Yesterday morning, during MSNBC’s “Tucker” program, NBC pundit David Shuster said Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign had “pimped out” her daughter. Hillary’s campaign protested and threatened a boycott of future MSNBC debates. Shuster apologized twice and was then promptly fired by NBC.
Now, I’m certainly not defending Shuster’s comments – what he said was insulting and inappropriate. But, I’m extremely disappointed in NBC’s decision to exile Shuster from the network. This is another case of programming punishment that doesn’t fit the commentary crime.
MSNBC’s first mistake was to put a reporter in the position of anchoring an entertainment program. If they were truly worried about preserving his reputation as a journalist, they should have never expected him to carry a live program that sets out to be more entertainment than newscast.
In the course of a three or four hour live, unscripted, daily program it will only be natural that sometimes the host will make a comment they later regret. Shuster recognized his error, apologized sincerely, and should have been given a second chance. Instead, our media universe must now live with the precedents set by NBC/Imus, CBS/Janet, Opie & Anthony, and others. As broadcasters, we must now live in fear that anyone with letterhead can demand our termination if they hear the slightest comment which may be offensive to a small number of people.
I don’t believe everything is fair game on the air. There should be standards. But, it’s easy to get caught up in a fast-paced one-upsmanship roundtable of jokes or a passionate debate. Talent should be given the respect and benefit of the doubt with a second chance. The “nuclear option” of termination should be considered only when there is a pattern of offensive material or, in some cases perhaps, an unquestionably offensive or obscene remark. The best entertainers and the highest ratings come from talent who serve as a lightning rod for compelling, and sometimes controversial, content. The firing of such talented personalities ultimately results in both a loss of revenue and, in the long run, the homogenization of programming.
Come on, America. Lighten up!
Filed under: Celebrities, Media, News, Politics | Tagged: Chelsea Clinton, David Shuster, Don Imus, FCC, Free Speech, Hillary Clinton, Media, MSNBC, NBC, Opie & Anthony, Political Correctness, Tucker, TV
According to the demographics, I should be voting for Hillary Clinton: I’m a white, 60-year-old, highly educated woman from the Northeast. But I’m voting for Obama. I’ve waited all my life for a viable woman candidate for the presidency, but this is not the right woman. I want a woman of the highest ability and virtue, who would serve as a glorious role model to all young women. Hillary Clinton is not that woman.
She rode into power with her husband, and together they’ve acquired a long and seriously flawed history of self-serving and secretive financial and political dealings. The most cursory research will prove that true. She started out her political life supporting the racist Barry Goldwater. She is as comfortable with deception and trickery as George Bush. When I hear woman saying, “Oh, but that’s how you get things done in Washington,” I literally cringe.
I am passionately supporting Barack Obama. He can beat the Republicans; she cannot. Obama has attracted Independents and even Republicans to his camp, and in a general election they would vote for him, but not for Clinton. Clinton voted for the war, and has never apologized for it. Obama has spoken out against it from the beginning. Obama brings us hope–and not just that. Take a serious look at his ideas and experience.
Please, I beg of you, Sisters young and old: wait for the right woman. Then we can be proud.
Diane Wald
As a former air personality, you should be a little more empathetic to the “pimped out” line. It certainly doesn’t have the same connation that it did ten or twenty years ago. People frequestly describe others as being pimped out for a product, etc. How quickly we forget when we were on the other end of the censorship debate.