Rachel Maddow was right to press the Congressman thrice.

[DaveinJapan]

I'm a little surprised so many people think she went overboard.

She was simply pressing for a real answer, which the Congressman finally gave her after the third inquiry. If more reporters demanded answers to their questions, this would not be such a surprising incident, but sadly few reporters bother to try and so many public figures are extremely adept at avoiding direct answers at all costs. It's pretty sickening, honestly.

More reporters should press for an answer the way Rachel Maddow does. I think she's the gold standard these days!

Oh, and p.s. I really loved what Representative Greyson had to say, despite his unfortunate choice of words there at the end (I would've been just ducky with the whole speech if he'd just used "abomination"...WHY didn't he go with that one instead!? lol).

[meegbear]

1. And who are these "so many people think she went overboard?"

Hmmmmmmm?

[AllieB]

2. The same folks who throw out 'some people say' and 'we' with abandon.

If you get my drift...

[MurrayDelph]

9. The only "some say" I pay attention to

is when Top Gear is introducing The Stig.



• Some say he can swim seven lengths underwater, and he has webbed buttocks...

• Some say that his heart is in upside down, and that his teeth glow in the dark...

all we know is ... He's called The Stig!

[DaveinJapan]

10. here are a few, but why would you even ask? haven't you been reading DU lately?

"Rachel, have you turned into a cloth-eared twit?

Yes, you heard it right he said "this holocaust", did you have to ask 3 fucking times, conflating it to "The Holocaust? Have you not learned the difference between a demonstrative adjective and a definite article?

Usually I like Rachel, but this is just plain dumb, jumping on the spineless backpedal bandwagon."

izquierdista, DU poster



"agreed. she was looking to get a sideways apology."

thunder rising, DU poster



"ditto"

bermudat, DU poster




"I'm a huge fan of Rachel, but I didn't care for her asking three times either.

One question on the subject would have tactfully made the point."

mzmolly, DU poster




"totally agree.

she could have used the time to discuss substantive health care issues."

shireen, DU poster


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x380703


That's all from just ONE thread, I'm sure I can find many more (I know that I read similar comments several times today, in any case).

Shall I go on, or would you care to retract your "who are these so many people" comment now?

[meegbear]

14. The issue is not "me not reading DU" ...

when one says "some people", that person should be listing them to back the statement up.

[DaveinJapan]

21. Well, there ya go...I just listed them.

Happy?

[Subdivisions]

3. I have no idea what you're talking about. I missed the show. n/t

[bullwinkle428]

4. Sorry...if you're Jewish, you get a pass to use that word when

the situation is analogous.

The wingnuts screaming about this are the same ones that are always complaining about "Why do black people get to use the 'n-word' and I can't?"

[DaveinJapan]

6. I don't think the situation is analogous though, whether or not he's Jewish.

As per his claim, we've got a calamity on our hands with 44,000 people dying due to lack of health care every year.

It's awful, I totally agree, and NEEDS to be fixed post haste (the Dems are doing a shitty job of it so far...I remain optimistic though).

But compare that with the Holocaust, six million people dead (who knows how many more suffered, but let's stick with the six million for the sake of easy math).

That means, it would take around 135 years for this particular "holocaust" to equal the real one.

I'm sorry, but even as a number crunch it doesn't pass the smell test, and it was a stupid and poor choice of words EVEN IF the rest of it were equivalent. By that I mean that even IF six million Americans died due to lack of health care that STILL wouldn't equate to the intentional and vicious slaughter of an equal number of people on the scale of human horror.

[cali]

8. actually, it was roughly 6 million Jews who perished in the holocaust

and another 6 million who were Roma, Russians, Slavic people, etc.

[JamesA1102]

12. Thank you!

We should never forget all of the 12 million people that died in Hitler's Holocaust.

[izquierdista]

11. Valid comparison

As I have pointed out on another post, the main cause of those six million dead was not bullets or poison gas, but lack of medical care. The Nazis engineered a situation where typhus and typhoid were rampant, and those two diseases killed the majority of people who died in concentration camps. If you read about the Lodz ghetto or Bergen-Belsen and pay attention to the lists of people who died from disease, you will see that lack of health care can be equated to intentional and vicious slaughter. In that way, Anne Frank was a typical victim of the Nazis, she died of typhus.

[JamesA1102]

13. As the other poster pointed out, it was 12 million not 6 nt

[tekisui]

17. A holocaust is not The Holocaust.

He used the right word.

[renate]

5. I agree

As I was watching, I was hoping that she wouldn't let him avoid answering her question, and she didn't.

I think he's fantastic for speaking out so strongly, so this is no criticism of him, but as a relative newcomer and as someone with a lot of eyes on her, it's important that she be a good journalist. And she was last night, as usual.

Besides, with the interview with what's-his-name coming up next week, she had to establish a track record of aggressively questioning people on our side, too.

I think she did a wonderful job. But I'm a little biased. :loveya:

[Connie_Corleone]

7. Well, what did she ask? (for those of us who didn't see it)

[LeFleur1]

15. She Asked, Adnausum, If He Meant to Use the Word

"holocaust" when describing what the Republicans are doing to those who have no health insurance in the USA. I see the parallel. I don't get the uproar. The showtalkers must have received orders from someone because Keith was yammering about the "choice of words" too.

This is why Democrats don't speak up. When they do people jump on them and criticize them for some ridiculous, inane reason. Although we don't know how many people have waited too long before seeing a physician because they had no insurance, we aren't sure how many have died because they didn't see a physician at all because they had no insurance...the definition below is exactly what the Republicans are doing to US citizens, albeit on a smaller scale.

Definition: May 4, 2009 ... The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime ...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. i think maddow has a right to act as a journalist, i too have a right to disagree with maddow

[ddeclue]

18. Dear Dave: Alan is JEWISH. Rachel doesn't have any clue on this one.

[Winterblues]

19. if he'd just used "abomination"...WHY didn't he go with that one instead!? lol).

Sometimes if one really wants to be heard by the widest audience possible, they will do or say something really controversial, just to get people's attention..:shrug:

[ljm2002]

20. I found it annoying...

...to put so much stress on his word choice. The word "holocaust" has long since been used for other events besides the killing of 6 million Jews (and 6 million other "undesirables") by the Nazis in WWII. And of course, if we really want to get technical, we could accurately use the term "holocaust" to describe the genocide against North and South American indigenous populations 'way back when they were being colonized. Furthermore, the anti-abortion crowd routinely uses the word in reference to abortions, and Grayson specifically referenced this usage when he pointed out that we need to care for people even after they are born.

So here we have a guy who is playing effective offense, and right away the sniping starts from our own side about his choice of words.

Gag me.

[justinaforjustice]

22. Maddow Did Her Job, Grayson Did His.

Unlike the vast majority of media "journalists" who allow those they interview to skate away from their questions, Maddow refused to let Grayson avoid her question about his use of the word "holocaust" in connection with the deaths of 44,000 Americans a year for lack of health care. She asked him three times and didn't relent.

Grayson, on the other hand, did what most Democratic spokesman are too timid to do, he refused to depart from his talking points and kept attacking the horrible health care system in this country.

Grayson knows how to take control of the interview situation, which is what the majority of Democrats don't seem to know how to do. He should give the other Dems workshops on his skills. (I'd really like to see him debate the Cheney Clone too. Liz Cheney is very effective at taking control of interviews, but I bet Grayson would wipe the floor with her.)