Sunday, August 17, 2008

Andrea Mitchell: Beyond parody

You can't make this stuff up:
The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that -- what they're putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.
And, on "Meet the Press," Andrea Mitchell feels obligated to inject this cheap and unsubstantiated partisan smear into the media mainstream. In-freaking-credible.

UPDATE: D.S. Hube at Newsbusters:
Andrea Mitchell barely hestitated to toss that out there, with guest host David Gregory merely offering a rather semi-innocuous "Right" in response.
Look, I am not one of those who believes that every story about politics has to be perfectly "balanced," but when you have a campaign accusing its opposition of cheating, this is something that requires (a) supporting evidence, and (b) an opportunity for the opponent to address the accusation. You can't just run out there in front of the camera and repeat slander to a national TV audience of 4 million viewers.

UPDATE II: You've really got to read the whole transcript of the panel segment of this show to get the one-sided tone of the discussion with David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, and Chuck Todd. They show this McCain ad, which first aired in March:


Then, after some discussion of the Clinton campaign's strategy with Josh Green, it comes back to Mitchell, who says:
I think that the McCain people, if they backed off on that commercial a bit, they'll either reinforce it later on or have the 527s do it for them. But you're going to keep hearing that theme. They think it's worked for them.
Oh, for crying out loud -- where are these 527s that the McCain campaign supposedly controls, Andrea Mitchell? What the hell kind of reporter throws out something completely unsubstantiated like that on national TV?

UPDATE III: This just in -- Republican sources are now saying that they believe NBC's Andrea Mitchell is actually 1970s punk-rock legend Iggy Pop. Officials at NBC News have not denied this, and thus there is mounting suspicion that the former frontman for the Stooges is now masquerading in drag as the anchorette of a little-watched MSNBC program.

UPDATE IV: Rick Warren denies the accusation that McCain cheated. He does not, however, deny that Iggy is appearing in drag on MSNBC. Mounting suspicion, I tell you . . .

UPDATE V: Insty is a punk rocker. Gabba gabba hey. Carbona not glue. And still no denial from NBC or Iggy Pop.

18 comments:

  1. Bad news.

    Rick Warren just confirmed to CNN McCain people misled him and that McCain was NOT in a cone of silence.
    He was in his car and therefore could have had the questions forwarded to him and prepare for them ahead of time as many people suspected

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  2. Hey, don't make fun of Iggy Pop by making that comparison!

    Emerson

    PS: Iggy is the only person in the world who can sing "I'm a punk rocker, yes I am" and have every punk fan in the world think "Damn straight!".

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  3. Andrea wants to be Obama's dog.

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  4. Hi Ben,

    I read an article on CNN.com and NO WHERE in the article did it state that Warren confirmed that McCain's people mislead him. In fact, here's the lead from CNN:

    Pastor Rick Warren said John McCain didn’t hear any of the questions in advance at Saturday night’s Civil Forum, even if the candidate was a little late arriving to the pre-arranged quiet room or “cone of silence.”

    I guess he could have had questions from the first half forwarded to him, but seeing as he did as well--if not better-- during the second half, this does not seem likely.

    Better luck next time.

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  5. "I am the passenger, and I ride and I ride. . . "

    I don't give a crap about the cone of silence - they're going to have how many freakin' debates between now and November? But if Mitchell was one one thousandth as cool as Iggy Pop I would actually watch MSNBC once in a while. Maybe.

    Emerson: did you see that video? Iggy looks like a corpse - although in the coolest way possible.

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  6. There's a joke in here somewhere about Andrea Mitchell and Obama and "I Wanna Be Your Dog" or something...

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  7. The story about the firehose and the racehorse is only sorta true.

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  8. If McCain was in The Cone of Silence OF COURSE he could hear everything. Didn't anybody ever watch "Get Smart?"

    I swear, I never thought I'd hear people with a claim to being reasonable talking about The Cone of Silence. How about "The Sundae of Solitude?" "The Cannoli of Quietude?"

    And could they hear the ocean?

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  9. Quick. Check to see if Andrea Mitchell is only five foot one. She's a pain in my neck.

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  10. What the hell is it with trolling left-leaners being the first to post a negative, argumentative, misleading or outright false comment to any Obama-related post in many moderate-to-conservative websites? I've seen it time after time after time in perhaps 30-40 websites. It has happened far too much for it to be a coincidence.

    I think there are actually so many deranged Obamites that they can mount a monitoring campaign on virtually every current-event or political website with a moderate or conservative bent which gets a noticeable number of hits. I can't explain it any other way.

    I am absolutely serious. Start paying attention and see what you think.

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  11. The real question should be not why McCain did so well with his answers...........but why did Obama do so poorly.

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  12. "Mounting suspicion?"

    Can't we keep John Edwards out of this?

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  13. "Gabba Gabba Hey" = The Ramones

    Not Iggy Pop.

    They may seem like the same to you but to punk fans, that's a revealing mistake.

    Stick with politics.

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  14. Yeah, Flatlander, I know that "gabba gabba hey" and "Carbona not glue" are Ramones lyrics. But the only Iggy lyrics I know are "I wanna be your dog," and I don't want to be Instapundit's dog. And don't even think about being Dr. Helen's dog, because Insty will beat you up.

    Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh, yeah.

    Hey, no kidding, I was in the local convenience store Sunday and the piped-in music was the Ramones' version of "Do You Wanna Dance." I'm getting freaking old.

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  15. What the hell is it with trolling left-leaners being the first to post a negative, argumentative, misleading or outright false comment to any Obama-related post in many moderate-to-conservative websites?

    Andrea Mitchell told me they had the blog posts forwarded to them so they were able to prepare responses before they were even posted.

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  16. Ok, if there is any lingering doubt lets do the show over again. Think Obama will okay that one?

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  17. Now that I think about it, I've never seen Andrea Mitchell and Iggy Pop in a room at the same time...

    If NBC or Mitchell ever respond to this, be sure to phrase it correctly so as to turn their rebuttal into further confirmation: "NBC officials persist in denying allegations that Andrea Mitchell is, in fact, former punk legend Iggy Pop."

    Then be sure to cut to a man on the street interview:

    Man-on-street: "There's no question that Andrea Mitchell is Iggy Pop."

    Anchor: "And so there you have it, the unpopular Andrea Mitchell, is, in fact, Iggy Pop according to most people.

    "And if further confirmation were necessary, today, unnamed sources from the former Clinton administration confirm that the Mithcell - Pop connection is, indeed, true."

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  18. "And, on "Meet the Press," Andrea Mitchell feels obligated to inject this cheap and unsubstantiated partisan smear into the media mainstream. In-freaking-credible."

    Are you going to admit you have done nothing here but further a cheap and unsubstantiated partsisan smear or will you just ignor the FACT that McCain was NOT in the "cone of Silence?" At least be intellecually honest with your self......In-freaking-credible!!!!

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