Scene and Heard

Some three-dot journalism while waiting, in honor of the endless Democratic nomination process, long may it continue:

Melissa McEwen's spear-gun buries a shot in the meaty flanks of Josh Marshall, who used an unfortunate animal husbandry term to describe what Hillary Clinton did in canning Mark Penn as chief strategist: "I quite honestly can't believe that a person who identifies as a progressive and has two brain cells still knocking together doesn't understand why it's problematic, to put it charitably, to frame Hillary Clinton pushing her male chief strategist from power as "gelding" him."

Digby is very worried about John McCain, as am I. He appears to be the one Republican who could possibly win this year, and the campaign seems to be setting up to make his longshot candidacy a possibility: "The Democrats had better get themselves together. The Republicans picked the only candidate in the entire country who could elicit that kind of praise from my pal and others like him. He's the only one who could possibly win, and win he may very well do if just let this congenial image continue without challenge." And don't miss the Daily Howler's breakdown of how McCain could actually win this thing.

Turns out the gotcha hospital story on Senator Clinton - you know, how she lied about a poor woman's health care - wasn't wrong after all. Jeralyn has the scoop at TalkLeft, along with a growing list of retractions among lefty bloggers who jumped on the "story" when the wrong hospital put out a statement. Wonder when Chris Matthews, who played it big in two separate segments today, will apologize?

Riverdaughter asked me to post this video, and I have to do what Riverdaughter requires. If you've any doubts about the depth of media sexism in this campaign against Senator Clinton, watch the beginning of this video in horror:

And oh yeah, while we're at it - NYC Weboy has joined the fun over at newcritics.com and has a post on Charlton Heston - as does both M.A. Peel and the Self Styled Siren. Now that's a lineup!

Comments

[Andrew]

Nice work. Painful to watch some of that video.

Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, Josh Marshall and others: maybe this might interest your readers?

*crickets*

[Kathleen M.]

Thanks for posting the video, Tom. Both horrifying, and after watching her keep on keeping on, inspiring, I'll need to watch it again and again.

[zeke]

Re: gelding - who among us has not yielded to the siren song of a felicitous metaphor? Talk about hyper-sensitivity! And besides, from what I've been reading there are those in the Clinton campaign who might feel that gelding is too mild a fate for Penn.

Re: the video - truly some vile stuff in there, followed by a fairly proficient piece of campaign hagiography. But the attempt to paint Olbermann with the same brush as Beck, Limbaugh and Matthews is gratuitous, esp. the juxtaposition with Murrow. Olbermann has always taken great pains to emphasize that his special comments are at best a feeble tribute to Murrow's legacy.

Matthews, on the other hand, should have been gelded by NBC long ago...

[Judith]

Riverdaughter is great - glad she has you in line.

But I am not watching the clip as I dont feel like cleaning vomit off my shoes.

People act like it is so suprising that most of our major media covergae is garbage. Hello? As long as people watch the outlets have no reason to change. That is why you should all watch The Newshour on PBS and contribute there and let cable news rot in hell. Then we could have real discussions that dont start and end with bitching about what some jerk said/wrote/barfed.

It is getting really boring.

[Judith]

Tom - um, sorry if that read as though I meant this blog was boring. ;-(
no.
Same old thing year after year -
our elections stolen from us by mediocre mass media shoveling shite down our gullets.
I am just annoyed and annoying.
So see ya untill I have more positve commentary.

[jj]

Re the video: Television Personality Olbermann (spittle and all) belongs where he is, front and center w/the shameful juxtaposition to Murrow on full display. If he makes a "special comment" to Senator Obama for his campaign's sexist comments and Obama's refusal to denounce/reject them, then, perhaps, he should be edited out.

[wiggles]

Re: gelding - who among us has not yielded to the siren song of a felicitous metaphor? Talk about hyper-sensitivity!

I don't know, Kathleen. Can you point to some example of Obama or McCain being referred to as castrating? Because I know of at least three for Hillary just off the top of my head right now (hint: Matthews, Carlson, Whoever Kidnapped Josh Marshall).