Posts Tagged ‘media’
IN WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY SPEECH, HILLARY WILL LOOK WITH LONG EYES
All eyes will be on Hillary Clinton when she speaks tonight at the Democratic National Convention.
Media pundits and McCain loyalists will be parsing her every word, scrutinizing her every nuance, analyzing every element of her body language for quite a different reason. They love a political food fight. They’ll pounce on any whiff of tepidness, real or imagined, in her support for Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy. The Republicans have even set up a “Happy Hour for Hillary”, lying in wait to whip up animosity toward Obama, whether their spin is real, or if all else fails, conjured up by their Rovian attack dogs.
But while talking heads will strain to see any shred of conflict between the Democratic nominee-to-be and the second-runner, some of us will be looking at the occasion with what the Tohono O’Odham people call “long eyes”.
Read More“Omaba Caint” Post Sure Could Get Blog Buzz Going
Seems like my last post, “Obama Caint Choose Kaine”, riled some folks up.
Erin Kotecki Vest, who blogs at BlogHer and Queen of Spain, got on my case with several arguments worthy of response. I have great respect for Erin, and am pleased for this excuse to congratulate her in public on becoming BlogHer’s Producer of Special Projects (high five here!).
However, I learned from hard knocks on the political frontlines that her argument on behalf of Gov. Kaine is self-defeating. Sadly, it also demonstrates how we can make it so incredibly hard to hold politicians’ feet to the fire about reproductive rights, health, and justice, and how women are often entirely too well behaved to make history turn out the way we want it.
True, the issues of birth control, sex education, reproductive rights, and abortion have been so polarized by the media’s false balance (someone else used that phrase on HuffPo last week, but I made it up when I wrote The War on Choice) that both the facts and the framing get skewed in public discourse. That’s frustrating to be sure. But, the deal is, whoever defines the terms of the debate is probably going to win it. And you can’t ever win at all if you don’t stay in the game.
If you haven’t already, please read “Obama Caint Chose Kaine” for my key points about Obama’s veep pick, which I won’t reiterate here. Here’s an excerpt of Erin’s reaction:
We could go through and talk about Kaine’s repeated his position supporting Roe and what he’s done as Governor…however, let’s just put all that aside too.
Let’s deal with the realities of this country. The reality of government. The reality of America in 2008.
Read MoreWhere Were You 6 Months Ago, Katie?
So now that Hillary Clinton has lost her bid to be the first woman to win a major party’s nomination for president, Katie Couric has decided to speak out. My my. What a profile in courage.
Watch the video teaser and read more here on Huffington Post.
“One of the great lessons of [Hillary Clinton’s] campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life, particularly in the media….It isn’t just Hillary Clinton who needs to learn a lesson from this primary season — it’s all the people who crossed the line, and all the women and men who let them get away with it,” says Katie. Well, yeahhhhh!
Not that I don’t appreciate her speaking truth to power now–I really do–but where was she six months ago?
Read MoreRandi Rhodes Plays Don Imus
Kudos to Air America for suspending Randi Rhodes because of her utterly inappropriate, unprofessional comments about Hillary Clinton. During a rant in San Francisco, at a public event sponsored by an Air America affiliate, Rhodes called Clinton a f**g whore, among other incendiary language.
Sexist slurs are no more right coming from a liberal commentator than from a Don Imus, and they are just as wrong coming from a woman as from a man. Air America’s swift and sure action was the responsible course. Rhodes should not be allowed back on the air until and unless she apologizes publicly to Clinton and the women of America. In addition, she should be sent for remedial training to the nearest Women’s Studies program.
Here’s what Air America’s chair, Charlie Kireker said in a brief statement. I encourage you to post your support for Air America’s action there. The Hillary haters are posting in abundance; they seem unable to separate their personal animosity for the candidate from the issue at hand, which is the continued and almost knee-jerk use of sexist language in the media to disparage any woman not in the favor of the talk show host. Sorry, but that’s unacceptable no matter whom one supports for President.
Read MoreSpeak Up Some More on Hillary
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with the snark about Hillary Clinton, judging things about her they would never even notice in a man.
But when you are the first anything, you’ll never be seen with an unjaundiced eye. In the end, Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is a giant step toward normalizing the idea of women running for highest office. Until then we will continue to be barraged with misogynist Chris Matthews rants and websites selling Hillary Clinton nutcrackers.
Fortunately, as a counterbalance and a ligher touch, in the February MORE.com forum online, Deborah Siegel, author of Sisterhood Interrupted, asked women (generally 40 and up) who have themselves accomplished many firsts to weigh in on what a Hillary presidency might look like. Says Deborah, ” The forum is richer than the squabbles that dominate the news, and I feel it’s so very important to inject some fresh takes into the public conversation.”
Read MoreWhich Greek Tragedy are Hillary and Bill Enacting?
I posted this on Huffington Post this morning in a fit of pique about how unfairly I think the public and the press judge Hillary Clinton while giving other candidates a free pass. For example, they criticized her concession speech after the South Carolina primary as not being gracious enough, yet uttered not a peep when Barack Obama left Nevada without giving any concession speech at all. Nevertheles, especially in politics, what is perceived is what is, and that she has to deal with that reality. Herewith, the column; check out the HuffPo version here if you want to have your breath taken away by some hostile comments:
Help me please: Which Greek tragedy would be the proper metaphor for the political narrative playing itself out before our eyes? If Hillary Clinton loses her presidential bid because Bill’s help has become so destructive to her campaign that it is alienating the press and offending African Americans (yes, he who was formerly dubbed “the first Black president”), that would be a tragedy of epic proportions. This is especially poignant, considering how strongly people expected his presence to be positive for her, not to mention a redemption for him.
Perhaps the specter of losing the nomination after being dubbed the putative front runner, or of gaining the nomination in a bitterly divisive nomination contest then losing the presidency, might be likened to a Pyrrhic victory.
Read MoreClinton, Couric, and Chris Matthews’ Sexist Spin
When it comes to Chris Matthews’s interpretation of Hillary Clinton’s words—any of her words—she’s damned if she yeas and damned if she nays.
After gloating that a new poll found Hillary losing in a matchup with any one of five Republican presidential candidates, Matthews later in the same program spun her November 26 interview with Katie Couric, in which–like any candidate with half a brain and a quarter of a spine–Clinton showed confidence in her ability to win the Democratic nomination.
Read More