Email Exchange Shuster(MSNBC) and Reines (HRC)

[RamboLiberal]

-----Original Message-----
From: Philippe Reines
To: David Shuster
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 7:14 p.m.

David - how hard is it for someone, anyone, in the vast MS/NBC universe to contact any one of us at the campaign for comment about Chelsea before going on air and saying that she is being "pimped out" ? It's absurdly offensive. And what the hell does that even mean?

Philippe Reines
Press Secretary
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton



-----Original Message-----
From: David Shuster
To: Philippe Reines
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 8:51 p.m.

Nice to hear from you, philippe.

It is a fact that chelsea has made calls to superdelegates, as your campaign colleagues have acknowledged. It is also a fact that the campaign has reacted quite harshly to any media who have sought to interview chelsea. That was the point. By slamming any reporter who seeks to chat with chelsea while simultaneously having chelsea do campaign tasks such as trying to convince super delegates to support her mom, that's the reference.

Chelsea is polite and does a fine job of saying "I don't want to talk.". But for campaign staff to then jump down the throat of a reporter who seeks to talk to chelsea...that's an issue.

--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8408_Page2.html

[Proud2BAmurkin]

1. jezus. Call her a whore because she decides she doesn't want to talk to the lying press?

[JackORoses]

3. he didn't call her a whore, he called her parents pimps

[DefenseLawyer]

6. No one called anyone a whore

A pimp sends someone else out to do the dirty work, so to speak, while he stays in the background and collects the benefit. He used some colorful language (although it is a term that has become ubiquitous in modern pop culture) but he wasn't calling anyone a whore. And the statement wasn't leveled at her for "deciding she doesn't want to talk to the press"; it was aimed at the campaign for sending her out to work on the campaign yet insisting that she is "off limits" to questions. I wouldn't have used that language necessarily, but he has a point if you ask me.

[murielm99]

7. The majority of people who hear that comment

will not hear it as a term that has become ubiquitous in pop culture. They will hear the word "pimp" and think of its original definition.

It is quite shocking to many people, and not something a professional journalist should be saying. Stop rationalizing.

[DefenseLawyer]

10. I don't disagree

I don't know about the majority of people, but definitely the majority of people over 40. I never said it was an appropriate comment, and precisely for the reason you state. But that has to do with how the comment is perceived, not about what he meant. I am not rationalizing. It was not my intention to say that it was a correct choice of words, only to say that he wasn't calling Chelsea names because of her "choice not to speak" as implied in the OP. Despite what "many people" will think when they hear the term, it was not his intention to imply that Chelsea Clinton is a prostitute and in fact it wasn't even directed at her, but at the tactics of the campaign.

[murielm99]

12. I am over forty, and I know how the expression is used.

That does not make it all right.

If you think most people over forty will not know, then remember how many people over forty there are in this country. And remember that that demographic votes.

I have never heard that expression used casually in any businesslike or professional setting. It is only done informally. I don't know what you do for a living, but would you say something like that at a business meeting, or to a client?

We have complained about how republicans have re-framed our language. Women have complained about how often they are referred to as bitches or cunts. We don't like being called the Democrat Party. We don't like the use of ethnic or racial slurs, and resent that the neocons and their followers have been able to laugh off our sensitivity on these issue by sneering at us for being politically correct.

This was more than a poor choice of words. It was a poor choice of attitude. Maybe it is more surprising because Shuster has been one of the better reporters. But that should not be our standard of comparison. All of them should keep their biases to themselves.

[DURHAM D]

2. Shuster is dense. eom

[CoffeeCat]

4. This is really pretty cool...

...seeing these emails go back and forth.

IT's interesting...

[ruggerson]

9. Yes, it's fascinating to see what fucking prick Shuster is

[neutron]

5. Is there a political website besides cnn or msnbc?

I dropped cable, and don't want to patronize their websites either.

[milkyway]

11. Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo is excellent. Huffington Post has extensive

coverage.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

[Rydz777]

8. Shuster might have had the courtesy of capitalizing Chelsea - or

maybe that's would be beneath him.

[cooolandrew]

13. ...

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