Such is the dwindling stature of MSNBC that they’ve taken to reporting events that occur on Fox.
For example, MSNBC’s Morning Joe show devoted an entire segment to Glenn Beck’s interview with disgraced Democrat Congressman Eric Massa. And it was surprisingly even-handed.
Such is the dwindling stature of MSNBC that they’ve taken to reporting events that occur on Fox.
For example, MSNBC’s Morning Joe show devoted an entire segment to Glenn Beck’s interview with disgraced Democrat Congressman Eric Massa. And it was surprisingly even-handed.
“Let me tell you something,” said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough. “[Beck] was not on his heels. He just, he played straight man and Donny Deutsch, he was, he did it very, very well.
Deutsch agreed saying, “Beck actually helped his brand a lot because he went from the crazy idiot to kind of a good interviewer. You know what I mean? And you know, you couldn’t help but not enjoy Glenn Beck yesterday, speaking from the extreme left.”
First of all, Deutsch doesn’t have to tell us he speaks from the extreme left because he’s a regular guest on MSNBC, so that’s just understood.
Second, nobody knows brands better than former ad genius Deutsch. So when he says Beck helped his brand, you know it’s true.
And third, well, we don’t really have a third point, but we needed to fill a little more space at the bottom of this story.
Those poor devils at CNN must wonder why they’re frowned on by the gods of media.
We do not believe the rumor that Larry King is about to star as Bernie in a remake of "Weekend at Bernie's"
Those poor devils at CNN must wonder why they’re frowned on by the gods of media.
MediaBistro.com has the details of the original news network’s latest humiliation:
Glenn Beck may not have thought much of his interview with former Rep. Eric Massa yesterday — he apologized to his viewers saying, “I think this is the first time I have wasted an hour of your time.”
But the interview, which was Massa’s first national TV interview since his resignation from office Monday, was a ratings hit for Beck. The hour drew 3.41M Total Viewers at 5pmET, and 860,000 in the A25-54 demo. That’s just shy of network-leading Bill O’Reilly who pulled 3.5M at 8pmET (925K in the demo.)
But Massa did not have the same pull for CNN. His second interview, with Larry King at 9pmET, drew just 669K Total Viewers (169K in the demo) — fourth place for the hour among the cable news nets after Sean Hannity on FNC, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and Joy Behar on HLN.
Good lord. You interview the guy who is arguably the biggest headline maker of the day and you finish behind Rachel Maddow and Joy Behar? Depressing.
King’s response?
“Is it Tuesday yet? I like Tuesdays because that’s shuffleboard night here at the home.”
Eric Massa explains how he “sexually harassed” one of his sub-ordinates
Eric Massa did, in fact, end up getting frakked, but it was by his own party.
Eric Massa explains how he “sexually harassed” one of his subordinates:
“I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. I sat at down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them, by the way bachelors. One of them looked at me and — as they would do after, I don’t know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne — a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid. His points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that.
“And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, ‘What I really ought to be doing is frakking you,’ and then tossled the guy’s hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn’t be there.”
“Was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely.”
Inappropriate? Maybe. But we suspect the real problem here is that Massa wasn’t tousling Barney Frank’s hair when he suggested a little sport “frakking.”
Instead of being forced to resign, Massa would have been promoted to a leadership position.
Attention, bloggers. You now have official internet permission to break out all those old Barney Frank jokes and re-word them so they work for first-term New York Congressman Eric Massa.
Eric Massa (D-Fire Island) is retiring from Congress
Attention, bloggers. You now have official internet permission to break out all those old Barney Frank jokes and re-word them so they work for first-term New York Congressman Eric Massa.
Massa announced Wednesday that he won’t stand for re-election because the job is endangering his health. Doctors supposedly warned him that he cannot continue to “run at 100 miles an hour.”
Not so fast. (See how clever that was. That last paragraph ended with “100 miles per hour” and this paragraph started with “not so fast.” Damned amusing, if we do say so ourselves.)
It’s been alleged that Massa, who is married and has two children, sexually harassed a man on his staff.
Uh-oh. Politico has more of the salacious details:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) subsequently confirmed Wednesday that the Democratic leadership had been informed of the allegations before the news broke.
“I’ve heard of that allegation before,” he said. “I had some indication, yes, but I don’t want to go beyond that. And my presumption (is) it’s being pursued in the course of business.”
Massa told POLITICO early Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him.
Asked specifically about the sexual harassment allegations, he said: “When someone makes a decision to leave Congress, everybody says everything. I have health issues. I’ll talk about it [later].”
Massa has suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. On a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, he said he was hospitalized in December and that his doctors made it clear to him that he needed to slow down. He denied that he was retiring because of a sexual harassment claim.
“Do I or have I ever used salty language when I’m angry, especially in the privacy of my inner office or even at home? Yes, I have, and I have apologized to those where it’s appropriate,” Massa said. “But those kinds of articles, unsubstantiated without fact or backing, are a symptom of what’s wrong with this city.”
Please, God, never let us hear the story that the Congressman loved acting out slave scenarios while screaming, “Call me Massa, damn it! Call me Massa!”
Here’s a campaign commercial by sex scandal-embroiled New York Congressman Eric Massa that features sex scandal-embroiled New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
How did people expose corruption and/or stupidity before YouTube and the internet?
Here’s a campaign commercial by sex scandal-embroiled New York Congressman Eric Massa that features sex scandal-embroiled New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
They’re going to “clean up waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” They have integrity. They have respect.
They’re the Batman and Robin of sex scandals. The Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid of corruption. The Laurel & Hardy of hards-on.
