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First Read Joins Chorus Hitting Robert Gibbs For Being Mean To Cheney
The gang at MSNBC’s First Read, who are generally an important daily read, joins the chorus of White House reporters pillorying White House press sec Robert Gibbs for responding disdainfully yesterday to Dick Cheney’s disdainful criticism of President Obama:
Is Robert Gibbs’ open disdain for Cheney acceptable to a president who promised to move beyond petty political squabbling? And does the president agree with Gibbs’ description of the loyal opposition as “the Republican cabal”?
Ask those questions if you want, but if they are going to be asked, simple fairness dictates that the following questions should also be asked:
Did Cheney’s claim to CNN that Obama has raised the risk of another attack constitute “open disdain,” and is it “acceptable” to both the White House press corps and the current GOP leadership? Does the current GOP leadership — which has called for Obama and Dems to be “bipartisan” — agree with Cheney’s assertions? Why is Cheney’s attack getting a free pass from the press, and why shouldn’t Gibbs aggressively defend his boss against Cheney’s broadside?
There’s no sign that First Read had any problem with Cheney’s assault — its only other post on this that I can find is a neutral report on the Cheney interview. But again, simple fairness dictates that at a minimum Cheney take a hit here, too. Does the First Read crew really think Gibbs’ attack was less “acceptable” than Cheney’s? Doubtful.
Either way, this meme is snowballing — CBS’ Chip Reid hammered it yesterday, as did ABC’s Rick Klein, and First Read helps set the Beltway conventional wisdom. So expect Gibbs to be hit with questions again about this today.
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Exactly what I was thinking. Josh Marshall has made the point several times that it is clear that the DC cocktail circuit that continues to run the traditional media (both print and teevee) is hardwired Republican after 40ish years, and this most recent example with Cheney and Gibbs is a perfect example.
A Republican says some pretty despicable stuff about the sitting POTUS, John King, sycophant extraordinaire, just grins and moves onto his next softball question, then the next day the traditional media follows up in the same way, Gibbs defends his boss against the insane rantings of a unindicted felon, and he is the one who is accused of caustic rhetoric.
Although it is sad in some ways to watch the traditional media die, it’s days like yesterday that makes their death that much easier to bear (and when I think back to their compliance and complicity in facilitating the Iraqi invasion).
First lets notice how First Read characterizes Cheney and Limbaugh
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“the loyal opposition”
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Me I prefer War Criminal and degenerate philanderer, but tomato tomatoe.
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Here is the thing though, and I saw this on Morning Joe, none of these clowns are quoting the full text of Gibby’s answer which in fact did address Cheney in a substantive and serious way. Instead they do the same thing they accused Jon Stewart of doing last week and that is unfairly cutting clips to fit their story without giving the full picture. Personally I hope Gibby stands his ground and calls them out. Not only should a former VP NOT be saying we are less safe just months after leaving office but someone who sanctioned torture and shredded the constitution shouldn’t be allowed on Tee Vee. Like I said before Gibby should make reference to all of the illegal things Cheney did while in office and then question why the journalists who are upset by what he said also don’t want Cheney to face prosecution for his deeds.
Pretty funny considering Chip Reid went out of his way to kiss Dana Perino’s a$$ while she slammed the Democrats on a daily basis from her podium.
CBS just hired a right wing ideologue, Jeff Ballabon, to head up CBS News Division, so expect more of that. Chip Reid is nothing if not a massive snotty little suckup. He and Michael Sherer get along well.
Chip “Democrats raising their ugly heads” Reid?
The Media seems to think Obama should take all criticisms and attacks without defending himself or counter-punching. That his only response to partisan attacks can be “Thank you sir, may I have another?”.
Maybe the most hypocritical response I heard today was from Pat Buchannan, Richard Nixon’s homeboy. He is complaining about hurting the prestige of the office when his former boss was talking about kidnapping and killing journalists who wrote negative articles about his administration. I swear some people have no shame.
Ajax says “Although it is sad in some ways to watch the traditional media die, it’s days like yesterday that makes their death that much easier to bear”
Easier to bear, or impatient to celebrate? I for one welcome their demise, each wrenching obituary of another dying paper. Not nice to say, I’ll admit, but the sooner that snotty little a$$holes like Chip Reid are in the unemployment line, the better I will feel.
Petty, petty, petty, that’s what the median has become. Who cares, this little ***** fight is between the Washington elite, most Americans don’t give a damn, especially about DICK Cheney. The press is joke, thank goodness that’s not where most Americans get their news. What a bunch of useless tools.
Such a shameful display by Buchanan and the rest on “Boring Joke”….It’s ok for a former VP to take potshots at the current Administration, but oh no, Bob Gibbs, how dare you laugh off his demonic musings, and show such disrespect for the office??
How long before these airheads realize Obama is the President?
So it’s perfectly acceptable for Cheney to go on TV and say that Obama is leading us all to our deaths?
WTF is wrong with our media? Dick Cheney is a WAR CRIMINAL. Bush is a WAR CRIMINAL. They deserve only our disdain. PARTICULARLY if they’re going to start a fight!
i agree with other commentators — any time you call cheney something other than a war criminal, you’re being far too kind (and inaccurate)
This is just disguting… Cheney can disrespect Obama, and Obama is just supposed to sit there and take it?!
What is wrong with the media?? Aren’t these people supposed to be adults??
This is just pitiful, and embarrassing.
I hope Gibbs comes out swinging today at the briefing, and doesn’t back down.
Send an e-mail to the White House thanking Gibbs
Giving Cheney a platform in the first place is the real crime here. There is only one Vice President at a time and his vicious remarks are an outrageous affront to our country. Gibbs’ response was not petty. It was spot on and I applaud him for speaking the truth.
I think Gibbs mis-spoke.
His joke was not supposed to be that CNN interviewed Cheney because Russ Limbaugh wasn’t available.
He meant Josef Mengele wasn’t available.
Greg outstanding site;This has become a must read everyday.Thx
A question for Cheney: Do you think we’re less safe than we were on Sept. 10, 2001?
Maybe the 13% of Americans who approve of Ick Cheney all work for NBC.
As I just noted on yesterday’s “shuttin’ down, goin’t to get drunk” thread, Scott Wilson piece in this morning’s WP again plays this one up and forwards the Republican talking points.
I agree with par4 at 10:57 am…
I’m writing to thank Gibbs right now.
I just emailed Gibbs.
Well, they are all “village idiots” aren’t they? What do we expect?
Cheney is a war criminal who did his best to shred the Constitution, who lied us into a worthless war, who has never said anything in his entire political career that wasn’t a lie, and who continues to do so now. Kudos to Gibbs for calling him and the cabal of Southern traitors masquerading as Republicans for what they are.
These people – the otherwise-unemployables of the DC MSM – are as disconnected from reality as their Wall Street bosses are.
Info to CONTACT the WH. I did.
The only msm reporter/pundit I’ve seen call the Cheney/King interview what it was – disgraceful, was Richard Wolffe on Countdown last night.
Here’s the linktot eh Countdown segment:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29729001#29729001
I’m glad the Democrats are finally responding to the non-stop and outrageous right wing attacks.
All it takes is the courage to calmly speak the truth and deliver it with a bit of wit for these attackers and their acolytes whine and howl. Good!
Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and the entire GOP elite are hoping and praying for America to go down in flames so they can blame it all on the Democrats and get themselves back into power.
America voted them out. Right now they hate America for that.
Since when did anything a repuglican have to say that was worth listening too? I have 8 years experience were I learned to ignore their presence.
It is obvious that First Read is the Last to Know that the winds of change are upon us, and as such we don’t need to give no stinking deference to a man who drinks, takes insult, and then shoots his friend in the face! -Kevo
Ah yes, Dick Chaney, the lithesome piece of human garbage I want to see die in front of my face so I can hold his eyes open as he slips into the grip of eternal damnation with my smiling face as the last thing he sees. And the whores who enable him – first rate pieces of human garbage that I would gladly beat into submission with a hunk of 2X4 and toss into an outhouse to rot with the rest of the ****.
Is there no depths to which the cable news whores won’t stoop in order to wrap their lips around the tiny little ***** of Chaney and swallow his load? It’s no wonder I wouldn’t watch one of the news whores if my life depended on it. I even wish their families the worst in life. If I honestly thought that an invisible jew nailed to a stick was the savior of jack ****, I’d pray their families die a horrible death as well. **** them all.
Why aren’t these news outlets making the point that it’s bad form for previous administrations to criticize current ones? Lord knows we heard it all the time when Clinton and particularly Jimmy Carter were criticizing the Bush administration. Are vice presidents exempt? If so, why can’t Gibbs attack Cheney?
Personally, I hope Dick Cheney keeps sticking his head up from his rat hole. The more we see of Satan’s lap dog, the more the American people will be reminded of the horrors of the Bush Administration and continue to hold them responsible for the tremendous mess this country is in. So I say, let’s see more of Cheney…the NEW face of the Republican Party!
Well I suppose the Fox News wantabe dolts at MSNBC First Read think responding to unwarranted attacks is inexcusable. Where is their outrage at an ex VP for openly and disingenuously criticizing a sitting President. I do know that Bush/Cheney would never stand for that. Nice audition for Fox News they must pay more.
I think we can all imagine the reaction if Al Gore had said anything remotely similar about GWB in 2001.
These guys will do anything for a bit of drama. It’s what they live off of. Actually, it’s what they know what we live off of. I’m surprised they aren’t still trying set up some sort of round table weekly discussions with Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Joe the Plumber and Newt Gingrich just to drive up ratings.
Credit where credit is due, CBS, normally one of the usual suspects in the compliant and complicit traditional media brigade, actually presents an objective back and forth on this Cheney vs. Gibbs kerfuffle:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/17/politics/washingtonpost/main4871333.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4871333
**** Dick Cheney and MSNBC.
This is issue is about Gibbs – not about what Cheney said. You’re using sophistry to make your point and twisting the argument. It’s not the job of the White House spokesman to ADVISE people not to pay attention to what someone else says and that’s what he said about Cheney – I can decide for myself who I want to listen to and agree with … And does Gibbs represent what the WH believes – he sure spends alot of time using the word ” I ” and gives HIS opinion way too often. He’s rude, disrespectful, smug
and lacking decorum. Sophomoric also – I thought Obama was for change and civility in the public debate. I’ll be happy when Gibbs is gone (and I think it will be sooner than later)
What I like most about commenters like Mary Francom above is that it is clear that they don’t even have to watch Gibbs (or Cheney), or have the faintest notion of what this discussion is about, in order to have a very strong opinion about it: all they do is cut/paste whatever their “leaders” tell them, be it the drug addict or Coulter or Hannity or Free Republic.
The way you can tell this is because all of their responses are exactly the same, and are intentionally non-substantive so they can be used whenever someone’s name comes up regardless of date or substance.
In this most recent example by Ms. Francom, I received multiple emails from Republican co-workers yesterday and this morning using “rude, disrespectful, smug and lacking decorum” in describing Mr. Gibbs. The EXACT SAME WORDS from 5 different far right apologists is simply too many to be a coincidence. I have to hand it to the ever dwindling right wing here in America, at least they are good at coordinating their daily marching orders to their willing flock.
My suggestion to Mary and others like her: turn off the radio and form your own opinions. Just because you think that a guy is cool because he loves oxycontin and viagra parties in the Dominican doesn’t mean that you have do believe everything he tells you.
Cheney’s going to be Village aristocracy until the pacemaker battery runs out; Obama will be an uppity interloper until he leaves Washington, after which, Sally Quinn will say how the Obamas “never quite fit in” to “their” city.
I completely agree that giving this man a platform for his ‘best defense is an offense’ is outrageous. Cheney obviously did this to blanket the news of his private assassination ring. But worse than just being ‘wired for Republicans’ there is a witches’ brew in the media now, with lies, myths, and most of all fantasy dominating: reminiscent of only one historical example–the one that came out of an emprisoned German fantaisist several decades ago. He too was the spokesmodel for gigantic corporate wealth; be very wary of this trend…
Greg, that comment at 12:26 is highly inappropriate. I hope you will see fit to remove it.
Do you suppose Cheney’s feelings were hurt? He always struck me as the type to put on a big show of being tough, but is actually deep down really sensitive. Put on a face for the media and then go home and cry into his pillow. Gibbs should be more considerate of other people’s feelings.
But seriously: WTF?
I have the same response as to misbehaving children – “when you act worthy of respect, you will get respect”.
In this case — If you act like a partisan hack (or worse) fifty days after leaving office, you will be treated like a partisan hack.
pretty simple.
This isn’t about Gibbs. It is about the whiny, unprofessional behavior of the White House Press Corps, a group of overweening, egotistical but highly oversensitive frat boys who wine and dine with their Republican friends at MediaBistro cocktail parties. Remember Ari Fleischer? “Watch what we say, watch what we do”? Did these overprivileged over-blow-dried frat boys throw a hissy fit about all the nasty stuff Fleischer did? No. They didn’t. They stood in the Rose Garden and guffawed along with George W Bush the day he announced that his administration had approved the committing of war crimes (September 15, 2006) In addition, they sat in their little White House cubicles for eight years while their overlord Dick Cheney plotted war crimes and designed systems to spy on these very same overprivileged adolescent reporters, who never dared ask where Cheney was and what he was doing. Sat there for eight years while Bush Press Secretaries lied to them to their face. And they knew it. Yes they did. But the cowardly little weasels said nothing, all those years. They knew. But their six-figure salaries meant way more to them, so they shut up and said nothing, all that time. No, this isn’t about Gibbs. It’s about them.
Who was the Republican stenographer (I’m assuming, based on his haircut and uniform) that posed the question to Gibbs to begin with? It just sounded like it came direct from the Ailes/Levin/Norquist fax machines. Has he dodged responsibility for being a plant?
Little did I realize that Cheney was such an admirable person, at least in the eyes of MSNBC. I listened again to Gibbs’ response to the idiotic question and it was appropriate, especially given the insane statements of Cheney. In fact, it was quite witty. Cheney is an enemy of the people and democracy. Let the folks at MSNBC live in HIS world. Talk about revisionist history…
As you’ve stated, the thing that bothers me in “First Read’s” assessment of Robert Gibbs’ answer about Dick Cheney is that they seem to see nothing wrong with what the former Vice-President said! To go before the American people and try to instill fear in us by saying President Obama is making us more unsafe is beyond the pale, not to mention inexcusable. I suppose it’s also alright that John King referenced his question by using the extreme right-wing rag “Human Events” to frame his question in such a way that it would practically demand the answer it illicited from Cheney, is also alright in their opinion? MSNBC is NOT seeing things very clearly lately and the opinions read there seem to be sliding a lot further to the right. They should change their slogan to “The Place For Right-Wing Politics” since they are apparently devolving into FOX News TWO. They must sure love them some ratings!
Dick Cheney is one of the main reasons we are hated in the rest of the world and is NOT a person worthy of ANY respect. If he chooses to go out on the public airwaves and pull a Glenn “the sky-is-falling” Beck, then he should answer for it and deserves the criticism that comes from such a performance.
Go Robert “Tell It Like It Is” GIBBS!!!!
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What is it with Republicans and their apologists? Were they all raped as children or something? I’m stumped for an explanation for their toxic world view. I mean, even Hobbes like animals …