Transcript here. Key lines:
My intention was not malicious, but I broke the ground rule that families are off-limits, and for that I am sorry.Here's my post from New Year's Eve covering the controversy. I said: "Quite aside from racial politics, I thought children were off limits. Here you have an MSNBC panel segment planned around laughing at a baby. We scrupulously avoid using Obama's daughters as raw material for jokes. Why didn't anyone at MSNBC nix this?"
Also, allow me to apologize to other families formed through transracial adoption, because I am deeply sorry that we suggested that interracial families are in any way funny or deserving of ridicule. On this program we are dedicated to advocating for a wide diversity of families. It is one of our core principles....
Speaking of "core principles," balanced journalism should also be a core principle. If you find you forget your core principles when you see ways to take shots at political candidates you oppose, then you're also forgetting the core principle of balanced journalism. You're doubling up on the forgetting of core principles. And it's so easy to test yourself: Imagine that conservative is a liberal (or vice versa).
Posts
109 comments:
Why a second apology? I can only guess that she's a goner and that's why she's crying.
A day late and a dollar short. Besides who cares.
Showing a Romney family photo just to snark on it is perfectly in line with the core principles of progressivism. "Lean Forward."
Fire Melissa Harris-Perry. Now.
What kind of double-standard is it when men (Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir) are fired because of their ill-considered, bigoted comments but Harris-Perry (a female) gets to keep her job.
Enough.
Fire Melissa Harris-Perry.
People will never stop saying rude and insensitive things, but these weepy apologies can't go on forever. They're so tiresome.
Her apology is frankly not sympathetic and is itself deserving of ridicule on many levels, especially the idea that she even knows what it means to have a core principle.
Hint: You have to still believe it when it's not easy and convenient for you. And no one would need to remind you of that.
Also, don't lie when you apologize. "My intention was not malicious." Puh-leez. The apology should be for the very fact that your intention was malicious. Otherwise, no need.
Showing a Romney family photo just to snark on it is perfectly in line with the core principles of progressivism.
So you don't believe her when she says that she only used the picture because all she intended was to say "positive and celebratory things about it"? Me neither.
She's a child of mixed parentage. She might be carrying a few old wounds where the swelling has not subsided. The more she thinks about it, probably the worst she feels. This looks like a truly genuine apology......It's not incumbent on him, but it would be nice if Romney responded to her apology in a healing way.
To start with an apology on Twitter isn't an apology. So she's at one.
First drafts are always the most honest. Especially segments of news shows where production teams select and script material beforehand.
Harris-Perry's snide, hateful comments show her for the tool she is, her phony, smoke-blowing apologies notwithstanding.
Boo-hoo-hoo! Boo-hoo-hoo! Oh, I'm just an emotional woman, you can't punish me for this or hold me accountable in any way! Boo-hoo-hoo!
Is she struggling to hold back the tears, or to produce them?
Bullshit you ignorant ass, crocodile tears, the "tears" of another lying lib dipstick. You deserve a punch to your face. Bugger off and choke.
"It's not incumbent on him, but it would be nice if Romney responded to her apology in a healing way."
But, but, but, ... Republicans are such haters. Just ask Melissa Harris-Perry.
You make a fundamental mistake in juxtaposing legacy media and "core principles." They have none. They are superficial, fatuous, a micrometer thick intellectually, and completely driven by the herd instinct to follow the cheap fashion of our degraded popular culture. In short, you give them way too much credit for the the basis of their antipathy to anyone who isn't part of that herd.
fivewheels and I had the same thought - I don't see tears. I hear "choking up", but she wasn't able to turn on the waterworks.
I can't believe that MSNBC would actually fire her because Conservatives were offended - that is in their mission statement, isn't it?
I would be sympathetic and accept her apology at face value ...if not for the fact that MSNBC and her show rountinely slime the people they hate.
She's not sorry for any of that BS, she's only sorry that she overplayed her hand this time.
William said...
She's a child of mixed parentage. She might be carrying a few old wounds where the swelling has not subsided.
You need to watch the video of the original exchange again. You'll see that Melissa joins in the fun wholeheartedly, and gives an especially big laugh to the "one of these things is not like the other" bit.
Odd in a person "carrying a few old wounds where the swelling has not subsided," don't you think?
You'd cry too.
At MSNBC, you're easily replaced.
Mia Farrow has like a million kids, some transracial adopted, and they're all waiting in the wings.
Ronan Farrow, Soon-Yi Previn, Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow, Lark Song, Fletcher Previn, Matthew Previn, Moses Farrow, Sascha Previn, Tam Farrow, Summer Song, Kaeli-Sha Farrow, Gabriel Wilk Farrow, Frankie-Minh Farrow, Thaddeus Wilk Farrow, Isaiah Justus Farrow
"Why didn't anyone at MSNBC nix this?"
Because they weren't joking about the President's daughters. What's the problem?
On the off chance that Mitt or any of the Romneys have heard of this kerfuffle, it would warm my heart if they would say...
"Ahhh, no big deal. Melissa who?"
Core principle: Kids are totally off limits, of course. Chelsea, you know.
Disclaimer: This guarantee does not apply to Jenna Bush, Barbara Bush, Megan McCain, Mary Cheney, Bristol Palin, Willow Palin, Piper Palin, Trigg Palin, any other Palin, or, well, you get the picture.
If I was her boss I'd send her for a week of duck hunting with Phil.
“We believe the next step is to use this as an opportunity for Melissa to sit down with the Romney family and learn about their lives and the values they share” - said no liberal ever.
Fen's Law
@Lydia: People on the margins look for someone further out on the margins, and then call everyone's attention to how marginal that person is. That could have been part of the dynamics involved in the original byplay. Anyway, I believe that she's truly ashamed to have participated in the kind of crap that she was always afraid people were saying behind her back.
Self serving apology.
"My intention was not malicious" sure.
Speaking of "core principles," balanced journalism should also be a core principle.
Is a "core principle" different from a regular principle? And different from a moral, and different from an ethic? How about a rule?
I need a hierarchy. It should resemble the taxonomy of life somehow.
There's no one more racist than a white middle-class liberal. Their rancid Neo-Victorian condescension is as offensive as any supremacist's rant.
Ms. Harris-Perry can dry her (crocodile or otherwise) tears with her tampon earrings!
This woman needs to reevaluate EVERYTHING she believes and supports. Her Freudian slip reveals a deep racism and inability to be an objective journalist.
She should not be in her current role until she drops back a few levels in the news hierarchy and earns it back.
Meh. I'm inclined to cut the lady some slack.
I think they were going for the lulz.
The McCain family adopted a nonwhite child, as well. Ever notice how its the GOP families who are actually walking the walk?
Speaking of "lulz", I've got Ms. Harris-Perry's tears RIGHT HERE!
I saw the whole thing. It was despicable. She was despicable the panel was despicable.
And each of those units meant forit to be despicable.
Or in their world witty and humorous.
Um cunts meant for it to be despicable.
If you don't like my core principles, I have others.
Groucho Marx (?)
If it is ridiculous to attack first principles, it is more ridiculous to defend them against these same attacks. I shall not defend them.
Lautreamont
It's an apology over nothing.
Somebody made up a rule.
Attacks on children have to be funny.
Rule.
A SLUMBER did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seem'd a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
What word does not appear? Hinted at all over.
Tears.
If MSDNC fires her she'll probably turn up in Hillary's administration in 2017.
@rh
Tears?!
I was gonna guess inflatable.
Another test of forgetting the core principles of objective journalism is if you mock the private life of a former politician who doesn't seem to be trying to influence contemporary politics. At this point, is Mitch Romney really a political figure or a celebrity?
And speaking of misapprehensions, Ms. Harris-Perry mentioned the core principles of journalism as if they apply to her, but has she ever been a journalist? Isn't she just a polemicist? Is MSNBC even a journalistic enterprise?
I can't help wondering if Ms. Harris-Perry committed her misstep because she, her colleagues, and the producers at MSNBC believe that Republicans are evil and therefore exempt from being treated according to the rules of common decency. Her apology is sincere--tears or no tears--only if she reflects on what led her astray and resolves to behave differently.
So Romney made a girl cry?
Yeah yeah. Shouldn't have said it in the first place.
We sure have become a sensitive nation.
They weren't making fun of the kid, they were making fun of the Romney family. They hate Republicans, especially those who are happy and successful. If you're a happy and successful Republican, Democrats believe you're racist. And if a racist has a black baby, then it's a token baby for show only.
Why are we so offended that they believe this stupidity?
Do we think Democrats can be rehabilitated through tears and apologies?
C'mon. Just let them be who and what they are.
Over a year ago we had a serious industrial accident. A rescue was needed but no injuries were incurred.
OSHA was on site during the rescue, did a full investigation, issued findings of fact, and fines.
The take away message was, that while one person was in danger, four others were working along side........not one of the four offered an opinion that maybe the task and methods were too dangerous to undertake. The fines were because, while documented procedures and training were in place, OSHA considered a systemic failure of management because not one employee stepped up in the name of safety.
With MSNBC and MHP not a single soul stepped up to say that mocking a black adopted kid is wrong. Everyone sitting around that table and every person in the both saw nothing amiss.
Core values?
Actions are core values
Now that she made the apology Repubs should call her the c word. No, not really. But if she were offended, well republicans can apologize.With tears in their eyes. "we are so sorry that we offended you. We should have realized that calling you a c was inflammatory."
I'm just sick of apologies. And she didn't apologize to Republicans for calling them racists, so I don't accept her apology.
Its not sincere, seh gets off the hook by pretending like she didn't know what she was saying was offensive.
The same thing is going to be insinuated tomorrow night on MSNBC and very possibly on her show. Is she going to apologize for THAT comment?
Should she be fired? No. I wont watch her though.
"My intention was not malicious."
That is a lie.
Apology not accepted.
This is same woman who, in her book, defended the Group of 88 and their lack of apologies and agrees that they need not to. They treated the Duke students the same way she treated the Romneys.
We should believe Melissa why?
Wow...I am out in left field on this one I guess.
I thought the apology was sincere. She herself is a Black child in a mostly White Mormon family. I believe her when she says the moment got away from her, and there was an inappropriate moment on live tv. It happens.
I think it would be a mature and healing moment for the Romneys to publically accept her apology, and perhaps invite her over.
We need to find moments when we can heal, we spend so much time attacking, me as much as anyone.
I can't stop watching Dexter on Netflix.
Michael Hall fucking tour de force.
tits.
She herself is a Black child in a mostly White Mormon family.
Not true. Her mother has Mormon ancestors, but Melissa was raised in a mixed-race Unitarian Universalist household:
"Her mother, whose Mormon ancestors pushed handcarts across the country to their promised land in Utah, graduated from Brigham Young University in 1964, having spent most of her time there, Harris-Perry says, writing articles about Mormon womanhood. Meanwhile, her father, whose great-great-grandmother was sold as a slave on a street corner in Richmond, Virginia, attended Howard University where he was “converted to Black nationalism” and shared a room with Stokely Carmichael. By the time her mother and father met in Seattle in the early 1970s, each had become a parent and had been divorced. After they had Melissa, they moved their blended family and children—white, black, and mixed-race—to Virginia in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights movement. 'In that context you had to be Unitarian Universalist,' she said to knowing laughter."
Gahrie. How about she invites the parents of the child on MSNBC and apologize in person? Specifically the child and his parents, not his grandparents. Let her see the people who adopted the child and let her apologize to them. Not to "The Romneys".
For a white person to adopt a black child is an unadulterated good deed. To mock that good deed makes sense only to people so hate-filled that they cannot see any good at all in a conservative.
Regardless of What She Said I Would Defend Her. If She Was Actually Funny.
MPH is a racist with very low self esteem. She need copious amounts of counseling before she is let loose on the public again. She hates herself. Poor dear.
It was definitely inappropriate. Making fun of or exploiting any politician's children ought to always be off-limits. I thought that when Larry Flynt was offering large sums of cash for film of Barbara Bush (Dubya's daughter) at one of Yale's naked parties.
But I'm not entirely sure that MHP's going to lose her job over this. After all, Rush Limbaugh famously compared a 12-year old Chelsea Clinton to a dog (and like this MSNBC panel, did so in a way that he believed was just so clever and so witty, but was really just disgusting)- and Rush is still going strong. People are generally willing to forgive their own side for these missteps, less so the other side who are quite obviously demons, of course.
Gahrie, giving people the benefit of the doubt is a good trait, as is charity, in the broad sense. But I ask this question: Did she apologize right after the segment, after it "got away" from her and she had seen what happened?
Or *two* days later, after the wave of criticism grew and people noticed how odious it was? These little details have an impact on my perception of sincerity.
If my elbow gets away from me and I bump the person next to me, I know I've done something wrong right away. I don't decide to apologize two days later, and again a week after that.
The show was on December 29, and she made her first Twitter apology on December 31.
If you check the original video, she's obviously setting the panel up for racial jokes. The black baby is the one feature of the photo she comments on, and she has a prepared joke about Mitt Romney meeting Kanye West. So the fact that the panel responded with some racially insensitive jokes wasn't that surprising.
I'm in favor of free speech, so I hope nothing bad happens to her. But I hope she'll generalize the lesson a little bit, and learn that many forms of aggression are easily substitutable -- that jokes based on political hate can easily turn into jokes based on racial hate.
The issue was brought to the mainstream media by Sarah Palin, and it's another notch on her rifle. Deliberately, she's tracking their chief sources of power- ridicule, sexism, child abuse.
Heh, heh. She said 'balanced journalism' was a principle.
It's not the vacations in Colorado that gives people ideas, it's comments like this.
Blogger MathMom said...
I can't believe that MSNBC would actually fire her because Conservatives were offended
Be serious, they're firing her because she opened leftism to criticism.
I'm with Gahrie here. That woman made a mistake, and she apologized. Good for her.
Gahrie, you're a good man afterall, just as long as you don't want to take the vote away from women, 19 amendment? ;)
"I believe her when she says the moment got away from her"
Sorry, I think that , like most people nowadays, she regrets that she was called out on it.
But if it's really true, that means that she was laughing and joking with a group of friends and she went along. In essence, if what you believe is true, she has the maturity of a high school girl, not a university professor
Gahrie said...
I believe her when she says the moment got away from her, and there was an inappropriate moment on live tv. It happens.
No doubt we can look back through her public commentary and compare this occurrence to the many instances where she extended the benefit of the doubt to her political opponents.
Speaking of "core principles," balanced journalism should also be a core principle.
Most of what goes on in the 'mainstream' of media, is not journalism. The alphabet channels are the propaganda arm of the democrat party.
I really have no idea why this person continues to be on the air, but that's how you apologize if you want people to forgive you. It was certainly inappropriate to go after the kids but I do find it odd that so much worse has been said about the Obama daughters with no apologies whatsoever from people who continue to be on the air. It's a funny game that the public plays when someone says something stupid. If you agree with their politics you defend their employment and if you disagree with their politics you demand they be fired. Then you pretend like you aren't hypocritical (not you Althouse, the public). The public is such a fickle, hypocritical bunch.
Um, where did you get your journalism degree, Althouse?
This 'balanced journalism' is a new thing... we used to vigorously pursue the truth, wherever it might take us.
None of this 'equal pay for equal time' womanly soft journalism, which is more about style than substance.
You really ought to stick with the law, but then, it's been a long time since you've really worked in that field, right?
The public is such a fickle, hypocritical bunch.
------------
The public tires easily of such manufactured stories that pundits like Althouse pump out daily.
Heheh. She 'read' Phil's autobiography and encourages you to do the same.
Top o' the news cycle, this one is. Opinionated husband too, but no specialty there either. "Lawn mulching, and expert politico. Travels well."
At least they don't have a war to push, these days...
Mary chimes in after hours with some classless drive-by hate.
Such a charming person.
Here's an idea - let's move on. I mean, move on from the channel that MS-NBC is transmitted on your cable or satellite provider...
and finally admit that this `news' service is just a propaganda channel for the Democratic party.
Wasn't it an Obama adviser, David Axelrod or someone, that pilloried a different cable news channel for being a propaganda service for another party?
Maybe saying it looks like the Republican party implied that the kid was one of the smart blacks, which would offend the 95% in Obama's base.
crocodile tears, the "tears" of another lying lib dipstick.
No, her upset is real.
She doesn't get upset when she's talking about Romney or his family. It's a glib apology. She's excusing her own behavior. She says her intentions are good, which is an outright lie. She wanted to mock Romney. So she hasn't really engaged in any deep self-criticism here.
But her emotional upset is real. She starts to choke up when she thinks of this in a non-political context, when she thinks of people adopting children of other races. That's when she is genuinely upset. That part of her apology is heartfelt.
Apology to Romney = bogus
Apology to her own family = genuine
Heh, I'm all for free speech too Zach. But as we learned from MSNBC a couple of weeks ago, free speech enters the picture when the goverenment is involved.
If you are a private citizen and you open up your pie hole that's a whole nother story and you deserve all the punishment and scorn and vitriol they can dig up.
She is a world class cunt. She'll keep her job cause its MSNBC. She's a fucking hero there.
After reading nearly 80 posts on this issue, I noticed that few mentioned the core belief that Ms. Harris-Perry shared with the others on the panel and with MSNBC management: that republicans are truly evil and must be opposed by any means necessary by all right thinking people.
Bobby:
But I'm not entirely sure that MHP's going to lose her job over this. After all, Rush Limbaugh famously compared a 12-year old Chelsea Clinton to a dog (and like this MSNBC panel, did so in a way that he believed was just so clever and so witty, but was really just disgusting).
False.
But that's the lie the libtards would like you to believe and spread around.
pst314 said...
"My intention was not malicious."
Leftist intentions are always malicious.
I thought transracial adoption was genocide.
It's so hard to keep up.
She's convinced her job is on the line, thus the tears.
MSNBC and CNN appear to be in a devil's race to hire the most malignant talking heads with the least impulse control.
#ImSorryIGotCaught
still a believer in "critical race theory" and good friends with Cornell West.
She's convinced her job is on the line, thus the tears.
MSNBC and CNN appear to be in a devil's race to hire the most malignant talking heads with the least impulse control.
but doesn't Christian mercy dictate that we should all forgive her? Where is the charity amongst all you self-professed Christian do-gooders?
My intent was not malicious."
That's right up there with "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." I'm guessing that she'll be Jay Carney's successor on the next turn of the liberal media-Democrat spokesweasel merry-go-round.
Stalin after the Holodomor - "My intent to commit genocide against the Ukrainian peasants was not malicious".
I just watched MHP's segment again. That was a real apology. She said the right words, and she was careful to make clear that hers were not weasel words.
It's a good example of how a real apology should go.
We righties should also keep in mind that one of the morals that most of us hold high is the belief in redemption. Someone who recognizes and apologizes for wrong-doing should be commended, granted absolution, and given a chance to move on. I'm not Catholic, but I believe these ideas are important in America. Lefties are the ones who think nobody can be redeemed.
Bob - nah. What Althouse lemmings prefer is a virtual curb stomping.
Romney accepts her apology.
Class act. Really happy I voted for him, actually. Not a great campaigner, but I think he would have been a really good President. Particularly on budget issues and getting our financial house in order.
This would be a good moment for many liberals to learn from and address their own latent bigotry. Consider some of the race-baiting they use, their treatment of non-white conservatives for daring to challenge the notion that conservatism is a white thing--maybe a moment of self reflection that could serve to heal our country's racial divide.
Naaaahhh......
"We righties should also keep in mind that one of the morals that most of us hold high is the belief in redemption. Someone who recognizes and apologizes for wrong-doing should be commended, granted absolution, and given a chance to move on. I'm not Catholic, but I believe these ideas are important in America. Lefties are the ones who think nobody can be redeemed."
TL:DR;
"Lefties, please eat me last?"
Jason,
"False.
But that's the lie the libtards would like you to believe and spread around."
Don't take my word for it. It's on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUlEfuM-xU
And he even got some laughs from his studio audience, he's just so witty.
--b
Bob Ellison;
I have not been wronged by MHP. I dont have the power to forgive her.
I do have the power to mock her double standard and bigotry. I will continue to do so until she she is ready to debate the issues without resorting to squeals of undefinable fairness, and the demand of deference to imagined protected classes.
You said Limbaugh "compared a 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton to a dog."
The clip depicts no such thing.
Ref my comment yesterday, Mitt Romney's classy response may have saved Melissa's job.
Hey, Bobby… Why is the Limbaugh clip so short?
What do you think they edited out, both before and after the clip?
You aren't the least bit curious?
You should be.
"I just watched MHP's segment again. That was a real apology. She said the right words, and she was careful to make clear that hers were not weasel words."
But Harris-Perry traffics in race baiting. She's got a lot more to apologize than this most recent episode. When she does that, I'll believe it's heartfelt.
Sure, Jason.
Why aren't you curious to see what was edited out?
Or are you just that determined to be stupid?
Harris-Perry's the same twit who caused a controversy a while back by saying that children were a communal responsibility rather than a parental responsibility.
This is as much of an apology you will get from people like her. At least she did it in person, exposed, on the air, instead of hiding behind casual, #hastag, tweet nonsense. No surpise Romney would be a class act and want to move on. He knows when someone has shat their own pants. Best to move on for everyone's sake.
Alex said...
but doesn't Christian mercy dictate that we should all forgive her? Where is the charity amongst all you self-professed Christian do-gooders?
Didn't Romney forgive her? Keeping in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily acceptance.
Not being a christian , I don't give a shit one way or the other. I don't see why you do.
Cliff said...
...It was certainly inappropriate to go after the kids but I do find it odd that so much worse has been said about the Obama daughters with no apologies whatsoever from people who continue to be on the air.
Cliff, please enlighten us as to who these people are and exactly what they said about Obama's daughters. I have followed politics extensively for nearly a decade and I get to see all the lying leftling talking points because the right has to defend against them all. I don't recall these stories about his daughters being maligned, which would have been the constant subject of the "unbiased", "objective" "news" media for months. If, of course, they actually happened.
Maybe you meant those like Herbert Schicklegruber of Stormfront TV with his massive audience consisting of some of his family members and all the other equally "famous" and powerful conservatives "...who continue to be on the air" after attacking Sasha and Malia. Their evil quotes must have been prominently featured on the "unbiased", "non-partisan", "public interest" 501c MediaMatters website so they should be easy enough for you to find.
I'd like to spread the blame in this case. Melissa Harris-Perry wasn't alone. She had producers, who haven't yet been identified as far as I know. Anybody know who the segment producers were?
Then there's "actress" Pia Glenn, whose own apology for her role in the on-air fiasco (humming "One of these things is not like the others...") was even more insulting than Harris-Perry's Twitter apology.
And Dean Obeidallah, whose apology was more than anything a doubling down on his original insult:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/31/confessions-of-a-romney-baby-bully.html
It's a free country. Pia Glenn and Dean Obeidallah can say what they wish. And I am free to call them both fuckheads. If they wanted publicity, they've got it now. I'll remember who they are.
Put her in the pillory. That'll teach her.
With tears? Sounds more like groveling than apologizing. I did read Romney's response [transcribed], and it sounds like this is over.
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