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MSNBC Archive

Thursday

21

July 2011

2

COMMENTS

Let This Be a Lesson to Agenda Journalists Everywhere

Written by , Posted in Media Bias

In what may be one of the funniest media moments of the year, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer got slapped down by Rep. Mo Brooks when she tried to sarcastically dismiss his views by questioning whether he had a background in economics. Watch below for the fun:

Rep. Brooks had made the horrible mistake of daring to question the learned authority of Secretary Geithner. For a lackey at MSNBC this is akin to blasphemy, and so Contessa thought she was being quite clever with her question designed to put the upstart Congressman in his place. And even though it’s clearly a fallacy to believe that having credentials makes one correct, as she would have it (at least when the credentialed person is a liberal or Democrat, no doubt she would offer no such presumption of accuracy to an accomplished conservative), it’s quite enjoyable to see her fall by her own premise.

Let this be a lesson to hack journalists everywhere trying to push an agenda: don’t ask a question you don’t know the answer too.

(Hat-tip: Matt Lewis)

Thursday

30

December 2010

0

COMMENTS

WaPo’s Boy Wonder “Confused” by Constitution Written “Over 100 Years Ago”

Written by , Posted in Liberty & Limited Government

NewsBusters recounts the forehead-slappingĀ  encounter on MSNBC:

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein appeared on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown, Thursday, to mock the incoming Republicans for their stated fixation on the Constitution, asserting that the document is rather old and “confusing.” MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell dismissed the GOP effort as “lip service” and wondered if it was a “gimmick.”

After playing clips of Republicans claiming they would reject legislation that couldn’t be justified constitutionally, Klein complained, “The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done.

“More than 100 years ago,” says the Washington Post savant who is at least 5 years old.

Debates over what the Constitution says really don’t differ all that much between people who actually bother to read or take its history seriously. What differs from person to person is how much they even care what it says.

The document itself isn’t particularly confusing. Sure, there are always debatable details and interpretations of particular phrases, but the answers to the big questions are all well known, if not as acceptable. We know, for instance, that the Constitution gives government certain enumerated powers, and reserves the rest for the people and the States. If the power isn’t listed, the federal government can’t do it. Ezra Klein and other statists don’t like this constraint, so they simply wave their hands over how “confusing” the whole mess is and proceed as if it doesn’t exist.

As we saw repeatedly in the last Congress, Democrats were open about their disdain for Constitutional restrictions on the power of Congress (“Are you serious? Are you serious?”). They didn’t bother debating what it says or meant, but contested the very idea that it mattered at all. Working to change this Congressional attitude is no gimmick; it’s just long overdue.