Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

chelsea0011

(10,115 posts)
Wed May 16, 2012, 07:00 AM May 2012

Elizabeth Warren and why is ABC News all over this story and why the double standard?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/article-cites-elizabeth-warren-as-first-woman-of-color-hired-by-harvard-law-school/

So, I turn on my news of choice this AM, channel 5, and get a blockbuster story by them via ABC News, that there can be no verification of Elizabeth Warren's heritage as being part Cherokee. Now, remember, this is the former station of Scott Brown's wife Gail Huff, who refused to go on temporary leave while her husband ran for the Senate and also, Channel 5 never asked her to step aside. So, I go online and read the ABC News story and note that what Channel 5 reported isn't quite the same. ABC News isn't saying that there is no lineage, it just as of yet can't verify it via the channel they are using, the New England Genealogical Society. Politico is also supplying facts to ABC. So, channel 5 is reporting something that is not what ABC is actually reporting. Not surprising in the least as Channel 5 has been all over every negative story about Warren from the start. After every story they report that puts Elizabeth Warren in a bad light, they should be also saying Gail Huff is a former reporter here at Channel 5. They have never done this. They didn't even do it when she was working there while her husband ran for the Senate.

Which brings me to the double standard I had in mind and this concerns Senator Marco Rubio from FL, a VP candidate. Elizabeth Warren's problem goes back to her great great great grandmother and some supposed marriage paper and a story that has been passed down via the generations. Just supposing that that the paper doesn't exist, and that is still up to debate no matter what the Brown campaign would have you believe, and this has been a generational mistake, this would be something we could all understand and Elizabeth Warren could issue a statement and we could all move on. Compare this to Marco Rubio. He lied that his family fled a Castro Cuba to escape a brutal dictatorship. This is his generation, not a couple of generations removed where stories that get passed down can change. He knew when he came here and still lied about it. this story had some legs, mostly in LW blogs, but never had ABC News day after day digging into this story. And he is still a strong VP candidate. Where is the balance here? And why is ABC News so want to destroy Elizabeth Warren?
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

MADem

(135,425 posts)
1. You answered your own question...where did Gail Huff work?
Wed May 16, 2012, 07:19 AM
May 2012

And where does she work now? WJLA in WASH, DC. -- an "Albritton Communications" franchise (to the right of Attila the Hun). WJLA is an ABC outlet that was one of the few that deep-sixed Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" TV show, which, because DC was a Big Six market, ensured the show's demise.

They're not into fairness, but they haven't been since the Reagan era. ABC has always been this way. It's no surprise.

chelsea0011

(10,115 posts)
3. Thanks. I didn't know Gail Huff has been working in DC. and the ABC connections.
Wed May 16, 2012, 08:18 AM
May 2012

I remember when Arnold was running for Governor, Maria Shriver was forced out of her job. No such happenings here in Boston.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
5. Maria wasn't forced out--she chose to leave.
Wed May 16, 2012, 10:49 AM
May 2012

Really. She took an unpaid leave of absence while that jerk Ahhnuld ran, and kept her options open. Then, when he won, she went back for a bit, but she was invested in shilling for her husband's administration, and (quite rightly) the network said "We'll have none of that." So, she took her ball and went home--she had the option of just playing it straight and not coloring her commentary with Ahhnuld-shill, but she didn't want to go that way...she had to make a choice and she made it. Wonder if she regrets that call?

In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.

Following her husband's November 17, 2003, inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC.

On February 3, 2004, Shriver asked to be "relieved of [her] duties at NBC News," citing concerns the network had over the conflict of interest between her role as a journalist and her status as the First Lady of California and her increasing role as an advocate of her husband's administration.[6]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Shriver

Chris Matthews' wife used to work for that same DC station in pretty much the same job--she left to do media for Marriott International...!

MADem

(135,425 posts)
7. Well, she couldn't or wouldn't shut up about that turd she was married to...!
Thu May 17, 2012, 12:49 PM
May 2012

She was giddy with the political prospects (the Senate for Ahh-nuld was being discussed back then), and was enjoying the whole First Lady experience. If she knew then what she knows now, though, I wonder if she wouldn't have just taken the money and run! She gave up HER primo moneymaking years as a television presenter to support that asshole's ambitions.

Oh, to have a time machine!

LuvNewcastle

(16,846 posts)
2. My great-grandmother told me that her grandmother was Choctaw.
Wed May 16, 2012, 07:28 AM
May 2012

Since record-keeping wasn't a priority in Mississippi at the time, I doubt there's any physical record of it.

chelsea0011

(10,115 posts)
4. And therein lies the issue with candidate Warren
Wed May 16, 2012, 08:28 AM
May 2012

I'm not sure if she "identifies" herself as Native American. It would seem she does not because of how she has filed forms in the past. What is coming out is a maybe and maybe not that at one time or another she has claimed Native American status, and rightly so, by her own beliefs. So, she has done nothing wrong no matter how much Brown cries about it. When confronted with a question on an application about your genealogy, one has every right to answer truthfully to the question. By all accounts she has done this. If the institutions use this information then what does that have to do with Warren? This issue has legs and I am sure the media will beat it to death and ignore Brown's record. Or just pass him off as moderate which he ain't.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
8. I've been told all my long life that I have a little native peoples in me!
Sat May 19, 2012, 03:09 AM
May 2012

I don't know how uncommon this is, to hear these kinds of stories in one's family history.

I have no idea if there's any truth to what I've been told, or not.

Until they start DNA testing everyone to determine their heritage, well, who's to know who's who in the zoo?

Madeleine Albright was a Roman Catholic until she learned that she was born a Jew. People know what they're TOLD. Can't blame people for believing what they're told, can we?

luckyleftyme2

(3,880 posts)
9. the truth about native american mix
Sat May 26, 2012, 07:55 AM
May 2012

Depending on where your people (kin) lived in new england it might be hard to trace.
In my family my great grandmothers mother was half Algonquin indian. Many with french descent have native american or native canadian blood mixed in their dna! many families hid it to avoid racial harassment. my family did because it would have meant their jobs in the local paper mill. So naturally the paper work is scarce!
I suggest the lady have a dna test and if its positive she sue the shit out of abc and the lady who is trying to sink her. And remember she can sue her for everything plus what she makes in the future!

luckyleftyme2

(3,880 posts)
10. racial overtones
Sat May 26, 2012, 08:02 AM
May 2012

Many new englanders think that racism was only in the south; well it was and is still alive for the native american. In rural Maine many native americans cannot find a decent job. I know of several paper mills that would not hire native americans until probably the late 50's. And if they did hire one the poor guy was harassed.
that has changed for the better today but you can still feel the undercurrent.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
12. Yes, I concur. This is still too common in Aroostook County--which isn't a hotbed of high
Sat May 26, 2012, 09:44 AM
May 2012

employment on a good day, but when you look at the population figures, you'd think you'd see more native peoples here and there in jobs than you, in fact, do.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
11. The ancestor with the supposed native blood is a bit of a mystery!
Sat May 26, 2012, 09:33 AM
May 2012

It's an old family name, but the ancestor seems to be a black sheep because he's not hanging with the "respectable" folk (of course that all depends on perspective, I suppose). The native blood may have been out of upstate NY.

I really need to do the DNA thing myself, and at least get a few clues. I am multi-ethnic, but I really don't know for a certainty what's up in there!!

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Massachusetts»Elizabeth Warren and why ...