Would Halpernin have called a white president a *censored*?

[RandySF]

It sounds to me like only white presidents are allowed to be confrontational, according to M$M rules.

[WhiteTara]

1. No, which is why I told msnbc and Time that he is a racist. nt

[AngryAmish]

2. Of course not. He is a true Bull Conner type racist.

[latinaliberal]

3. Which is why

i beleive Obama tends to not be "confrontational" it may scare some "folks" that a person of color is calling them out on their shit!

[msongs]

4. as freud says, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

it is highly likely that many media types have called many presidents this name or worse.

[CTyankee]

6. Yeah, I think it's more of his being a smartass, trying to impress the folks around the table

at Morning Joe. Well, tata to him on MJ for the indefinite future...and I hope from Time as well.

[Enrique]

7. many presidents have been dicks

Bush for example was a total dick. Not just because I didn't like his politics, but he was a total dick as a person.

Obama is not a dick, and he wasn't yesterday.

[CakeGrrl]

5. No.

All this is is the "Uppity Negro" sentiment worded differently.

Some of the establishment cannot STAND this black man telling them what to do.

In public, no less.

[monmouth]

8. You know, and I honestly mean this, I don't even if I ever did regard

POTUS as anything but a man. When I look at him I see tall, dark, handsome, smart. People who are so hung up on the color thing mystifies me..

[pipi_k]

15. Me too... there are too many, it seems...

who notice his color to such an extent that everything negative someone says becomes all about his color.

OMG!!! Someone called him a "dick".

It's because...because....


HE'S BLACK!!!!!

aughhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!



Like you, all I see is a man.


It makes me wonder why so many people...so-called "Liberals"... focus that much on what color he is.

[TwilightGardener]

30. The difference is, have you ever heard a journalist call a white President

anything as offensive and personally insulting as "dick" in comments intended for the public? I haven't. Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, other entertainers do it and that's fine. But news people? No. This is a new low, and I can't help but see this as extreme disrespect for the man and complete disregard for his position.

[pipi_k]

59. Actually the level of discourse in this country

has, on the whole, sunk to a new low.

It's been happening for quite some time now.

Wherever the disrespect comes from is really not relevant, IMO.

Like someone else pointed out somewhere else, who would have thought that a VICE *RESIDENT of the US would say, "Go fuck yourself" to a member of Congress?

Or that a *RESIDENT would lie to the entire world about WMDs...

IMO, the level of civil discourse has been going down the tubes since the late 1990s.

And it's going to get worse, no matter what color our president is.


That doesn't always mean it's "racism". Sometimes it's just someone being obnoxiously rude.

[TwilightGardener]

62. See, I do think where the disrespect comes from is ENTIRELY relevant, when

the news media is involved. TV news, newspapers, etc. generally try to hold to a certain decorum in dealing with elected officials, which is why you don't generally see news editorials begin with "So-and-so was a complete DICK at the press conference yesterday!" Or post debate analysis that goes "Wasn't she just an utter shrill bitch when we asked her about her legislative record?" That doesn't happen, at least not in large media markets. The news profession knows it has a responsibility to avoid such blatant denigration of any individual that holds elected office. Until now, anyway. This guy isn't fresh out of journalism school, either. What made him decide to use this term against THIS President on the air during his analysis? Clearly, something made him think it was OK to say this, even if he was bleeped. I think that "something" was a lack of respect generally and historically afforded Presidents. And what has Obama done in office to warrant such a deep level of disrespect compared to previous Presidents?

[pipi_k]

66. OK, on second thought

I do agree...

It is important where the incivility comes from.

[butterfly77]

35. It gets me how people like you...

every since his election try to pretend that a lot of this is not because he is black.

No,everything isn't but a lot of it is,and it is very,very obvious. Liberal doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. Open your fucking eyes and quit pretending!!!

[pipi_k]

67. People like me...

ha ha


You know, I have no doubt that SOME of it is because he's black.


But not ALL of it is because he's black.


And calling someone a "dick" for doing something unpopular is not irrefutable evidence of racism like so many here are claiming.

[Ishoutandscream2]

9. I think if it had been President Hillary Clinton, he would have said

"bitch." As a matter of fact, it would have been said quite often, and probably not with too many repercussions. (No folks, I didn't support Hillary in the primaries).

[Enrique]

11. it has been said about Hillary

and Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza are still working for the Washington Post.

[Scuba]

10. I've called several white presidents worse than that....

...quit worrying about this asshat. As my mom used to say, "I've heard little frogs poop under the water before".

[TwilightGardener]

31. I'm sorry, are you a news figure on TV?

[Scuba]

32. No. But why spend energy on trying to stifle free speech when there are very real policy....

...issues that make much better fodder for debate?



He's just a distraction.

[TwilightGardener]

33. Not a free speech issue. TV isn't a free-speech zone. No one can stop

Halperin from calling anyone a dick off the air, but on the air--not allowed. Second, I'm just backing up the OP's point. I think it's a new level of disrespect by some in the news media for this President when compared to past Presidents--and Obama's been LESS of a dick than any President in my lifetime with the possible exception of Carter.

[Scuba]

46. It's a distraction. Democrats will not win in 2012 because Halperin was somehow exposed or punished

[TwilightGardener]

48. No. But enough outcry over blatant disrespect for the President in the news media

might make them think twice about trying this sort of shit in the future. Leave the late night insult comic stuff to the entertainers.

[Scuba]

50. Yes, let's spend all our energies making sure he never says it again.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

52. CLASSIC strawman argument. Kudos!

[alc]

12. not everything has a racial motivation

I think that attributing so many things to racism lessens the impact of pointing out real racism. For all I know Halpernin spends his evenings with buddies wearing white hoods and burning crosses. If you can show that, then call him a racist. But if using the word dick is all the evidence you have just call him and idiot and leave "racist" for actual racism.

Some people actually don't like Obama because of economic policy, health reform, wars, and many other things and don't care one bit what color he is. They'd say the same about Clinton, Gore, Kerry, or any other white male president.

[yardwork]

16. I disagree. The public disrespect shown this president is new in our era.

The Republicans called Bill Clinton a lot of things, but there is definitely a difference in the way that Republicans and their spokespeople feel that they can disrespect President Obama.

I see this clearly, even though I am white. I see it even though I often disagree with President Obama's policies and/or his approaches.

When people of color say that they see racism, white people should listen and respect the insight of people who are in a better position than we are to see racism. Racism is much more than the Klan burning crosses. If that were our only problem we wouldn't have a problem. Institutional, pervasive racism is real. It affects millions of people. It undermines our entire culture.

[DevonRex]

17. Thank you. You nailed it. nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. ^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

[pipi_k]

20. Maybe another explanation for ...

the level of disrespect being "new in our era" is that people are actively LOOKING for disrespect.

Maybe people want to believe the worst about others to such an extent that they look for disrespect and then equate much of it to "racism".

Like someone else said above...

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.


What that means is that all this seeing racism around every corner is pretty much the same laughable bullshit we hear from the RW nuts who see PORN in every Walt Disney cartoon that comes out.

Or maybe in Fundies seeing the image of Jesus in toast, bagels, oil slicks, kudzu on a pole, paper towels, paint spatters on walls, etc.

If you look hard enough, you're going to see what you WANT to see.

[yardwork]

21. Wow. I think that your post is incredibly insensitive and frankly, offensive.

Comparing racism to "the same laughable bullshit we hear from the RW nuts...." is just, well, I don't know what to say.

Very insensitive post.

[pipi_k]

24. It's only offensive

if you think someone calling Obama a dick is "racist".

And that is my point.

"Dick" is not a racist word. At best, it's sexist.

But you apparently choose to see it as racist for whatever reason.


People who see racism around every corner...with every negative word, even if the word itself isn't racist...they really are as laughable as RW nuts who see porn around every corner.


Please, save the outrage for people who are denied jobs or housing or medical care...you know...what REALLY matters... instead of wasting it on someone using a word that could be applied to anybody.

This issue is a pisshole in a snowbank compared to people being denied basic rights because of their race.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pipi_k]

51. Again....

I don't see it around every corner.

I have no need to use Obama's race in some sort of faux outrage against people I may not like...i.e. RW fruit loops.


OK, so while the faux outragers are busy finding reasons for screeching the epithet "racist" at people, there are real, ACTUAL cases of racism going on.

People in this country are being denied basic rights. Jobs. Housing. Healthcare and more. Because of their race.

But who cares about them, right? As long as we can all sit around with our fingers in our asses yelling and screaming about "racism" that doesn't even exist.

"Dick" is NOT a racist word.

Not everything negative that's said about our black president is "racist", and...believe it or not...it's really quite possible for someone who might BE a racist to actually call someone a name based on what the person DID, and not on who the person IS.

[TwilightGardener]

54. Dick is not a racist word. I agree. But in this case it's not the specific choice of insult,

it's the fact that Obama IS being insulted to begin with--by a NEWS PERSON ON THE AIR. Not criticized, but personally insulted. Apparently he thought this particular crude term was acceptable to use against THIS President. Whereas I do not remember such terms being used by the news media against prior Presidents. MSNBC knew that Halperin had to go, because this is a deeper problem than a silly little bad word.

[pipi_k]

63. And I'll agree with you 100%

on how rude he was to say that.

People are just getting nasty and vicious out there, and includes "journalists" as well. If a journalist can't keep his personal thoughts (or vulgarity) out of the news, he needs to go.

[butterfly77]

57. Dick is not what ..

I was referring to in particular it is you trying to pretend that their is no racism against the President..

[pipi_k]

64. I'm not going to get into anything

other than the issue in this topic, which is that people feel that using the word "dick" against Obama is racist.

OF COURSE racism exists out there.

But there are too many people in here who think that any negative thing directed at Obama is "racist".

It makes me think of vultures sitting around waiting for an animal to expire. DU vultures sit around just waiting for the chance to screech the word "racist" at others for the most trivial of reasons.

If that doesn't mesh with what you are talking about, then maybe you need to explain further so I can understand better.

[yardwork]

68. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.

Nobody is saying that "dick" is a racist term. We're saying that Obama is treated with more disrespect than previous presidents. Some of that may be due to coarsening public discourse. Some of it is clearly due to racism. The birther nonsense is pure racism. The racist signs at Tea Bagger rallies are racist. The racist bumperstickers are racist.

Just because you haven't noticed those things doesn't mean that they don't exist.

[pipi_k]

72. And just because you see it, that doesn't mean it DOES exist

To illustrate...

I know people who get upset over the least little thing. Everything is an insult to them. I had to intervene in something on Facebook a week or so back where one person left a post on her wall and right after that someone else made a post on her wall that had nothing whatsoever to do with what the first person wrote, but which the first person thought was a snide reference to her.

I told the first person that the other one wouldn't say something snide. If she had something to say, she would just say it outright.

So the first person didn't believe me and defriended the second person who was honestly confused, wondering what in the world she had done to deserve it.

I went back and told the first person about how confused the second person was for being defriended, and in the end they worked it out.

But my point here is that sometimes people "see" things that aren't really there. That doesn't mean they're right either.

[yardwork]

71. Righteous rant!

[alc]

22. next time you tell someone the tea party is racist

and they say "so what"? It may be that they don't care about racism or are racist themselves. Or it may be that they've gotten used to racism being "disrespect", disagreement with economic policy, using the word *dick*, or presenting a picture that was often used of Bush and put Obama in it, or a variety of other things that have nothing to do with thinking one race is inferior to another or should be treated differently. So they just ignore the word "racist" as an attack that may or may not have any substance.

[pipi_k]

26. No shit...it's gotten to the point now

where people can't even look cross-eyed at Obama without being accused of being racists.


Don't criticize him in any way or you're a racist.

bleh.

[malaise]

23. +1,000

and not just disrespect, but also death threats.
It is racism.

[snooper2]

25. I called that motherfucker Bush every name possible...

good try though...

[pipi_k]

27. So did I, and I suppose

someone who was looking for a reason to might have been able to use that as evidence that I hated men.

When the actual issue was that I found him repulsive because of the way he acted...not because of his gender.

[seaglass]

29. yep. I see it as more of a trajectory of cruder behavior/talk. Doesn't make sense to compare it

to what someone would have said about Clinton over 10 years ago. Who would ever think that a VPOTUS would say Fuck Yourself on the Senate floor to a Senator? Or that a liberal radio personality would call a dem presidential candidate a whore (with many DUers in agreement)?

[butterfly77]

38. Exactly...

:thumbsup:

[myrna minx]

40. Thank you for your response.

You said it much better than I ever could. :hi:

[yardwork]

69. You're welcome.

[Beacool]

41. You must not remember the 90s.

Write this when Obama has a special prosecutor after him, his wife and their staff for 5 years. Only to find out that the one thing they could charge the president of was lying about a B.J., for which he was impeached.

THAT'S persecution.

:(

[yardwork]

70. Yes, the Republicans persecute Democrats whenever they get the chance. No argument there.

But many of the attacks on Obama are racist. They are literally racist - signs at Palin rallies, questions about where he was born and his religion, bumperstickers like the one somebody posted here the other day that say things like "The only black I trust is coal." President Obama and his family receive more death threats than any other president ever has. Many of those threats are explicitly racist.

[Mimosa]

47. People in media (mainly print) called Clinton worse names

DU is forgetting.

On air disrespect such as Halperin's will always get a person suspended. Unless on Fox News.

[Beacool]

39. I tried to make that same point many times on this board to no avail.

Every time someone criticizes Obama they are accused of being a racist. Since when it's a racist remark to call someone a d*ck? It may be rude and inappropriate behavior, but it is not inherently racist.

All these crying wolf weakens complaints about real acts of racism.

:crazy:

[butterfly77]

44. No.

He really wanted to say NIGGER but,that's the best he could come up with.

[pipi_k]

45. Really???

You're a mind reader?




Also, as I wondered above...why is Obama's color such a huge issue with people here?

Is he black or something?

I dunno. I hardly notice, myself.

In my eyes, he's a man.

Lots of people focused on someone else's race...

:eyes:

[butterfly77]

53. I want to know..

why you are doing your damndest to pretend that it isn't. It took almost three years for some in the media to say it straight out. It isn't just people on DU keep on pretending.

It has been an issue for republicons ,some Dems,and the media since he took office they can only see color,and they somehow think they are superior..

[pipi_k]

60. I don't have to pretend

anything, dear.

I'm not seeing the same thing you are, obviously.


But then, I'm not LOOKING for it. I'm not looking for the chance to screech the word "racist" at people just because of one word they might have said. I don't have the inside track on people's thoughts that would enable me to sit here and claim that what someone really meant to call Obama was "Ni**er!!" I gave up trying to read people's minds a long time ago.


My concern isn't really with people on the other side who can only see someone's color, as wrong as that might be.

My concern is with people on THIS side who make everything about someone's color. Like I said...I don't sit here every day thinking...oooh...Obama is a BLACK man...gotta be on the lookout for the least little thing I can use to call someone else a "racist".

Oh, and you know what else? I'll bet Obama probably laughed his ass off to be called a "dick". Probably loved it. But hey...what would HE know, right? He needs us white folk to tell him what's racist and what isn't...

ugh

[gkhouston]

49. I'm supposed to believe he left all his dogwhistles in his other suit?

Not likely.

[Cid_B]

61. What do you base that on?

wait.. lemme guess... You just "know"... :eyes:

[pipi_k]

65. Sorta like...

RW religious nuts who just somehow KNOW what Jesus would say or do.

[Change Happens]

13. Of course NOT, keep in mind, deep down these media/politicians from that party DO think BHO should b

should be shinning their shoes, not the PRESIDENT of the most "powerful country on earth."

This goes for the Halprin's of the world and the Boners, cantors, Mconnells, Hannities...etc. President Obama causes them a tremendous amount of Cognitive Dissonance!!!!

[dkf]

14. Racism seriously?

Like you've never gone around calling Bush worse? Bet you have.

[RandySF]

18. It's the pattern

When Obama went before cameras to hail the success of the auto bailout last year, I heard a CNN anchor ask a guest "Were you surprised by his attitude?". Sure, I've called Bush worse than that. But did you ever hear anyone from the MSM call him anything but "forceful"? Even Bill Clinton didn't get this from reporters when he fought with Congressional Republicans.

[KittyWampus]

55. You forget the crotch sniffing Clinton had to endure? The outright ridicule Gore endured? Kerry?

[LetTimmySmoke]

28. Unrec

I let out a groan when I saw this thread.

[butterfly77]

34. Exactly...

this is has been the problem from day one,they think of black people and Obama as no a man. I heard on CNN that the republiCONS are calling him that and worse behind the scenes..


Halperin has been scowling since Obama was elected,he sits on the panel and Scar always throws it to him and the rest of the white man crowd then they go get Harold Ford to validate their points..

[Beacool]

36. Here we go again.........

Not everything is about race. Most people that I have heard been called d*cks were lily white. I can think of one who was called that and far worse: Bush Jr.

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

37. Name the reporters and political analysts on news stations who called Bush a dick on the air.

Or Clinton. Or Poppy. Or Reagan.

[KittyWampus]

56. LOL! Because one uncensored word gets out, you think it's the first time? REALLY?

That is naive.

Just think back to all the crotch sniffing of Clinton, the ridicule of Gore, the disdain for Kerry.

[TwilightGardener]

58. It's not whether Halperin said "jackass" or "asshole" or "tool" or "dick" or "cock" or whatever.

It's the fact that he thought it would be at least somewhat OK (if a little "naughty") to use the term against a sitting President in his capacity as on-air objective political analyst on a news station. That is new. Not even FOX news reporters would have dared call Obama a dick on the air.

[eleny]

42. If it's a Dem president I think he would

He'd only applaud a Republican or some other right wing wag.