The media critic at the Baltimore Sun called out MSNBC and leaders at NBC like Tom Brokaw and political director Chuck Todd for not speaking out about the network’s hypocritical lack of punishment against MSNBC host Martin Bashir after Bashir suggested that someone should urinate and defecate in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s mouth.
Appearing on Fox News’s MediaBuzz, longtime critic David Zurawik said part of the larger problem is that those at NBC like Todd and Brokaw who talk incessantly about the coarsening of the country’s political discourse aren’t “more upset about this.”
“Whatever you care about, whatever you feel about Sarah Palin doesn’t matter,” he said. “The conversation of democracy, you can’t have this kind of stuff going on.”
Zurawik said it was simply “outrageous” that “no one cares” in the mainstream media about what Bashir said about Palin.
“But the real question are where are people like Tom Brokaw and Chuck Todd who claim to speak for NBC News and the brand?” he said. “Why haven’t they called Bashir out and the lack of punishment for him?”
MSNBC suspended Alec Baldwin for anti-gay comments he made off the air while the network has not disciplined Bashir for comments he made on the air.
As Palin’s PAC, SarahPAC, noted in a letter to MSNBC President Phil Griffin and NBC President Deborah Turness that Breitbart News exclusively obtained, MSNBC’s lack of action is inconsistent with what the network has done when other hosts have made similarly or less offensive comments.
“You fired Don Imus for offensive language in describing the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team, you suspended Alec Baldwin, and yet nothing has happened to Mr. Bashir,” the letter reads. “Are we to assume then, that disciplinary procedures at your network take place based on the target of the remarks rather than the remarks themselves?”
The letter concludes by saying, “Americans deserve to know that your network doesn’t condone violent and hateful rhetoric directed at anyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or political persuasion.”
On Fox News Sunday, Palin said the media elite often “pooh-pooh” and “laugh off” attacks, no matter how “evil” and “vile,” against conservative women.
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