Saturday, February 9, 2008

Clinton "pimping out" her Own Daughter

When does a reporter cross the line between informing the public of news and important events and becomes a biased ill tempered player in the dirty politics? MSNBC’s reported David Shuster certainly crossed that line making his “famous” comment about Chelsea Clinton being “pimped out” by Clinton’s campaign to make calls to the celebrities and Superdelegates. In my mind, the reporters always have been the essential part of the campaign in the sense that they served the public by investigating candidates positions, pointing out facts and discrepancies, and pushing candidates to move away of their scripts and reveal their character. Ability and opportunity to do it puts in the hands of reporters not only tremendous power but also responsibility before public. Therefore, comments such as this can not be regarded just as a simple mistake, but rather should be looked at as the professional misconduct. Thus, MSNBC took the right actions by suspending David Shuster from broadcasting. Moreover, it wasn’t the only personal attack to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Earlier, Chris Matthews said that Hillary’s “political career had been made possible by her husband's philandering”. Do you think such remarks are appropriate and how do they affect the campaign?

5 comments:

LilyLuke said...

you beat me to it. I think this is a great example of how the media can fail to remain neutral and how it is totally veers from ethical journalism. People are definitely entitled to their own opinion but it is inappropriate to bias one's work, especially with so many people looking to these kinds of sources for information.

JGoldman said...

That is a good point. The talking heads need to remember that they are on TV and need to be careful about what they say. That being said, MSNBC now is overcompensating by showing extended coverage of the Clinton campaign on it's political shows. And I believe that Friday night instead of their regular programming they aired "Headliners & Legends: Hillary Clinton". I think if you are going to be bias, it is ok to just come out and say, this is how I feel and continue on but it is unfair to pretend to be 'fair and balanced' and then not be...

Reauna said...

I also agree. The media needs to be fair in the coverage. There are appropriate times to make jokes, but when discussing the campaign on MSNBC, there should be a more serious and professional tone.

Andy said...
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Andy said...

I think it's inappropriate and unprofessional. It sort of blurs the line between news and entertainment. I don't think it affects her campaign negatively. If anything, it only provides more fodder for the Republicans and pundits to make fun of her family.

McCain actually cracked a joke about Chelsea. It didn't get much attention though: http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html