MSNBC: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Vaulted)

[car54]

Spoiler

Mitchell stayed late and spoke on Hardball--she had talked to one of the donors who had gotten an interview with via the charity--and after speaking with him, Andrea said more than once..."he'd have gotten that appointment anyway without the charity, and there was nothing wrong with the meeting."  

[Rhetorica]

I loved watching Joy Reid giggle at the "softening" of Trump on Lawrence O'Donnell tonight!

[represent]

Did Glenn Beck pay that caller to say that he's pretty much going to put a hit out on Trump if he doesn't build that wall should he get elected?

This is some scary shit.

Edited August 25, 2016 by represent

[Grommet]

I'm pretty sure that Glenn Beck making sense is a sign of the apocalypse. 

[brgjoe]

For me, this would go in "..The Ugly" category.

On consecutive nights, Chris Matthews has Ann Freakin' Coulter on Hardball and Lawrence has Glenn Freakin' Beck on his show.  Really, guys?  Are you that desperate for guests that you have to book those two nutjobs?

MSNBC is getting worse by the day.  

[NewDigs]

16 hours ago, tenativelyyours said:

I guess I  don't see that it is odd at all.  Reagan actually proves my point.  The memoirs of FDR's family and staff after his death show how much his own people took a huge burnt of the work and activity especially during his last term.  Kennedy actually was not a good example at all since I find his assassination actually overshadows how inept his administration was many times and how it stumbled and bumbled.  I think had he lived he might have been a bad president which many seem to think is impossible for some reason.  Well his death of course. 

I think age is an issue.  And should be.  It shouldn't be the only one and it shouldn't even be a determining one, but it should be one people think of if the same people they want to make cognitive decisions on that affect the nation and world are being done by someone the same age as your nana whose keys you think should be given up.  And my issue is that for some reason age is seen as a taboo until suddenly it is Clinton's age never minding her opponent is the same age essentially.  But overall, Sanders age was seen as off limits for the most part and on this network I saw many look downright terrified whenever the subject seem to veer in that direction in the weird focus on why Clinton and the party weren't playing nicer with an arriviste who had no real interest in that Party other than their cash and opportunity.*

I don't want someone who is twenty running the nation either. 

And for that matter I do think even in four years the Angry Yam is well into sitting on his porch yelling at kids to get off his yard...when there are no kids and his yard is his own living room.  I shudder to think if he spent eight years in office. 

 

*Saying this as a loather of pretty much the entire private party system that tells us how and where and why we can vote in the junked up primary system that has, imo, help further cripple an already limbless from self-mutilation, political system.

Bold mine.

I really don't have an issue with our presidential candidates being deemed "fit to serve" whether age-related or not.

I took exception (?) to the use of the word "elderly". I don't hear it used as often as before so it was rather jarring, to me, to hear Dr. Ben use it over and over.

Edited August 25, 2016 by NewDigs

[3pwood]

19 minutes ago, NewDigs said:

I took exception (?) to the use of the word "elderly". I don't hear it used as often as before so it was rather jarring, to me, to hear Dr. Ben use it over and over.

The word "elderly" has a medical meaning, as in "elderly primigravida" (a woman age 35 or more experiencing her first pregnancy).  Dr. Carson is probably accustomed to using it in a medical context, whereas it's no longer commonly used socially.   

[NewDigs]

I think someone needs to do an armchair diagnosis of Andrea Mitchell. She can barely put a sentence together! 

Good thing she has plenty of ers and ums and pauses for filler. Listening to her is painful. 

Maybe having to respond to  WashPo's Giuliani diagnosis made her have to skirt a little too close to defending Hillary?

[represent]

Hell no Rep. Coburn, I want the exact opposite, I want the states to lose power. 

I don't want governors to be able to poison the water supply of poor citizens so they can line their pockets and pockets of their rich friends. 

Meanwhile the federal government is powerless to be able ride in and give citizens assistance. Or haul governors off to jail for not using the money they clearly have to install new pipes. Fuck that, states needs less power and more oversight.

They're still pushing their fucking secession from the union state by state, that's exactly what they've been trying to do.

Edited August 25, 2016 by represent

[NewDigs]

Chuck Todd needs to be more assertive/aggressive.

Though it would be difficult to counter Coburn's anecdotal "liberal media elite" observations. "I watch it all, Chuck, I watch it all, it all..." 

This so-called liberal-media-elite is not doing its job! Or I wouldn't be seeing Coburn, Delay and all those, imho, dinosaurs on my teevee. Or they would be more aggressively questioned.

Gah!

eta At least he went to the Nat'l Review earring-person to refute or defend the alt-right and she refuted. 

Edited August 25, 2016 by NewDigs

[represent]

I see Michael Steele has found his long lost Uncle Tom hat. I thought he lost it for good.  Fucking fool, he can't get out of it, and he never will. He hasn't even apologized for the birther movement and he hasn't fired Bannon.  Steele must be crazy, it's ugly, you're damn right it is and I know I emailed the Hillary campaign asking them to use it all in ads... to get the Breitbart in ads....Aw, you're offended, yeah, I'm offended too.

 I see Chris Matthews has a similar problem, you can't empathize with the attacks on your guest, yet think it's wrong to point out that said candidate is supporting the likes of the people who are terrorizing him in an advertisement. You, Christ Matthews, and your anally retentive buddy Steele, are another example of why the problem continues, you gotta call a spade a spade over and over again.

I'm done with Chris Matthew's show, watch Chris Hayes my friend and maybe you'll get the the picture.

Edited August 26, 2016 by represent

[potatoradio]

Dear Rachel Maddow - you have it backwards. You shouldn't treat your guests who lean alt-right as though they're doing you a YUGE favor by appearing on your show. YOU are doing THEM a service by offering them more media and a chance to try to present their viewpoint as anything other than white supremacist claptrap. You're really that excited about interviewing the Trump campaign manager bot? Really? 

And yet, you don't say much of anything about HRC's talk yesterday that calls them out on this very thing? Or did I miss it? I hope I missed it. Because you were all excited about all things HRC and I hardly ever see you cover her talks. I did like Daryle Lamont Jenkins, though. He can come back anytime.

But, I kinda forgive you as you lean all over the place because, be still my guilty crush, sad little heart, you had Jeremy Peters on. Moar, pleeze. My dream election coverage desk: you, Peters, Hayes, Robinson, and, of course, Kornacki going full roll up sleeves map boy. 

And you're right - the interview with Kelly Campaign Bot was long. Very long. Much time for her to put her "woman's touch" on the sewage that is the Trump campaign. Too much time. However, I did appreciate all the time to try to figure out if she's really human...I honestly couldn't tell from the first few shots of her.

[Padma]

2 hours ago, potatoradio said:

can't get anything to work. to respond.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Padma

[jazzpno]

20 hours ago, NewDigs said:

Nat'l Review earring-person

Okay, LOL! So it wasn't just me then...

[NewDigs]

22 minutes ago, jazzpno said:

Okay, LOL! So it wasn't just me then...

I was hyp-no-tized!

So much so that I missed her name. She seemed relatively sane, especially for someone giving a Trump-perspective.

[Grommet]

I loved Lawrence's show last night. Great guests, intelligent discussion, and the final segment with everyone's suggestion for debate stand ins was very funny. 

[car54]

I think Rachel wants Trump on really badly---and she is casting her net--having Kellyanne on with no major blowup was step one.....I think the show last night was follow up and I suspect it was already in the works by the time Hillary was speaking--so hopefully she'll cover the speech more tonight.   She did something similar to court Bernie--she had Jane on the show, it went well,  and eventually he did a one on one with her.

[alias1]

4 hours ago, Grommet said:

I loved Lawrence's show last night. Great guests, intelligent discussion, and the final segment with everyone's suggestion for debate stand ins was very funny. 

I love that he got two hours.  Lawrence does a fabulous job, and especially when he does segments on really serious and heartfelt issues, like the Native Americans protesting the pipeline.

[NextIteration]

On 8/25/2016 at 11:54 AM, NewDigs said:

I think someone needs to do an armchair diagnosis of Andrea Mitchell. She can barely put a sentence together! 

I swear she gets more muddled by the week, unless of course she's taking a shot at Hillary Clinton.

The giggling about the softening and the hardening by Joy Reid was delightful, yes folks, I'm ten as well.

[Padma]

2 hours ago, NextIteration said:

I swear she gets more muddled by the week, unless of course she's taking a shot at Hillary Clinton.

The giggling about the softening and the hardening by Joy Reid was delightful, yes folks, I'm ten as well.

That was so fun. I liked when LOD said, "Take the camera off Joy while she composes herself". They did, as Joy kept giggling and he quickly said, "No, I was just kidding! Keep the camera on her!" lol

More Joy, please. For a change, with her subbing on Hardball yesterday or Thurs, it was actually informative and enjoyable--plus, I got to hear what people said without the host constantly talking over them. Refreshing!

[jjj]

5 hours ago, Padma said:

That was so fun. I liked when LOD said, "Take the camera off Joy while she composes herself". They did, as Joy kept giggling and he quickly said, "No, I was just kidding! Keep the camera on her!" lol

More Joy, please. For a change, with her subbing on Hardball yesterday or Thurs, it was actually informative and enjoyable--plus, I got to hear what people said without the host constantly talking over them. Refreshing!

Joy repeated that footage about her reaction to "the softening" on AM Joy Saturday morning.  And gave an Hispanic Trump supporter what-ho for not answering Joy's questions.  And tonight (Saturday evening) in Iowa, "the softening" apparently has ended, with a return to "deport them all" again the policy he wants to put in place "in the first hour" of his presidency.  I understand why Trump is this way, because he has surrounded himself all his life with people who tell him he is brilliant, and it is "off with their heads" to anyone who disagrees with him.  But I cannot fathom how any professional can pretend to be advising him or want to be associated with this campaign, because he has twice today on major issues slid backward so dramatically.  Again.  (His response to the terrible shooting in Chicago, and tonight the return to his original deportation policy.) 

[Padma]

Joy doesn't suffer fools easily, but she's also having fun with this. I really wish they'd let her take over "Hardball" and give Matthews an "emeritus" status of some sort.

I agree that part of Trump's problem is all the "yes" men (and family) he's been surrounded with for decades. They don't challenge his ideas--including that he's a genius.  Watching the MSNBC feed yesterday of Giuliani completely disgracing himself with his sycophantic intro at the rally, I have to think that he, Carson and Christie have been promised some nice, cushy positions if DT makes it.  I wish someone here would break the rules and ask them.  (C hristie at least seems to have kept his sanity and Carsson cracked me up by calling Trump "elderly". But Giuliani is like a madman. I hope whatever he's been promised is worth selling your soul like that.)

And Trump just can't stay away from embarrassment. 3 days or so this week were.. okay...then his so-called African American outreach followed by his heartless post today (Olberman tweeted he was a "psychopath". How great would it be if Keith were still covering elections on MSNBC? I really do miss him.)

Hillary was right to quote Maya Angelou, "When someone shows you who he is believe him the first time". Trump's been doing this for fourteen months. Why doesn't everyone in America realize how predictable he is? Pivot? No chance!

[NewDigs]

I hope Mika was watching MSNBC this morning and saw Rev. Al's interview with Pastor Mark Burns 'cuz that's how it's done.

He managed to refute Burns's claims without bloviating and pressuring. Some Trump surrogates (Boris, Katrina, KA etc.) just start saying their little memorized statements and won't stop talking and don't ever answer the questions. Burns seemed better prepared and actually answered the questions, and they weren't all softballs.

Kadooz to both.

[Medicine Crow]

I was disappointed that Hillary did not quote Maya Angelou properly.  Hillary said:  "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

Maya's actual quote was:

“When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”

I think adding "the first time" gives emphasis!!!

[car54]

This morning,  Chanel, the morning anchor had the African American pastor who's a Trump surrogate on, and he went on and on arguing with her...and finally, she said "Thank you, I'd be happy to have you on another day, but we're out of time and it's Sunday, go preach........somplace."

It made made me laugh out loud---but it did make him stop talking.

[Padma]

5 hours ago, Medicine Crow said:

I was disappointed that Hillary did not quote Maya Angelou properly.  Hillary said:  "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

Maya's actual quote was:

“When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”

I think adding "the first time" gives emphasis!!!

I think Hillary did get it all in in the alt-right speech. Because listening to her, I realized I didn't know the complete quote.  It's a slightly different message each way, but the complete one probably makes it seem an extra level of insightful.  More of the Rep. leadership and pundits should think about that quote and stop talking about Trump's "pivot" to a nice, reasonable and well-informed candidate in the 70 days left. We've seen him. We know. He can do "nice" for about one or two performances and then the truth comes back like yesterday's soulless tweet. He's not going to change. I think most of the pundits on MSNBC and CNN accept that--which probably means they'll be bringing in even more of the "campaign spokespeople" in the coming weeks to provide "balance".

[jenrising]

14 hours ago, car54 said:

This morning,  Chanel, the morning anchor had the African American pastor who's a Trump surrogate on, and he went on and on arguing with her...and finally, she said "Thank you, I'd be happy to have you on another day, but we're out of time and it's Sunday, go preach........somplace."

It made made me laugh out loud---but it did make him stop talking.

She's great. She used to co-host the Fox affiliate morning show here in Philly, and I'm so glad to be able to see her again. 

[NextIteration]

I think she's a great addition as well, I don't understand the under usage of Betty Nguyen, that's a mystery - I find her so much more likable than Frances Rivera.

[NewDigs]

On August 28, 2016 at 10:02 AM, NewDigs said:

I hope Mika was watching MSNBC this morning and saw Rev. Al's interview with Pastor Mark Burns 'cuz that's how it's done.

He managed to refute Burns's claims without bloviating and pressuring. Some Trump surrogates (Boris, Katrina, KA etc.) just start saying their little memorized statements and won't stop talking and don't ever answer the questions. Burns seemed better prepared and actually answered the questions, and they weren't all softballs.

Kadooz to both.

Quoting myself here while watch and listen to Burns (via phone) spar with i'mnotsurewho on MSNBC but Burns is not only coming off worse than Boris and Katrina et al he sounds freaking unhinged!

He must either like Rev Al or wasn't quite awake Saturday morning or I don't know what. Wow.

I officially revise my opinion.

[stormy]

Burns was screaming with Kristen Welker today.  It was totally insane.  He should not be invited back on MSNBC if he can't talk like a rational person.

I stayed tune for With All Due Respect (Halperin has been on vacation for the past two weeks!) so it was Heilemann and Barnicle.

I purposely didn't watch Rachel's interview with Kellyanne Conway last week, but these guys had her on for a lengthy segement today.  I lasted all of about 5 minutes.

She can not answer a question.  Not even a simple question.  Heilemann:  Do you know the definition of a bigot?

Blondie: yes, do you?

[car54]

Steve announced Burns will be on Hardball later this week.   I won't be watching.   I thought Kristin should have cut him off when he started screeching about where her ancestors were from.

Kellyanne was MUCH better behaved on Rachel, she has been much more snotty when she's on With All Due Respect. (which is kind of funny).

I think Rachel would have stopped her dead if she had pulled that on TRMS.

[represent]

"Pastor" Devil Burns was screaming at the top of his lungs at Kristen, I was like girl, I gotta change the channel. I can't...

It would make sense to me if one of these journalists would ask "Pastor" Devil Burns, who is supposed to be a man of the cloth, um,  does he think that  a "Hillary in blackface" cartoon the most effective holy way to express his objections toward her?  Or did Kristen ask him this, because I couldn't watch. I came in on him screaming some shit about her ancestors and that was it....Again, key word being holy, duty to uphold a holy standard unlike the rest of us, who don't have a job of helping others try to connect with god like he does. 

Yet this "man of god" who is a Trump supporter thinks this cartoon is the best way to respond and point out that Hillary in his opinion has her own racial biases?

Again, what a "man of God."   

EVIL

[Mumbles]

Ugh. So Barnicle is now doing other shows than Morning Joe? If any other person, who didn't have decades-long ties to the old white guys who run or ran NBC that he has, had done what he did, they would not have a job in journalism. It really sickens me.

Rachel is far more respectful to her guests (but not a pushover) than the WADR gang of smirking monkeys, and it is conducive to better, less defensive interviews.

[alias1]

KAC  was much more subdued with Rachel and I think that was because she knew Rachel could very politely take her apart.  It seems like the guys (sorry guys) keep letting her get away with whatever she wants to say.  She did the same thing with Chris Matthews when she was on his show.  I loved how Cher described her on the LOD show (paraphrasing), "What comes out of her mouth is smooth as silk and everything is a lie.  I don't like that chick."     

[NewDigs]

I don't know what Jake did to piss off tptb but he's been in that corn maze in IA since this morning.

[Padma]

1 hour ago, SierraMist said:

KAC  was much more subdued with Rachel and I think that was because she knew Rachel could very politely take her apart.  It seems like the guys (sorry guys) keep letting her get away with whatever she wants to say.  She did the same thing with Chris Matthews when she was on his show.  I loved how Cher described her on the LOD show (paraphrasing), "What comes out of her mouth is smooth as silk and everything is a lie.  I don't like that chick."     

Last week I was kind of admiring KAC for the way she came into the Trump campaign mess and was always well spoken, calm and (unlike the candidate) always on message and great with spinning everything on his behalf.

Now the novelty of someone on his team having competence has worn off and I'm sick of her emotionless face and Stepford Wife-defense of whatever ridiculous thing Trump and his surrogates are selling today--whether lies about Hillary's health, lies about his own health or lies about how his immigration "plan" is the same as it's always been (the lie du jour that KAC was selling to Kornacki this afternoon.  She does it effortlessly just like the candidate and his henchmen like Giuliani. It's scary how willingly and easily they lie--and now with Kellyanne, how easily people like Chris Matthews and Kornacki--and, yes, imo, Rachel, too--let her get away with it, all in the name of being "polite" or "fair".)

"What comes out of her mouth is smooth as silk and everything is a lie.  I don't like that chick."    Perfect! Thank you (and Cher).  I loved her with LOD, but somehow missed this excellent quote.

[33kaitykaity]

John Heilemann and Donnie Deutsch staged a mock Clinton/Trump presidential debate on WADR today -- fricking hilarious!!

ETA:  They need to stop with the blackface-Tweeting "preacher."  Enough with his reciting the Pledge of Allegiance" at the end of every interview.  I've heard him do that twice.  

Edited August 30, 2016 by 33kaitykaity

[car54]

I went and washed dishes until Pastor Burns was off the screen.   He's joined Ann Coulter as the interview I won't watch anymore.

I feel like Boris had a sit-down with Kellyanne--the past two days he's been doing her exact same deflection game.    I think Dan Rather said Kellyanne could talk the leg off a table or something like that.

[Padma]

I'm shocked! Jacob Soberoff (whom I generally can't stand) just did a very informative piece from the U.S.-Mexico border, showing the fence (and where it ends), talking with a border patrol agent (woman, who said their set up now is working fine, despite the flimsy-looking fence and its abrupt end), and provided actual information about the number of people who are being stopped each year illegally crossing the border (over 26,000 in 2015). Kate Snow and Ari Melber also had some good information about costs (the ICE budget, estimates of $25 billion for a Trump wall, deportation numbers past and present, etc.) I learned more in ten minutes on Snow's program than in the past year of other CNN/MSNBC coverage of Trump and his #1 issue. 

[jjj]

Howard Dean on Chris Hayes second hour on Tuesday was really stumbling over his borders -- at one point said the Mexican border is important "because it is the biggest border we have, um, except for Canada".  Which means it is our smallest border, because I could not think of more than two land borders.  And Canada has over 5,000 miles of border with us, so not even close in size.. 

[Padma]

So Donald Trump ditches the press and has a good photo op in Mexico City, then gives an absurd speech on immigration (the Wall! Everyone here illegally has to go home, then get in line and come back legally! But I still won't say HOW we find them and make them go!)

And based on that, Lawrence O'D and Bill Kristol are lavishing praise on him, speculating on attracting independents and sharing a love fest with Hugh Hewitt!  Only Eugene Robinson seemed to actually be listening critically and understanding that what was true yesterday is still true today "the emperor has no clothes". Trump is pandering for votes--with lots of lies about HRC and the current policies at the border--and gets massive praise for it (CNN, too! With that tool Lewandowski positioned front and center!)

Sometimes one can despair of the media. Some I understand because they've been for Trump all along, whatever he says. But Kristol and LOD ? How can one phto op and one very poor speech (for anyone else, that is), make up for the past 14 months of the Trump campaign? It's incredible.

[jjj]

33 minutes ago, Padma said:

And based on that, Lawrence O'D and Bill Kristol are lavishing praise on him, speculating on attracting independents and sharing a love fest with Hugh Hewitt!  Only Eugene Robinson seemed to actually be listening critically and understanding that what was true yesterday is still true today "the emperor has no clothes".

What??? I muted the speech, and muted the commentary that followed -- but this amazes me.   Thanks for the report, hard as it is to believe.  If Trump is "attracting independents," it is people who have lived outside the range of the extreme wings of the Republican Party.  I don't see the people who are "maybe Republican, maybe Democratic, depending on the issues/candidates" going "hmmm, Trump seems like a reasonable alternative this time." 

Okay, I unmuted, and Rachel is talking about the "strikingly anti-Catholic" (i.e., immigrants) history of political factions in history and nativism. 

[Padma]

Well, in my pique (and slowness to mute), I might have exaggerated a teeny bit the lovefest, but it sure felt that way to me as they gushed on about how Trump had the best day of his campaign...the great image of him side-by-side with Pena-Nieto, and how even Lawrence was talking about how there really -had- been a "softening" of his position to something a lot more palatable.

I loved Robinson for hearing what I had--that Trump was giving priority to removing all the criminals on Day 1 (and also "ending gangs" during his presidency), but was STILL requiring all undocumented immigrants to return to their home countries and "get in line".  Gene followed up on that HARD line, but LOD cut him off and threw it to Kristol (suddenly gushing about what a great day for Trump it had been) and Hewitt ('nuff said about him. I -did- finally manage to find the mute.) 

[shok]

2 hours ago, jjj said:

What??? I muted the speech, and muted the commentary that followed --

Don't mute! CHANGE THE CHANNEL. The recording devices that determine the ratings for all the shows doesn't recognize muting and still counts you as watching it. Only until everybody changes their channel when the scary orange one is bellowing on their tv will the ratings finally go down and TPTB at these stations might pay some attention.

[Sharpie66]

LOD and Kristol were both definitely gushing along with Hewitt. Kristol (WTF was he even doing there? he is such a useless tool) and Hewitt, I get, but LOD? Seriously? That was really ticking me off.

At least I had the palate cleanser of Rachel giving us the history of the nativist movement in the US and pointing out exactly how dangerous Trump is at 11:00 (Central time).

[Padma]

I don't know what happened to LOD. I thought he hated Trump. To think a day like yesterday could make such a change in him is very shocking.

On the brighter side, I thought the Morning Joe group would be much the same. Instead they thought it was TERRIBLE--the trip AND the speech, which they thought was bringing back some of the most hateful rhetoric of the primary. They were really good.

I generally don't like Mika, but when she saw the teleprompter was giving her quotes about how wonderful Trump was from Ann Coulter, she insisted she wouldn't read it or her name on the show, that someone had made her aware how hateful and dishonest Coulter was and she just wasn't giving her any more publicity. Yay!!!! Because I heard her on MSNBC for the past two days and she is incredibly vile. She lies constantly. Why should she be given a forum for it?

I hope Chris Matthews was watching.

[Medicine Crow]

My, my, Mika grew a pair.  Good for her!!

[stormy]

I don't get LO either.  He used to refer to Trump (for several years) as the guy that will never become president.

Maybe he was having a off day yesterday.

[3pwood]

3 hours ago, Padma said:

... I generally don't like Mika, but when she saw the teleprompter was giving her quotes about how wonderful Trump was from Ann Coulter, she insisted she wouldn't read it or her name on the show, that someone had made her aware how hateful and dishonest Coulter was and she just wasn't giving her any more publicity. ...

She said that "a great leader in the media once mentioned to us, actually, not to ever mention this person's name because people like that have no place, no place in the mainstream conversation".  I wonder who the "great leader in the media" was?

[jjj]

Gah, the Brian Williams Show has the title "The Eleventh Hour".  Thanks, MSNBC, from the 75% of the country's geography that is NOT in the Eastern Time Zone.  One more reason not to tune in -- timeline dissonance.