Earth and refusing to be a good little boy and give up and
go home.
For any political junkie, THIS is The Year of Years. Just a really awful time to get benched. And so it is for David Shuster.
What strikes me as a sad irony is that David Shuster seems to be taking
the fall for Chris Matthews at MSNBC -- and maybe a whole lot of others,
too.
David Shuster was yanked off the air after making a careless and
tasteless remark about Chelsea Clinton -- wondering aloud on camera
whether her parents "pimping" her for her mom's campaign. OUCH. Make no
mistake, he didn't mean the kind of Cinderella makeover pimping that
rapper-host Xzibit showcases on "Pimp My Ride." Shuster was not
referring to giving Chelsea a makeover. It was that OTHER "pimping"
reference he was using. It was MOST unwelcome and uncalled for. Hillary
Clinton reacted as an angry mom, firing off an irate letter to the NBC
brass demanding that Shuster be punished, and that all such sordid
verbal slaps be stopped. I'm solidly with her on this. I, too, am fed
up with the never-ending verbal abuse, and I'd feel that way even if I
didn't have a daughter also. Does anybody remember that kind of
smart-ass crack being uttered, by anyone on TV or radio, about the five
pampered, healthy, young Romney boys? Has anybody said such a crass
thing about Caroline Kennedy this year, the Kerry daughters four years
ago, or the spoiled, arrogant Bush princess-poseurs four years before
that? For some reason, if it has a Clinton involved, it's fair game for
the meat cleaver and a nice acid bath. By now, America has had to
endure more than SIXTEEN YEARS of Clinton bashing. From the wrong-wing
pundit class and hate radio, spurred by Rush Limbaugh and his many
clones, and Pox Noise, a compliantly obedient mainstream media took its
cues and its marching orders from the conservative corner from the very
beginning, and like well-trained Pavlovian dogs carried the ball all
the way to the bitter end zone. For crying out loud, we haven't reached
our quota by now?
I think David Shuster "died for all their sins." Unfortunately, the
obnoxious, slobbering, juvenile, testosterone-obsessed Matthews doesn't
have to pay nearly as high a price. Chris Matthews could use a sobering
lesson far more than Shuster does. I'm one of those who thinks the
airwaves would be a LOT better off without him cluttering them up. Mediamatters.org
decided enough was enough several weeks ago after Matthews' loutish
blubberings that Clinton's original New York Senate victory was nothing
more than a "pity vote" because her husband had screwed around on her.
Enough of an uproar erupted in its wake that Matthews was forced to
open his show with a prolonged mea culpa - about how he really liked
the Clintons and Hillary in particular and had said plenty of nice
things about her and didn't really believe that she hadn't earned her
election wins in her own right. I was appalled by that impudent,
insulting dismissal, myself, and I was among many who sent email
complaints to Matthews, "Hardball," and NBC News executives. It was
just another slap in the face - the latest in a list of what seems like
millions. I'm sympathetic to Hillary Clinton for the nearly non-stop
drubbing she's had to endure - for the better part of two decades. Her
voice can't even break for a second-and-a-half without critics piling
on, making crying noises, and honking for weeks like constipated geese.
For crying out loud! Some people just have this nearly irrational
hatred and distrust of her. How deep their insecurity must pierce How
threatened they must be! It's hard for me to understand. It makes me
wonder just how shaky the emotional or psychological ground is upon
which they stand. How else do you explain it?
I'm certain this column will provoke a lot of flame wars from First
Amendment stalwarts - that anybody should be free to say whatever they
think and the suppression of free speech includes that very kind of
speech you find most offensive. They'll point out that David Shuster is
being unfairly disciplined, and for relatively small potatoes. The P.C.
Busters I'm sure are up in arms about this, too - heaven forbid we
cramp our style about the Clintons - are we really supposed to tiptoe
around every mention of them? We can't take potshots if we feel like
it, and we're not allowed to aim as far below the belt as we dare? Hey,
it's a free country, isn't it?
I support the Freedom of Speech, but it would be refreshing to see that
freedom leavened just a little - and through personal self-control.
Call it humanity, maybe. We've GOT to be better than this. I'm frankly
sick to death of hearing the minute-by-minute drumbeat of negativity
and hostility toward all things Clinton. It makes me want to vote for
Hillary, just out of spite (even though, in the interest of full
disclosure, I punched the card for Barack in the California primary).
Yes, Hillary Clinton is a big girl, and nobody forced her to jump into
this with both feet. Chelsea, too, is a big girl, no longer a shy teen
whose high-profile parents were adamant about protecting her privacy.
But even when she was younger, a noncombatant, she was still a target.
That "nice" John McCain himself once joked at her expense while her dad
was president, about how ugly she was - because Janet Reno was really
her father. Cute one, John. Simply adorable. What a big man you
certainly must be, picking on a little girl with undignified and
repulsive cheap shots like that. What's the matter? Don't have anybody
your own size to kick around? McCain eventually found himself
swallowing a similar barb when his own little girl, his dark-skinned
adopted daughter from Bangladesh, was smeared by rumor-mongering
character assassins from the Bush camp as his illegitimate child.
Stunningly, he never rose up to express outrage, or file a complaint,
or make a stink. I can't wait to hear what the next generation of
heartless, ruthless swiftboaters has in store for Barack Obama's two
little girls. I'm sure they'll be fair game, too, but it sure seems as
though the Clintons suffer the most of it.
Perhaps David Shuster IS being singled out. It's unfortunate because
he's already deservedly distinguished as one of the more impartial,
thorough and respected reporters working. But he's also good enough and
smart enough to know better. This stuff simply has to stop. I suspect
some of us may have hoped that when Don Imus lost his job for his gaffe
against Rutgers University's women's basketball team, it would have
served as a cautionary tale for other talking heads to try a little
decency for a change. I guess the on-air blow that's a little too low
is destined to keep jumping out at us from some careless mouth at
uneven intervals, leaving someone to take the fall for it. Well, so be
it. Maybe media people need reminding every so often that there
actually are consequences for missteps sometimes. I don't think it
would hurt anyone or anything if we could call a moratorium on this
sport of verbal snipers for awhile. Preferably a long while.
It just needs to stop. We're poised, as a country, to elevate the first
African-American politician in our history to the highest-level job
competition in the land. That prospect should signal to all of us, and
to the rest of the world watching us, that we've finally grown up and
grown out of our centuries-long prejudices and our smallness. Why can't
we grow up in our discourse also? Or will David Shuster be the only one
of us who learns anything this time?
***
Mary Lyon
is a veteran broadcaster and five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who
has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio
Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations
including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional
media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal
activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and
helped spearhead a regional campaign, The Power 18," to win the right
to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes,
responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and
support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to
OpEdNews, Mary writes for Democrats.us, World News Trust, and
WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also a parenting
expert, having written and llustrated the book "The Frazzled Working
Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood.