By Joe Scarborough
From POLITICO.COM:
Jon Stewart’s “Rally for Sanity” challenged extremists of all stripes this past weekend. The crude attempts by pundits and politicians on the fringes of the left and the right to stir up fear among viewers have made these carnival barkers wealthy and powerful — but Stewart believes the process has brought harm to America.
I believe that having the 43rd and 44th presidents labeled as “fascists” by media figures is reason enough for Americans to seek a higher level of debate. The days of media companies making millions from the delegitimization of America’s presidents must come to an end. And I’m just naive enough to believe that Stewart’s rally might make a difference.
Now that a major media figure has taken on incivility in the world of news, maybe a major politician can rise to the occasion and apply some pressure on his peers to do the same for Congress. The divide between parties is wider than ever and has little to do with ideological differences…
Click here to read the full article.
Nice sentiment, but it rings hollow if Scarborough himself isn’t willing to “apply some pressure on his peers” — folks like Keith Olbermann, that is, who regularly confuses name calling with policy debate.
Didn’t Olbermann call a conservative columnist a “mashed up bag of meat” or something like that? Didn’t he rant at Scott Brown on the night of his election, calling him racist and the like? DIdn’t he say “get the popcorn” before cutting to Christine O’Donnell’s concession speech on election night? These are but a few examples in a long body of work.
Instead of lecturing the people he can’t control, Scarborough should seek to clean up the house he lives in — MSNBC.