By Cenk Uygur
As seen on OpedNews
Corporate honcho Phil Griffin, the ethically-challenged former sports show producer.
First, let me be clear that this is not intended for the hosts on MSNBC. It’s management that’s the issue. The way Phil Griffin has his hosts trot out for one apology after another is revolting. At least, he included himself in the genuflecting to the right-wing last time around. The whole display is pathetic.
Let’s also be clear about another thing. Phil Griffin, who happens to be the head of MSNBC, is not a liberal or progressive. I worked at MSNBC, I talked to Phil Griffin many times, I know Phil Griffin. He is not remotely progressive. All he cares about is success in his own career. He even basically admitted in this recent interview that he would head a conservative network if it made more money. The idea that he represents progressives as he keeps groveling to conservatives is absurd and sickening.
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SIDEBAR
Two cheers only for Uygur’s indignation
Cenk Uygur is perfectly justified in being disgusted with MSNBC’s boss Phil Griffin’s shameless toadying. The man’s personal corporate ladder-climbing is despicable. Unfortunately, the top ranks of America’s media are crammed with these filthy careerists, presstitutes really, glorified propagandists who think nothing of the damage they inflict upon the world, as long as their own self-interest is advanced. And mind you, they come in glowing bipartisan stripes. My problem with Uygur’s righteous wrath is that he curiously and arbitrarily stops at the water’s edge: he gives a big fat pass to all the MSNBC hosts who do the dirty work on camera and continue to report for work, day in day out, without ever staging some sort of visible protest or, the Devil forbid, resign their lucrative perches. In my view they are as revolting as their boss for no one really holds a gun to their heads. They stay for the fame and the money. In that, they typify the bankruptcy of American liberalism, media division. Frankly, Cenk, how much respect do such people—personal charms aside—really deserve? —Patrice Greanville
First of all, the last two apologies were not at all necessary. Melissa Harris Perry called Mitt Romney’s black grandson gorgeous (go back and check the tape). Yes, it would have been nice if someone on the set said, “God bless their hearts for being open minded in adopting someone outside of their race.” This is about as minor an infraction as I could imagine. Instead we got a tearful apology that was hard to watch and hard to stomach.
Now, there was a tweet sent out about how some right-wingers might not like a biracial ad by Cheerios. Gee, I wonder why they might think that. Maybe it’s because some right-wingers already had hateful things to say about that ad (yes, they don’t represent all conservatives, but once again, this is the most minor infraction in television history). The MSNBC employee didn’t make up that reaction — it already existed online. How many times has Bill O’Reilly characterized all liberals as saying something based on what some readers in the Daily Kos or The Huffington Post comments section said? Only about a million times.
Maybe that person at MSNBC who sent the tweet got the idea from a recent ad that caused outrage on Fox News because it included a Muslim woman and her husband who is in the U.S. military. They said this ad was only blocks from the site of 9/11! That is 100 percent bigoted response from the right-wing to an ad that involves two people from different backgrounds. Bingo.
Maybe they would have gotten the idea that Republicans don’t like biracial couples because of a poll in the Republican primaries in the South where 21 percent of GOP primary voters in Alabama and 29 percent of the Mississippi GOP primary voters said that interracial marriage should be illegal.
Can anyone in America say with a straight face it is unclear which party in America is more racist? One of the parties had this thing called the Southern Strategy, where they decided being racist toward blacks would get more white voters in the South. Care to guess which party that was? If you’re still unclear on that or completely ignorant, maybe the last two RNC chairs could help you because they both apologized for their party’s blatantly racist strategy.
Hey, anyone know whether Roger Ailes has ever apologized for running a station that argues we should take away voter rights in a way that disproportionately affects minorities? That’s happening right now and only a million times more important than any tweet. You can turn on Fox News almost any day and see some fictional story about voter fraud, the whole purpose of which is to limit voting by the poor, the elderly, college students and minorities. Any apologies about that?
How about an apology for the fear mongering and race baiting about the New Black Panther Party? How about an apology for white Santa? And white Jesus? How about an apology for a guest on Fox Business talking about executing his political opponents? Oh, maybe he was joking. What do you think would happen if Ed Schultz joked about executing some Christian fundamentalists? They would fire everyone at 30 Rock and schedule an implosion of the building by lunchtime.
And oh yeah, anyone remember who worked for Richard Nixon when they came up with the Southern Strategy? That’s right, Roger frickin’ Ailes. Has he ever apologized for that?
MSNBC doesn’t get it. Fox News and the right-wing are using this to set up a false equivalency. Yes, the Republicans race bait. Yes, Karl Rove did a push poll in South Carolina in 2000 asking if people would change their vote if they knew John McCain had an illegitimate black daughter (he doesn’t). Wait, who does Karl Rove work for again? Yes, Bill O’Reilly is amazed when he goes into a black restaurant and they act like regular human beings. Yes, the Republican Party got 2% of the black vote in the last election because of their obviously hostile stance against African-Americans. But wait someone at MSNBC tweeted something mildly inappropriate.
If MSNBC cared about not presenting liberals as sniveling cowards, they would never go through these debasing apologies one after another. But they don’t care about that because the guy who runs the network doesn’t give a damn about how progressives look, because he isn’t one of them.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CenkUygur
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cenk Uygur is host of The Young Turks, the first ever live, daily web television talk show. The Young Turks are on XM Satellite Radio 8-9PM ET (XM 167, America Left) and on Sirius Left 146. The Young Turks is one of the Top 100 You Tube Partners, with over 18 million views a month on their You Tube Channel.
The Young Turks recently won the Best Political Podcast 2009 at the Podcast Awards and Best Political News Site 2009 at the Mashable Awards.
The Young Turks premiered on Sirius Satellite Radio in the first quarter of 2002 as the platform’s first original program before moving to XM Satellite Radio in 2006. The show is the largest online news show in the world.
Cenk Uygur is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School of Business and Columbia University Law School. He worked as a lawyer, television writer and television host before starting The Young Turks. Along with hosting TYT, Cenk is a regular fill-in host on MSNBC. Cenk also blogs on Huffington Post, Daily Kos, ABC News and Politico.
