October 7, 2022

"In case you're wondering, as I did, how my punishment for tweeting about Toobin compares to Toobin's suspension for his offense...."

"He was off air for eight months; I was off for seven. One month was the difference between punishment for jacking off at work versus commenting on the inadvisability of jacking off at work. On one hand, the people who made this call about me are gone from the network, so maybe I could let it lie. But on the other hand, many of my colleagues no doubt knew about my banning from air, but not the reasons behind it, thereby leaving the impression I must have done something tantamount to Toobining. I did not. I was told it was Jeff Zucker, now gone, who put this order in place and a deputy, also gone, who kept it there. I was also told I wasn't informed of the network's displeasure because I had just had a baby and someone in the old leadership thought I might be a 'loose cannon.' Not as loose as Toobin's.... In the #MeToo era, I have been asked to make public comment on basically every errant penis in the media, government, sports, and entertainment worlds, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else in the news, and at the expense of some amount of professional dignity. It is ironic that in shining a light on bad behavior, which is the right thing to do, you're still a woman on TV talking about penises...."
 
"I know very well I'm in the ideological minority in many of the places I speak, and certainly in the Zucker era at CNN, that made me dispensable....  ... I've been invited back by the new guard to do the job I was prevented from doing by the old guard. Clean slate, as if nothing happened. But something did happen. I have never been great at being quiet, and it’s not in my nature to start. So, that’s where I’ve been. I determined it was impossible for me to come back without saying why I’d been gone."
 
ADDED: Let me say 2 things about the difference between Toobin and Ham's entanglement with the penis.
 
1. Though Ham only talked about the penis and Toobin exposed his erect penis — both were on camera and seen by others and Ham was choosing to speak, repeatedly, while Toobin made a terrible mistake, once.

2. Ham's joking belittled the penis, and — in a phallocracy — that is a grave offense. The penis is supposed to be immensely imposing and intimidating. In that light, Toobin's mistake served the interests of the phallocracy. He erred in carelessly and vainly brandishing his penis. But those who saw did not say, oh, that poor man, it's so embarrassing. They treated it — even in a lame display — as a very very frightening.

68 comments:

RMc said...

The "MeToo era", the "Age of Quiet Quitting"...how about the Age Where Adults Actually Act Like Adults...?

Howard said...

Life's Not Fair. Playing the Martyr card like a badge of honor is unseemly. But you Trump Beta's love it because it justifies your own weak ass whining about how butch girls and 90-lb weaklings steal your lunch money.

Queue the violins and have a good cry.

gilbar said...

is there STILL a cnn? i thought they threw that away long ago

Kai Akker said...

Kept off the air but still working -- ? I don't know what exactly that amounts to. She writes columns elsewhere?

So CNN punished her for mentioning Toobin's toobining but didn't tell her. Just kept her out. No discussion, no information.

Why is that so unsurprising? Just another depressing note from the cretins who somehow obtained the power to censor anyone and anything they didn't care for. It doesn't matter who it was; it's just a sign of our bad situation.

The majority of Americans, a shifting group, have always managed to rescue the nation from its bad situations before. Let's not stop that now.

Saint Croix said...

She had one show on The View that did not go well.

Leland said...

Perhaps she shouldn’t use the phrase, “on the other hand”, when discussing Toobin.

peacelovewoodstock said...

MKH> " ... you're still a woman on TV talking about penises..."

Elizabeth Warren nods in silent agreement.

Krumhorn said...

Good for her! The lefties have been generally successful in enforcing their ideological beliefs and pet perversions. It requires a concerted effort and no small personal courage to stand up to them. I’d like to think that we’re starting to see some momentum building to turn this around.

- Krumhorn

Another old lawyer said...

So few adults in charge anywhere.

Sally327 said...

Who knows if this is the truth or not? Is CNN going to confirm this version or are we just to accept that it is true because MKH is a purportedly reliable conservative voice (although I think she's a never Trumper? which doesn't make her any less reliable I suppose) and a woman and wouldn't lie to us?

What I can't tell from the article is how she gets paid for TV appearances, whether this meant she didn't make as much as money as she might have otherwise.

I don't really get what I am supposed to be outraged about or exactly what she's outraged about. It all seems so manufactured. And fake.

Temujin said...

"I have been asked to make public comment on basically every errant penis in the media, government, sports, and entertainment worlds, sometimes to the exclusion of everything else in the news..."

This is one of the great lines of the week. every errant penis. Indeed. There are many of them out there. And those with a (D) next to their name, usually get their jobs back, if they lost them at all. Those who point them out, do so at risk of being (a) dismissed, fired, suspended- if a Conservative, or (b)told to shut up and stick to the company line if a Liberal/Progressive.

I did not know Mary Katherine Ham had been suspended by CNN for the same reason I don't know if a tree falls in the forest, while I'm at the beach. I simply don't pay any attention to CNN or any of their jacking off employees. Mary fights the fight on the unwelcome soil. That's hard work. A slog. And she's doing it on her own, in her own way. In that, I have a lot of respect for her in doing that. But I, personally, would do nothing to help CNN in any way. I'd prefer to yank on the plug and let it drain away.

Lucien said...

It’s not about length . . . of suspension. Toobin will be a walking joke for life. His name might even become a verb.

Kate said...

I've always liked Ham since the days she was on O'Reilly and handled herself well. (Long ago when we still watched O'Reilly.)

However . . . she gets herself in these situations. If you agree to work for CNN, you will be marginalized. I haven't heard from her in years, didn't even know she'd remarried, because she chooses jobs where she can be the underdog. I hear her claiming that she's challenging her brain. CNN is not the place where that happens.

Tina Trent said...

Toobin has lied to the media for more than a decade about what he knew about Obama's deep, decades-long involvement with unrepentant domestic terrorists.

That masturbating is far more consequential than an accidental schlong shot.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“I was told it was Jeff Zucker, now gone, who put this order in place and a deputy, also gone, who kept it there.”

The tweets in question occurred in January 2022 and Jeff Zucker left CNN in February, so who is the nameless deputy? Reading through her tweets quoted in the article she links, they are about media coverage of the shooting of Steve Scalise at the Congressional Baseball Game being minimized. She mentions Jeff Toobin tangentially in connection with that criticism. But isn’t putting forward the Toobin references as the reason for her suspension, rather than the shooting of Scalise, also a minimization of the shooting?

AMDG said...

Great writing

Saint Croix said...

Ham's pro-life, I think, but she's not at all vocal about it.

I don't think she realizes why she was shut down.

Pro-choice man waving his dick around.

And a pro-life woman who just had a baby is criticizing him.

The optics were horrible. That's why they shut you up.

It's asinine to think it's a man club and we're all doing it. You think I wave my dick around on Zoom calls at work? Men get fired for that shit all the time. We get fired for a lot less than that.

Toobin kept his job because of his political ideology and the narratives that go along with that.

Ted Kennedy killed a woman and ran away from the crime scene. How did he keep his job? That penis saved him?

Saint Croix said...

If Ham told the truth about abortion on network television, she would have lost her job a long time ago. And she knows this on some level, I think, which is why she never rocked the boat.

You ever hear of Jane Chastain? That's what a real journalist is like.

Beasts of England said...

‘…the inadvisability of jacking off at work.’

That’s not what the handicap stall is for?

Cappy said...

This is a sticky situation

TreeJoe said...

There is this huge array of people who supported, propped up, and excused the corporate behavior of a major public institution because it was more important to criticize others - such as fox news.

To choose one example: Cuomo helped his governor brother manage his horrible behavior while celebrating him on air....after Cuomo faked and lied about his COVID behavior earlier in the pandemic. All while being celebrated.

It's great CNN has new leadership, but these are the types of stories that need to come out and shame for leadership. You don't get change until people see consequences to their actions.

...

Seperate but similar theme I was on this morning: Ann, don't know if this aligns with your interests, but I'd love to see you do a post on how ~2-3 years ago Democrats were very publicly pushing Modern Monetary Theory as an excuse to print money to pay for their programs, and saying it did not have negative effects (i.e. inflation). And where is that reckoning today, just 3 years ago.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The left are little Putin Soviets - on the march for loyalty and if they do not get it - you're gone.

Che Dolf said...

Mary Katharine Ham's entire job was to be a toothless conservative helping to prop up a Democratic media outlet. She has no business complaining when her boss punishes her for gumming party allies too aggressively.

Absolutely hilarious that Ham preens about being a "contrarian." Maybe she is relative to her friends in the DC Dem/GOPe echo chamber, but she's never written anything even slightly heterodox.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

White leftwing men in media are the worst.

AlbertAnonymous said...

I read that yesterday. The whole thing is insane. Toobin should have been summarily dismissed immediately. Not suspended and then kept on air. Good lord. And MKH is awesome. Rough road but no woe is me. Love her style.

Lurker21 said...

Maybe the standard is "whatever tends to bring the network into disrepute." Tweeting about a suspended commentator casts a shadow on the network. Masturbating on line is just doing what the channel does every night.

Sebastian said...

"the lessons I thought we learned in #MeToo"

That #MeToo was about holding men accountable for bad behavior toward women? Wrong lesson. It is to laugh. The lesson is that progs will use use accusations of bad behavior as a tool to squash deplorable men and/or to boost their own reputation--which sometimes ends up hurting previously certifiable allies (Al, Harvey). But of course the point was never justice for women by going after bad boys as such--not Bill, not the other Epstein clients, not Shower Joe, and not Jeff T.

"that made me dispensable"

Nothing "made" her dispensable. In the prog propaganda apparatus, everyone and everything is dispensable, except those who solidify its power at any one moment or might do so in the near future.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

CNN was a Toobin during Trump. One giant throbbing Toobin.

Jake said...

I absolutely hate this new wave of frou-frou, bougie diners. Gimme some old school George Webb’s or a place like Miss Katie’s Diner (last I checked it only had a “B” rating from the Milwaukee health department) or Ted’s in Wauwatosa. Those are legit diners.

robother said...

If only the pre-Raphaelites were still around! I'm visualizing a septych, "The Martyrdom of Mary Katherine Ham, or, 7 Months in Media Purgatory."

BIII Zhang said...

"Toobin should have been summarily dismissed immediately"

There are untouchables, and he's one of them.

Look at Hunter Biden. Video after video after video of him smoking crack cocaine, paying hookers, he purchased a gun by committing felony perjury on a federal firearm application, he and his father have literally sold out the country to the Chinese so that 10% can go to the Big Guy.

And what do I read in the paper this morning? The DoJ hasn't charged Biden with the crimes he's committed because they're negotiating with his attornies.

So, if you go out and lie and get a gun and rob the Quik-E-Mart, do you think the cops in your town are not going to arrest you? Are they instead going to work with your attorneys, prior to you even being arrested, to figure out what kind of a charge or sentence you might be willing to take?

They are criminals. They are pederasts. They are perverts. They are child rapists. Look at Anthony Weiner. He's literally walking the streets of New York a free man today.

Hillary Clinton. Broke every law we have on the book regarding the handling of Top Secret documents, to the point where they ended up on Anthony Weiner's fucking laptop. And she's not even under investigation by the federal government.

They are untouchables. And they know it. That's why they can jack off at work right in your face, safe in the knowledge that you can't get them fired.

Because they are untouchable.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Once again a “news” organization proves that Twitter is their managing editor and the alleged management just follows the consensus blue-check mob.

BarrySanders20 said...

Different strokes for different folks there at CNN.

Ann Althouse said...

"She had one show on The View that did not go well."

She's very good in that clip — when they finally let her speak after every other person had spoken (and just said dull things).

Obviously, "View" fans are going to trash the conservative person, so those attacks mean nothing. Ham was upbeat and friendly as she made a few succinct points. The others should have done a better job of concluding her. I didn't like Behar just giving her stinkface.

That show is such bullshit. But Ham was game.

Achilles said...

Howard said...

Life's Not Fair. Playing the Martyr card like a badge of honor is unseemly. But you Trump Beta's love it because it justifies your own weak ass whining about how butch girls and 90-lb weaklings steal your lunch money.

Queue the violins and have a good cry.


Don't complain about Howard's fascism. Or the Government/Corporate censorship.

Just suck it up and stop whining. Accept his fascism.

I look forward to seeing this attitude play out.

I look forward to Howard claiming he never supported Joe Biden or the Brian Sicknick blood libel or the Russian Collusion hoax in 5 years.

mikeski said...

Look at Hunter Biden. Video after video after video of him smoking crack cocaine, paying hookers, he purchased a gun by committing felony perjury on a federal firearm application, he and his father have literally sold out the country to the Chinese so that 10% can go to the Big Guy.

And what do I read in the paper this morning? The DoJ hasn't charged Biden with the crimes he's committed because they're negotiating with his attornies.


All a smoke-screen, so that when Trump is charged, DOJ can pretend that they are "fair" or "even-handed" or somesuch. "See, we investigated Hunter!".

Why do you think this came out via The National Laughingstock, er, WaPo and not some "partisan" outfit like Fox or the NY Post??

Ann Althouse said...

"a better job of concluding her."

LOL

I mean including her.

They did conclude her.

It's awful to be at the mercy of superiors when you are there to represent the minority. It's always hanging over your head. You'd better be prepared for the ax to fall. Have other places to go or create your own place or withdraw into private life. There's no permanence.

Balfegor said...

It wasn't punishment or discipline for violation of corporate policy. It was just common or garden retaliation. That's why it was secret.

veni vidi vici said...

Last I checked, CNN is a visual medium. Their biggest mistake in benching Ham was apparently forgetting that fact, since Ham is a really, really good-looking woman. She might be pedestrian on FNC but on CNN she's got standout looks - a real "attractor", as they say - and probably kept more eyes on the tubes than when she was gone and all viewers were left with was that doughy potato Stelter and his greasy erect Oscar Meyer sidekick Lemon.

veni vidi vici said...

"If only the pre-Raphaelites were still around! I'm visualizing a septych, "The Martyrdom of Mary Katherine Ham, or, 7 Months in Media Purgatory.""

CNN is the septych tank of journalism.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

ADDED: Let me say 2 things about the difference between Toobin and Ham's entanglement with the penis.

It demonstrates the only actual "privilege" that exists in America: Leftist privilege.

She was punished for not bowing down to the Left, he was rewarded from being of the Left. You want to get rid of "privilege"?

Then go to war against the Left

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Ann Althouse said...
She's very good in that clip — when they finally let her speak after every other person had spoken (and just said dull things).

Obviously, "View" fans are going to trash the conservative person, so those attacks mean nothing. Ham was upbeat and friendly as she made a few succinct points. The others should have done a better job of including her. I didn't like Behar just giving her stinkface.


They couldn't include her, because they're mean girls who use ostracism to push their agenda

They couldn't oppose her, other than with "stinkface", because their positions are crap, and their brains are dead, so they didn't have any arguments to make

It's why the Left is freaked about Musk buying Twitter and ending the suppression of opposing views: they're fascist scum who have nothing to offer other than bullying

Jupiter said...

Lie down with CNN ...

Anthony said...

Unknown said...
"Toobin should have been summarily dismissed immediately"

There are untouchables, and he's one of them.

Look at Hunter Biden. Video after video after video of him smoking crack cocaine, paying hookers, he purchased a gun by committing felony perjury on a federal firearm application, he and his father have literally sold out the country to the Chinese so that 10% can go to the Big Guy. . . .

They are untouchables. And they know it. That's why they can jack off at work right in your face, safe in the knowledge that you can't get them fired.

Because they are untouchable.


Yeah. *sigh*

robother said...

Heh, veni vidi venci is making a pun, inspired by autocorrect. (I had to override twice to get "septych" instead of "septic," and again to type this parenthetical.)

Saint Croix said...

I didn't like Behar just giving her stinkface.

I have a theory that her parents permanently messed her up by calling her "Joy."

If they called her "Stinky" she'd probably be an awesome human being.

Rebellion is definitely a thing.

Christopher B said...

It seems like you wanna protect Toobin for reasons but update #1 is pretty incoherent.

Ham was suspended because of a Twitter fight as detailed here by Mediate which includes the tweet Toobin and CNN probably found offensive. I guess you could say she choose to speak but it was Twitter, not 'on camera'. It should also be noted that Toobin didn't expose himself at CNN but to other staffers at his New Yorker gig. So I don't get conflating what he did with Ham being asked for professional commentary on multiple cases of penile projection.

You're also cutting off the main point that Ham made in the 'graph you excerpted and ellipsed. Here's the rest (with my emphasis)

..penises. Every professional woman in a green room, preparing to talk about Weinstein’s penchant for potted plants for the 17th time, knows this feeling. Nonetheless, speaking up remains the right thing to do, and I flatly reject the notion, then and now, that Toobin's flagrantly errant member is the one I am not allowed to talk about— that this is the one offense about which I should be silent. I also reject the idea I’m to be quiet about being punished over it.

As to update #2, I know the preferred terminology to express offense at something now days is the language of victimology but my bet is the main reaction to the thought of Toobin's puckered pink pickle popping up on camera was sniggering, not screaming.

Michael K said...

Since I haven't looked at CNN in years, I didn't notice.

Birches said...

MK Hamm is a little too Con Inc. for us to be completely ideologically sympatico, but I do love her. A lot of moderate women have sold out their political beliefs for fame and a bigger paycheck and she never has.


Saint Croix said...

Toobin will be a walking joke for life. His name might even become a verb.

ha ha ha

"What were you doing last night?"

"Toobin'."

I can almost guarantee that CNN will never produce a show called Toobin.

Earnest Prole said...

Maybe the lesson is this: Don’t work for a bullshit company.

BIII Zhang said...

"CNN is a visual medium"

CNN is a gay news channel. That's why they dropped Ham with impunity. The gays aren't whacking it to Mary Katherine Ham. They're whacking it nightly to Don Lemon and that gray haired one.

BIII Zhang said...

"CNN is a visual medium"

CNN is a gay news channel. That's why they dropped Ham with impunity. The gays aren't whacking it to Mary Katherine Ham. They're whacking it nightly to Don Lemon and that gray haired one.

Yancey Ward said...

In general, I think that when you get the "Whoops" error on posting, the post you wrote does get through. This didn't use to be the case a year or two ago, but I haven't seen an instance in a while that my post didn't actually get through. One caveat- I haven't yet not reposted, so I can't be sure that get the previous ones through, you have get past the "Whoops" message.

Yancey Ward said...

And I immediately get to do the experiment.

Kathryn51 said...

I was fortunate to have dinner with MKH several years ago (National Review Cruise) and she was a delightful woman. At the time, she was pregnant with her second child and it was a month before her husband was killed. She is an independent thinker.

This is how I understand TV pundit contracts. Annual contract for X number of guaranteed appearances on a variety of shows during the contract period. This is why you see someone like Brit Hume or Ari Fleisher on 2-3 different FOX shows a week.

I don't think MKH was "suspended" from her contract, she simply was not asked to appear. Perhaps there was some sort of sliding scale in her payout, but as far as I could tell, she doesn't claim that she lost $$.

I'm glad she's speaking out.

Kai Akker said...

---ADDED #2.

So..... that penis better live up to its role, being -- what is it? -- imposing and intimidating, if you want to wave it around at your colleagues on a zoom meeting.

Hmmm. The "phallocracy" someone may be living in sounds like a mental location, not a social one. Or was that just a funny? Haha.

In case not, though, it sounds like there are some new rules to learn that I was unaware of. When toobining, we should zoom in on that thang to garner its full measure of intimidation. Painting a little scowl on its head might help with that.

RoseAnne said...

As I recall, Ham's first husband was working for the Obama administration when he was killed in the accident. They put out a press release in his honor.

Two intelligent people with different political views able to stay together and respect each other's right to a different opinion.



mccullough said...

This is CNN

Ralph L said...

Speaking of stink eye, the ancient Romans used public images of erections to keep away the Evil Eye. No one has explained exactly how that works (or what the EE is), but perhaps Toobin was doing that subconsciously.

rcocean said...

I suppose Ham has to speak in such a wishy-washy vague way because Zucker still has powerful friends at CNN and she is center-right.

Jeff Zucker was a complete Leftwing Prick, who staffed CNN with flunkies, leftists, and mediocrities, and made CNN into the Clown News Network. Despite this, he's not been criticizd publically, except in a mild way, by the Conservative media. Unlike Ham, they don't work for CNN, but many of them want to.

Its says a lot about Zucker & the leftwing women at CNN, that Toobin was allowed to come back to work. Of course, these are the same type of skanks who dreamed of giving Clinton a blowjob for "Saving abortion".

PM said...

Sometimes the best way out of a fuck-up is to lean into it.
Toobin should change his name to Jackie.

Wince said...

Althouse added...
Ham's joking belittled the penis, and — in a phallocracy — that is a grave offense.

"Thanks for not making fun of my genitalia."

rcocean said...

"Have other places to go or create your own place or withdraw into private life."


I agree. But here's the dilemma for people for people like Hamm. The only way she can get a wider audience for her views/writing is to get on TV. Yet, leftists control TV and social media. And she's not just getting her PERSONAL views out there, but those of her employer "The Federalist".

She's bewteen a rock/hard place. Tell the truth and be banned, or play the game that the Leftwing TV network execs set the rules for. The obvious solution would be "The Free Market" but that doesn't exist in American TV. Ask Donald Trump ex-POTUS who can't get on social media. Or get an undedited interview with any network except Fox. We have a Big Business monopoly instead of a Goverment monopoly. but the impact is the same: A small group of poeple (probably 100 people) controlling what 320 million Americans can see on TV.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...That show is such bullshit. But Ham was game.

I didn't see it, but she was on a recent-ish episode of Real Time With Bill Maher:
YT clip - Real Time Caitlin Flanagan & MKH

She does a podcast with Vic Matus called Getting Hammered that's pretty good (usually around 45 mins, decent breadth of current topics). She went to the same college as I did around the same time so I've followed her career and was disappointed she ended up at CNN!

HoodlumDoodlum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gunner said...

I doubt anyone thought that Hamm did any Toobining. They probably just thought she said something "disrespectful" of Biden or Kamala.

rehajm said...

…while Toobin made a terrible mistake, once.

Oh, fuck that and fuck you for saying that. He did it because he knew he would get away with it…then he jerked off over getting away with it.