The hypocrisy of MSBNC re: the Melania Trump plagiarism. [View all]

[merrily]

First, let me say that plagiarism is wrong and, even though a speechwriter was likely involved, both Melania and Donald Trump were remiss. This post does not overlook or dismiss any of that. However, maybe twenty or more threads on those topics have already been started here since last night. And the fact that they were wrong does not make MSNBC right. So, I am taking a different approach than most other OPs about the plagiarism have taken.

We heard from MSNBC a lot of consternation about the plagiarism. O'Donnell refused to let Melania off the hook, even if a speechwriter wrote the speech, saying something like, "There is responsibility for the spoken word." I agree with that. Chris Matthews, who, once again, seems to have found his inner Republican, however, disagreed, saying Trump did nothing wrong; Melania did nothing wrong. One person and one person alone was responsible and that person not only should be fired, but should never work again.

After Matthews said that, O'Donnell dropped his claim that Melania was also responsible for speaking the words. I think there is responsibility in both Melania and Donald Trump. At the same time, plagiarism, which is likely also copyright violation, is not all that different from bigotry or from making up stuff and trying to pass it off in print or on air as real.

On the same panel as O'Donnell, Maddow and Matthews sat Brian Williams. We all remember why Williams is currently "earning" his contracted for ten million dollars a year at MSBNC these days, rather than as NBC's nightly news anchor, for which that ten mil is more commensurate.

Then, there is Mike Barnicle:

Boston Globe controversy

In 1998, Barnicle resigned from The Boston Globe amid a controversy over two columns, written three years apart. The first column of more than 80 lines of humorous observations had a few lines that bore similarity to jokes in the 1997 book Brain Droppings by George Carlin.[7] In a subsequent Globe review of all of Barnicle's many years of work, a second column was called into question. The October 8, 1995 column recounted the story of two sets of parents with cancer-stricken children. When one of the children died, the parents of the other child, who had begun to recover, sent the dead child's parents a check for $10,000. When the Globe could not locate the people who had not been publicly identified, Barnicle insisted nonetheless that the story was true. He said he did not obtain the story from the parents but from a nurse, whom he declined to identify. Mrs. Patricia Shairs later contacted the Globe to indicate that the story Barnicle wrote was about her family, although she said some of the facts were incorrect.[8]
1998–present

Six months after his resignation from the Globe, the New York Daily News recruited Barnicle to write for them, and later the Boston Herald .[9] Barnicle told reporters that he had nothing but "fond feelings for 25 years at the Globe".[9] Barnicle hosted a radio show three times a week called Barnicle's View.[10]

Barnicle has since become a staple on MSNBC,[11] including on Morning Joe as well as on specials on breaking news topics and the upcoming presidential election of 2016. Barnicle has interviewed all the candidates in the current run for the White House and many of those interviews and his commentary on the election cycle can be found at MikeBarnicleon2016.com.[12]

Barnicle is a devoted baseball fan and was interviewed in Ken Burns's film Baseball in The Tenth Inning movie, where he mostly commented on the 2003–2004 Boston Red Sox.[13] He has also been featured in TV documentaries and programs, including Fabulous Fenway: America's Legendary Ballpark (2000); City of Champions: The Best of Boston Sports (2005); ESPN 25: Who's #1 (2005); Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino (2004); The Curse of the Bambino (2003); ESPN Sports Century (2000); Baseball (1994); and in the TV series Prime 9 (2010–2011) for MLB Network.[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Barnicle

And, some of us remember when MSNBC treated Pat Buchanan like the pope of politics, trotting him out, program after program, on both MSNBC and NBC, with little to zero push back at anything Buchanan said coming from program anchors or hosts. To the contrary, Buchanan was treated as THE expert among experts. Despite many protests from viewers about Buchanan's racism and xenophobia, MSNBC did not get rid of him until after release of Buchanan's second openly xenophobic book. (Sad to say, PBS has long broadcast the McLaughlin Group, where Buchanan pontificates bloviates comments about politics.)

So, Mr. Matthews, maybe you are correct. Maybe the speechwriter responsible for Melania Trump's speech should never work again. However, if you believe that, perhaps you should be railing at the head of NBC News, your very own boss, too. Somehow, I don't think you ever did that, though. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8025535