Maddow Blames Beck and Other Conservatives for Her Getting Duped by Satirical Website
As NewsBusters previously reported , MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday got duped by a satirical website quoting from their spoof article about Sarah Palin advocating an attack on Egypt as if it was a serious commentary. On Tuesday, proving once again that it takes a lot of rationalizations to be a liberal these days, Maddow blamed her mistake on Fox News's Glenn Beck and other prominent conservatives (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): In a lengthy segment which began with Maddow bashing conservatives such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.), former President George W. Bush, and former United Nations ambassador John Bolton, the MSNBCer went after this evening’s real object of disaffection: RACHEL MADDOW: For some folks, opportunity is always, opportunity is always knocking when it comes to their chosen policies. But for some folks, opportunism is not about pushing for a specific policy. It's about choosing every occasion as the right occasion to push for their favorite idea, for their favorite story. Like for example the idea, the story, that it's the end of the world. Maddow then played a clip from Monday’s “Glenn Beck” show wherein he spoke about what’s going on in Egypt as being “the coming insurrection.” After its conclusion, she commented: MADDOW: As opposed to the other times the coming insurrection was upon us, now, the people protesting against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, now that means that the coming is upon us because China is going to take over New Zealand. Also, the Muslim world is one country now. More of Monday’s “Beck” was aired, followed by additional comments from Maddow: MADDOW: Mr. Beck and for others who see a direct ratio between their own success and how afraid they can make their audiences, it turns out that an uprising in Egypt is even better evidence of this being the end of the world than say the last evidence we had, which was President Obama passing Wall Street reform last July. Yet another “Beck” clip was aired, this one a rant against, as Maddow said, FinReg, followed by more commentary by the MSNBCer: MADDOW: “Wall Street reform. Your republic is over!” The mainstream Right and Republican Congressional leaders are generally sort of supporting what the Obama administration is doing right now in regard to Egypt and diplomacy. They are being relatively cautious and diplomatic. But to the right of them, within a span of one week, it went from protests on the streets of Egypt to China is going to take over New Zealand. It went from protests on the streets of Egypt to Barack Obama supports the secret annihilation of Israel and so do you. It went from protests on the streets of Egypt to this was all some secret plot hatched by unions. After more than six minutes of conservative/Beck bashing, Maddow finally addressed her pathetic gaffe from the previous evening: MADDOW: And if you are wondering, yes, this is all an elaborate excuse slash explanation for us believing that ChristWire.org was something other than satire yesterday. The clip of her gaffe from Monday was shown followed by: MADDOW: Yes, those folks asking [Sarah Palin] to invade North Africa it turns out are writers for a satirical website called ChristWire.org, which is really actually very excellent. Props to them for a brilliant piece of satire, shame on us for believing it, but in a world where China taking over New Zealand is what passes for real analysis on the situation in Egypt, how do we know that's not satire, too? This was followed by a clip of Beck saying, “This is the coming insurrection. This is what I have been warning about.” And that was Maddow’s explanation for getting duped by a satirical website: in her view, conservatives – especially Glenn Beck – are saying all kinds of crazy things. As a result, it’s become difficult for her to know what’s real and what’s a spoof. If this is the case, then maybe she should stop reporting on what conservatives are saying. If she can no longer discern between fact and fiction, serious commentary and satire, she can’t possibly be trusted or taken seriously about anything, for who knows what her next source will be and whether or not it’s actually legitimate. Maybe more importantly, how can anyone on television – Rhodes scholar or not! – be deserving of the public’s trust if she blames her own mistakes on others not at all involved in her program? Sadly, this is par for the course on MSNBC as well as other liberal media outlets. These are the same people that disgustingly blamed conservatives for the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Minn.) last month. They’re used to pointing fingers at others without merit. Nice job, Rach. I knew you'd address your gaffe, but had no idea you'd blame other people for it.
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Maddow Blames Beck and Other Conservatives for Her Getting Duped by Satirical Website
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on February 2, 2011. Filed under