2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumI was called a hack – and the C-word, of course
How I became the poster girl for liberal agitpropFor suggesting pundits wait before declaring the ACA a train wreck, I was called a hack and the C-word, of course
JOAN WALSH
I woke up Monday morning to a changed America. After a month of news coverage focused on an extremist and dysfunctional Republican Party that shut down the government and brought the nation to the brink of defaulting on its debt, the media had found its new scandal: the troubled rollout of the Web site where uninsured Americans can purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
You might have heard: I wrote a piece asking liberal critics of the ACAs Web problems to take a larger perspective, and not rush to join the clusterf*ck of conservatives declaring the entire program a failure. I mentioned two writers I admire, Ezra Klein and Ryan Lizza. Both had offered smart and sober criticism of the Web troubles; both also took to Twitter to get a little bit silly. Lizza suggested the ACAs Web glitches might be a bigger disaster for Democrats than their default-hostage crisis was for Republicans.
That seemed to me to be a pretty clear example of false equivalence that erodes media credibility. One party brought us to the brink of a constitutional crisis and almost precipitated a global economic collapse. The other party rolled out a complicated and apparently poorly designed Web site with insufficient testing and a screwed up procurement process. Those seem about equal, right? Of course not. Theres no comparison.
Klein joined Morning Joe to rail against management failure at HHS, which is fine, even if complaining about President Obamas incompetence there is kind of a coals-to-Newcastle endeavor. But again, I found myself set off by a Klein Tweet complaining about the lack of hold music when he called the exchange by telephone.
full story
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/24/how_i_became_the_poster_girl_for_liberal_agitprop/
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)A Black female, a Black male and two white females suggesting that pundits on the left (mostly white males) stop doing what we (Democrats/liberals) accuse the racists on the right do?
I'm really starting to believe that "minorities" really do see the world differently.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)than the majority, which comprises everyone else.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)She couldn't believe that no liberal male journalist came to her defense. None of them. In fact, it was black and white progressive women who did.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)one more step in her racial awakening; first, her article about the racism of her working class "non-racist" family, now this.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)the double standard that many white liberals have when it comes to Barack Obama that weren't held against Bill Clinton. You already know how I felt about that. I agreed with MPH and will never back down from that position. I believe that she was right and many white liberals in the media went after her--including Joan Walsh and especially David Sirota, who was absolutely disgusting in how he treated her. Now Joan is on the receiving end of racism/sexism in liberal circles. As a black woman who has long argued that racism/sexism/homophobia/elitism DO exist in every echelon of American liberalism, I hope that Joan and others will begin to open their eyes and see the truth. It seems that consciousness doesn't manifests until one is personally affected by a personal event. This was Joan's personal event and she seemed really affected by it.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Two events can be nowhere near each other in magnitude and the lesser can still have more of any effect. I don't think you are necessary creating a false equivalency as she says. You are looking at the effect of each not comparing them to each other.
Someone made a decision - do we delay the rollout immediately after the Republicans were pushing for a delay ? Or - do we take our chances and roll it out warts and all. Someone chose the latter.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)and attacking her personally was not necessary. Making it personal was uncalled for.
Beacool
(30,250 posts)Beacool
(30,250 posts)"Oh, and if youre a woman? Youre also a cunt, a bitch, a hag; youre old, fat and ugly, with bad teeth, chicken arms, 12 cats and a big unrequited crush on Ezra Klein."
Any woman can attest to having been a victim of sexism at one time or another. In 2008, a major disappointment was to realize that men of the Left could be as sexist as men on the Right. There's a preponderance of young men on the internet and they hide behind the anonymity of the medium to exhibit their sexism.