Friday, October 03, 2008

COKIE

I THINK ARGUMENTS of "media bias" are almost always a pointless, joyless hedge maze to enter.

HOWEVER, I CONFESS to fuming frequently at my Tivoli radio while listening to NPR this year (I live in Park Slope) whenever Cokie Roberts came on to casually, Kristen Wiig-ily undermine Obama.

SUCH IS HER RIGHT. I trust she calls them as she sees them. But as Josh Marshall suggests this morning, on the issue of BOSNIAKS, she seems to be wrong.

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT

Watching the debate I noticed that Biden referred to the Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina as "Bosniaks". This is actually the correct term, though in English people often say simply Bosnian Muslims. When he said it, the first thing I though was, I wonder how many right-wingers would jump on this as a gaffe on the model of candidate George W. Bush's reference to 'Grecians.'

I don't know who else exposed their own ignorance by falling into this trap. But Cokie Roberts did.

--Josh Marshall/TPM

END QUOTED TEXT

WATCH BELOW as Cokie attempts to weave a false equivalency between Biden's using an actual, legitimate term and Palin's FORGETTING THE NAME OF OUR COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN--confusing General McKiernan with "General McClellan."

(ALSO WATCH for a great Doris Kearns Goodwin cameo. She catches Palin's error right away, but I think that's because she knew McClellan personally. Lincoln introduced them).



LOOK, I don't know the Bosniaks. Maybe Josh Marshall is wrong on this one. But I think Cokie's smirking-with-intent is obvious here, and if Marshall's intel is correct, she owes Biden an apology.

OR ELSE: I'm just lost in the hedge maze.

That is all.

UPDATE: To be fair, I guess she COULD have picked on him for not knowing that Katie's, a Delaware restaurant he mentioned, closed decades ago.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

DKG drives me to fits of apoplectic rage. I still remember her "remove this intemperate black man from my sight" diatribe (self link disclaimer) about Al Sharpton's fabulous speech at the 2004 convention. Now every time she comes on the teevee I just want to sock her in the nuts.

She's apparently also a plagiarist. Boston's sorriest daughter.

Cokie sucks, too.

Chris Fredda said...

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, eh Cokie?

James said...

Wozniak > SUM(Bozniaks)

Aron said...

It's been a while since I've been to your blog. As usual, your point of view is refreshing, and humorous.

I too am caught in Cokie's hedge maze.

Sam Kolb said...

While I did not see Cokie's gaffe, I did see the so-called Liberal Media Bias on display over at NBC, where they rolled out a post-debate panel composed of Peggy Noonan, Michelle Norris, and Jane Swift. I am not sure why they included Norris here... I guess maybe Ann Coulter canceled at the last minute.

The depraved lip-service paid to Republican talking points would have made Linda Lovelace blush.

Calvin Dodge said...

Instead of "Katie's Restaurant", maybe she could have addressed Biden's fantasy about the US and France kicking Hezbollah out of Lebanon. (for those who might be unaware, Hezbollah is still in Lebanon, since it was never kicked out).

Or she could have addressed his comment about Obama never pledging to meet one-on-one with dictators, despite video to the contrary (as well as contradictory statements on the official Obama web site).

Nah ... you're right, John - getting a general's name wrong is FAR more important than blatant fantasies/lies about the facts.