“Teabagging” and the Shame of MSNBC and CNN
Power Line:
The star hosts of CNN and MSNBC news shows have notoriously derided the tea party demonstrations around the country with reference to the practice of teabagging (which I had never heard of before they brought it up). As John noted, both networks’ “journalists” used the rallies as an occasion for childish sexual innuendoes — in the case of MSNBC, the same obscene teabag “joke” was repeated 51 times in a 13-minute segment…
There is not only something funny going on here, there is a story here. These supposed journalists and their networks (or publisher, in Sullivan’s case) have rather seriously insulted the citizens who colorfully took to the streets to air respectable views in a most civil fashion. If they had any decency, Cooper et al. would apologize for their vile reference to sexual practices in the context of ordinary citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.
PL’s Scott Johnson is right of course. The jokes were extremely insulting and unprofessional. No serious journalist would have made the joke once, let alone several times. And if he did, he would have issued an apology immediately.
CNN and MSNBC – the networks nor the reporters mentioned – did not do so, however. They have lost all credibility and have proved to be ideological hacks, willing to insult and denigrate all those who disagree with their big-government views, yet again.
As an aside, it never ceases to amaze me that whenever men make disgusting sexist remarks about a female conservative, we do not hear a peep out of self-proclaimed feminists.
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whenever men make disgusting sexist remarks
I get disgusting. And it’s definitely sexual. But how exactly is Taibbi’s remark sexist?
The conservatives are getting weaker and weaker, and it’s making me sick. We used to be powerful, but now we’re going to the stupid parties and complaining when MSNCB cracks jokes. I think it’s time to find a third way. I don’t want to be part of this party of complainers any more.
It’s MSNBC, The National Enquirer has more credibility than them. C’Mon…
Grant: I presume it’s considered sexist because men are not subject to the same use of this tactic- discrediting them by sexualizing them.
CStanley actually I hear the term “teabagging” used by a man against another man all the time. It’s used jokingly most of the time anyway.
If you want your article to be read, you can just tie sexism to it somehow. Thats all journalism is nowadays, hot-buttons. Pathetic if you ask me.
Grant had it right
Really? Like this was really worth writing an article about? There are serious tragedies happening all over the world right now at this exact moment, and all you can find to write about is a bunch of journalists cracking teabag jokes? And then you have the nerve to try to throw in your feminist red herring thing on top of it?
LOL, OK, just completely miss my point and criticize a different one that I didn’t make, crgum. The gratuitous connection that that blogger made between the sex act of teabagging and Michelle Malkin is clearly an example of an attempt to make her seem unworthy of serious attention to her writing.
Allofyourlife- that’s one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve seen in quite some time. “Professional” journalists who get paid handsomely to report news (and who have ethically responsibility to do so without becoming part of the story) behave like teenagers in a lockerroom and your criticism is toward those who point that out?
CStanley, I believe that teabagging is an equal-opportunity joke. One could just as well make fun of a male columnist in exactly the same way. In fact, in my extensive experience with dirty sexual jokes (I’ve lived with 2 or 3 male roommates for all 4 years of college), in conversation it is much more common to refer to a man as a teabagger. I think that your misinterpretation here is due to the fact that teabagging isn’t regarded as a standard erotic activity. When that author said that he entertained himself by thinking of his opposite teabagging as she wrote, he’s thinking of her performing a humiliating act, not an erotic act. You should note that he imagines her teabagging an unattributed, hairy pair of balls, not his own balls.
In sum, I believe that your accusation of sexism is a misinterpretation of an attempt to humiliate a columnist via describing an obscene image of her as an attempt to distract attention from a columnist’s writing via describing a sexual image of her. This has the advantage for you of implying that liberals have a reason to distract attention away from her writing; since I don’t read this kind of stuff, I don’t have an opinion either way, but I certainly don’t read any sexism in the post to which you refer.
Yea, but come on guys. Have you ever seen somebody get tea-bagged? It’s hilarious. 51 laffs in 13 minutes is nothing when dealing with tea-bag related jokes. GTF over it.
I have absolutely ZERO doubt that if a sexual vulgarity were used to describe an anti-war protest or other leftist protest cause, the outrage in the blogosphere would be deafening. The hypocrisy on display from leftist bloggers and commenters is absolutely shameless on this issue. Of course, coming on top of shameless reversals from the vast majority of the left on filibusters, the value of dissent, the powers of the President, and a host of other issues, it should hardly be surprising.
But is still disappointing at least and better described as grossly offensive behavior.
What you seem to be forgetting is that teabagging is equally irrelevant to conservatives and feminists alike. This is not the stage for a pseudo-political argument, it’s just an example of poor humour. Anybody could have made this joke in any situation, and it still wouldn’t have been funny, but teabagging in itself is in fact hilarious, and anyone who considers teabagging jokes to be offensive is a fool.
Teabagging’s funny, but it shouldn’t be on TV, because that isn’t appropriate. That’s all there is to it, no leftist conspiracy, no feminist outrage, just a poor quality joke.
Of course, if they were directed at people on a college campus instead of at conservatives, this finding would not only be reversed, but the person telling the teabagging jokes might even find themselves expelled or forced into mandatory reeducation seminars for “offensive speech”.
Yes, it IS a leftist double standard. Saying it is not is in contravention of clear and easily found evidence from college campuses with speech codes all over the country.
To make a name for your group that has a sexual inuenndo so obviously in it and then expect no one to ever mention it doesn’t seem overly well thought out. I have been in a similar situation on a smaller scale and having realized what I had done, I found it hilarious, and then promptly changed the name.
it seems to me to be the fault of whomever came up with the name, and they(and no one else) are to blame.
I haven’t been this amused since Dick Armey tried to make fun of Barney Frank.
Hey, you guys mind if I join this trolling seminar?
On one side, we’ve got people arguing from fallacious viewpoints.
On the other side, we’ve got people arguing from fallacious and/or blatantly uninformed viewpoints.
Read the A.P. articles and ignore the rest of the garbage out there. Your life will be much easier.
Do you really think that if some lefties held “Rusty Trombone” or “Dirty Sanchez” rallies that people (on both side of the aisle) wouldn’t make fun of them? I agree that it’s not exactly professional, but TV news hasn’t been anything but entertainment since Edward R. Murrow. Let MSNBC have their sophomoric sex jokes, it’s not hurting anyone.
The “teabaggers” label was not chosen by the protesters. They called them “tea parties”. The “teabagging” label was imposed by their opponents, specifically to mock them in a way that I GUARANTEE they would have found outrageously offensive if the partisan tables were reversed.
Hypocrisy seems to be the #1 drug of the ideological left these days, even more than their old standby marijuana. They are unbelievably shameless about it on a wide variety of issues. And when it is pointed out, they won’t even talk about it. They just change the subject by yelling “the Republicans are worse” again and again and again and again and again and again…
Actually it wasn’t the opponents who called it teabagging – the protestors did choose it themselves. They had it on their signs; it really was quite widespread amongst the protestors.
Bad research on their part; why did they stray from the “tea party” rhetoric? No idea. But they did, and so there you have it.
it really was quite widespread amongst the protestors.
I saw some images of actual teabags on several signs but I don’t recall a single person with a sign with the word ‘teabagger’ on it.
Quite obviously a picture of a teabag is not meant to bring up a rude sexual innuendo, and anyone who makes that inference so automatically is the one who has bit of a problem
“Hypocrisy seems to be the #1 drug of the ideological left these days, even more than their old standby marijuana.”
Actually, I think it’s alcohol, much as it is for the right. But go ahead and act like a jerk towards an entire swath of people.