Letters to the Editor
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@ MarieA: The so-called "cool" language doesn't rule.
Just because pimped out has a newer meaning doesn't mean that it has lost its old meaning. Shuster's use of the word "unseemly" shows that he meant the old meaning to be taken. Guess what? MTV doesn't determine the meaning of everything.
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AKA Smith
MTV didn't coin the term, they just use it. Did you know that 24/7 is now in the dictionary? As is all sorts of unsavory slang you probably wouldn't like. That's what happens in societies: language evolves.
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Living in the past
The gop (clinton included) lives in the past. Decades and sometimes century. Ask them who their favorite actor is, john wayne. Ask them who their favorite artist is. Elvis, Neil diamond. they like to live in a nice safe cafe. Where they have control, not reality. Their chains are cut, yet they stay in the cave willingly. It's to bright outside I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave
The gop (clinton included) lives in the past. The old rules no longer apply after 9/11. The year is 2008. Please stop sabotaging the future for short term gain gop (clinton included). Clinton should drop out. She cannot win the presidency. It is not possible. She is a republican sabotuer. If she keeps these up she will have a nice place next to di fi rockafeller reid and the other sell-out moderates who choose the gop and money/bribes over the good of the party/nation.
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MSNBC and Women
Thanks for your post doloresflower - I do agree with you about MSNBC and how they are sometimes sexist - however I think it's true of the media in general and not just towards HIllary Clinton. Would love to see Joan and some of the other female commentators take that issue to MSNBC and have some sort of roundtable with Matthews, Olberhman, et al. - would actually give them a boost after the Shuster incident. I know it's tough for both Senators Clinton and Obama because they are at this point iconic just for being the first woman and African American candidates yet having to try not be defined by that alone. Like it or not every action either of them takes will be over scrutinized until hopefully one of them is President. So that's why I think battles should be carefully chosen and there's no need to give Republicans any ammo for the general election.
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It's clear enough to me
However, it wasn't clear to me what Clinton was asking for. What did she want? Why didn't she explain what she wanted?
It's clear enough to me what she was asking for: "I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language."
She's saying it's not enough just to suspend one reporter. She wants the network to look at the whole of its coverage and clean up its act, to make a positive effort to change the atmosphere and corporate culture that leads to these kinds of remarks in the first place. And she's right, they need either to do that or to acknowledge they are just in it for the entertainment value, like their rival Fox.
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Maybe the Çlintons shouldn't have ...
If the Çlintons didn't want the media to wonder why Çhelsea was being pimped out, maybe they shouldn't have pimped her out. Why would a 27 year old woman let her parents exchange her presence for favors?
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@Xrandadu Hutman,
I have no idea what you are trying to say. Please be aware that I was not allowed to watch much TV when I was a child (we could only get one channel, so it's not as though we could get much). I've spent most of my adult life without a TV. My knowledge of popular culture is limited.
Your reference - a book? Comic? Video game? TV show? Please translate.
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David Shuster
I agree that David Shuster shouldn't have used the phrase that he used about Chelsea Clinton but he also said many kind things about her at the same time. He has been a fine, nonpartisan reporter. MSNBC asks a lot of their correspondents when they require them to walk the fine line between news and entertainment and I think it would be a travesty if this fine reporter's career is ended over this.
Most of my progressive friends and I believe that in many ways Hillary Clinton is the most qualified to be president but we are chosing to vote for Barak O'Bama because, to date, he hasn't chosen to create issues when there aren't any. The advertisement about O'Bama refusing to debate that Hillary is running in Wisconsin is another example of her drummed-up garbage.
Many of us do have Clinton fatigue, but it isn't Bill Clinton fatigue (we'll take his baloney because of his brilliance). We have Hillary Clinton fatigue. If she is such a nice person "in person" as every talking head keeps saying why is she acting like this?
NBC and MSNBC should stand by David Shuster and his apology and if Hillary Clinton refuses to debate on MSNBC, she will look like a fool because their networks are completely fair to her.
I also think the viewers of MORNING JOE are smart enough to take the frat boy teasing seen on this show and others for normal male/female teasing. Why don't we spend our time making an issue about the war and healthcare. Let David Shuster go back to his job.
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@ Anonymous 11:44 AM
Language comes and goes. Twenty-three skidoo to you. Ever heard of that one? Language has fads just like fashion and classics which last. Just because some people don't want to take Shuster's comment literally doesn't mean that others don't. Hillary Clinton is perfectly right to take the insult as she did. From her generation's perspective and mine Shuster was saying that Clinton was pimping (selling sexually) her daughter Chelsea (designated whore). Shuster knew exactly what he was saying.
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Oh, please
First of, you may get censored for your title, which I am still trying to find the meaning to, you state: "Let's call a spade a spade"
I gather that you think the phrase is racist; it is not. Its origins go back to ancient Greece. It means to speak plainly and without euphemism. See http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/212/