Mika praised Huckabee as "honest" despite his documented deceptions in response to AIDS controversy

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712110003?f=h_latest

Summary: On Morning Joe, while discussing the controversy surrounding Mike Huckabee's 1992 statements about AIDS, Mika Brzezinski praised Huckabee for being "charming," "authentic," and "honest," and stated that the way he's handling the issue is "brilliant." In fact, Huckabee has claimed that he "didn't say that we should quarantine" AIDS patients, and he has asserted that "{t}here was still so much confusion about HIV transmission" at the time he made the statements in question. But as several news outlets pointed out, by 1992, it was widely known that AIDS could not be transmitted via casual contact.

[NewJeffCT]

1. Magic Johnson announced he had AIDS in 1991

Doing the math, that is the year before Huckabee advocated isolating people who suffered from AIDS. It was known by most when Johnson announced that it was not spread through casual contact. I believe some NBA players that expressed concern about AIDS were generally excorciated in the media for their ignorance - so, why does Huckabee get a pass? A politician should have access to more information than an NBA player, no?

If Huckabee had advocated isolating AIDS sufferers in 1982 instead of 1992, he might have a legitimate argument that it was an unknown disease. It would still be wrong, but at least AIDS was relatively new and unknown at that time.

[UTUSN]

6. Mika says she & her siblings are split among Dems & Rethugs. I'm beginning to wonder which she is.

Or actually, she has projected herself as a serious newsperson, a Dan RATHER protege, but is being pushed in the direction of MSNBC's wannabe-sL-IMUS circus.

SCARBOROUGH tends to be "sick" on Mondays and Fridays. The show is better when Willie & Mika are on their own. The Mon-Fri pattern is a giveaway to all office managers that there is a drinking problem going on. I wish they would dump him. He's an insufferable motormouth, not to mention a Rethug a-hole.

[Solly Mack]

2. Maybe there's some new standard of measure for being 'honest'

that we don't know about

under 10,000 lies told in a year and you're still honest
If the lie benefits you in some way then it's not counted as a lie
A lie told to 'the people' isn't counted a lie
The bigger and bolder the lie means it's not a lie at all

[flashl]

3. Maybe somebody should pass along a report about the Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal

The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is a feature length documentary by Arkansas filmmaker and investigative journalist Kelly Duda. Through interviews and presentation of documents and footage, Duda alleges that for more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. The documentary contends that thousands of victims who received transfusions of a blood product derived from these plasma products, "Factor 8", died as a result.

[TwilightGardener]

4. MSNBC is really pimping him. I don't understand why. If a Dem had said this,

his or her campaign would be over.

[EFerrari]

5. That's why he has J Coffer Black consulting for his campaign.

Because he's so honest.

[wishlist]

7. He shouldn't get a pass. He wasn't honest about pushing the pardon

He may be honest in expressing his misguided views about Aids, but he shouldn't be praised for being earnestly wrong! Just like Bush shouldn't be praised for his stubborn insistence for years that Iraq was going well despite all the evidence to the contrary