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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm not too bright,
So I need an explanation of Andrea Mitchell's ad on MSNBC wherein she describes herself as a tough-as-nails reporter who can compete with the big boys. To exemplify how tough she is, she relates the story of when she questioned the ruler of Somalia (I believe) and asked him why he was killing the residents of Darfour. At this point, she says, the goons took her and removed her from the room. She then states that this exemplifies why she won't be shoved out of the way, and that she can hold her own.
But she WAS pushed out of the way when the thugs pulled her out of the room. I mean, kudos I suppose for asking the question, but in fact, according to her own story, she was peremptorily removed.
I've listened to this ad about 200 times, and it still doesn't make any sense. Am I missing something? Enquiring minds want to know!
elleng
(130,895 posts)hence don't recognize the fact that she's a pioneer, and that we women appreciate her early efforts in making our current achievements possible.
PCIntern
(25,541 posts)But that has nothing to do with the phraseology of her statements on the TV machine.
You know, I was raised in a family almost entirely composed of women, since my Mom was by far the youngest of nine froma blended family and all the men died pretty young. I am extremely sensitive to women's issues, more so than most of the women I know. I have employed solely women for almost 35 years and some have stayed with me for more than 25 of those years. I pay these ladies more than anyone else i know so that they have economic dignity. i give parental leave to my staff and it is paid. My wife chose me out of hundreds because I treated her as an absolute equal partner and give her all the credit when it is due. I only discriminate against asshole males who make disparaging comments about "women" because they think that I'll be their buddy if they do.
So please don't condescendingly tell me what I realize and don't realize. I was a student here in Philly when Andrea Mitchell got her start, so I have watched her from the beginning and in fact knew her first husband, about whom she never speaks. Your answer to me is one of the most head-shaking posts I've read here in the nine years I've been a member.
I thank you for your time.
elleng
(130,895 posts)that you 'don't recognize the fact that she's a pioneer, and that we women appreciate her early efforts in making our current achievements possible.'
I'm pleased to learn of your family's and your experiences, and sorry you're confounded by the ad and by my response.
I'm not a woman so I wouldn't understand....
Care to take that back? I'll check in the morning to see.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)anything possible for me.
i consider her a blight on the face of journalism
Scuba
(53,475 posts)PCIntern
(25,541 posts)I gotta sit down and take a real good look at my worthless existence.
spanone
(135,830 posts)they would have thrown out a male reporter for the same question...
PCIntern
(25,541 posts)tularetom
(23,664 posts)I saw it once before I completely gave up on cable news. And I didn't understand WTF she was trying to prove either.
But as inane as it was there was one with Chris Matthews at Mt Rushmore that was even worse.
PCIntern
(25,541 posts)I swear to God I listen to that each time it's on to see if there's something I'm missing.
Tweety's ad is weird, that's for certain.
JI7
(89,248 posts)and how it made her more determined to do whatever she is doing.
i don't care for her reporting at times but i kind of get what point she was trying to make.
olddots
(10,237 posts)MSNBC =GE makes no sense ---ads for depression meds (kinda makes sense) ads for right wing politicos and product that wouldn't benefit from being spaced on MSNBC ....... You are bright...TV is dumb.
OldHippieChick
(2,434 posts)summarily removed from the room. Her message is to push on no matter the odds. Sorry if this is too obtuse for you, but it is really very straightforward. You say you grew up when she was first reporting so you should have some degree of understanding of the times. Odd that you are missing a simple truth.
elleng
(130,895 posts)PCIntern
(25,541 posts)However, it is a tale with ambiguous implications. Bad ad. That's all I was saying. I actually wasn't criticizing her in particular at this time, or of course, women in general.
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)silenced.
malaise
(268,971 posts)you're in deep trouble.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)About her first marriage: In the early 70s, when I knew her as a fellow parent at Greenfield Elementary School in Center City, Mitchell was married to Gil Jackson, a black man who worked in the public affairs department at Smith, Kline & French (now GlaxoSmithKline) while struggling to launch a career as an independent film producer. An interracial marriage to a man suffering from a very malignant case of multiple sclerosis cannot have been easy for a young Jewish woman barely out of college, yet Mitchell (as far as I could tell) loyally stood by her man while also caring for his two sons from a previous marriage so conscientiously that I presumed the boys were her own. The marriage broke up shortly before Mitchell left Philadelphia for Washington in 1976, and Jackson subsequently died.
But in Talking Back Mitchell doesnt mention Jackson or that marriage at all. On the contrary, she seems to bend over backwards to erase its memory. She mentions, for example, her role as godmother to the three children of her NBC News colleague Judy Woodruff, commenting that In many ways, they and my nieces and nephew have become surrogates for the children I never had. But she did once have children, or at least stepchildren. She simply declines to acknowledge them.
About her makeover: A 1974 profile in Philadelphia Magazine described Mitchell as very average-looking
someone with the frizzies
Shes a little too short and her face isnt peaches and cream and she has a very intense businesslike voice, a voice that doesnt sound right doing happy talk. Mitchell herself is quoted to the effect that Weve had a lot of fine reporters in this town whove been shunted to the side because they dont have the kind of looks theyre looking for on TV now
.There are just too many people who dont fit into the cookie cutter.
So why has Mitchell now subjected herself to the networks cookie-cutter? Its an intriguing question and again, one that Mitchell declines to address. In her account of the Jonestown massacre, a wise-cracking NBC script editor refers to Mitchell as the Peruvian handmaiden, causing Mitchell to explain parenthetically to readers, (At that time, I was a brunette.) After Mitchell served as a panelist for one of the Bush-Dukakis presidential debates in 1988, she tells us that David Letterman asked his late-night audience whether anyone noticed that shed become a blonde. I was a throw-away line on late-night TV, she complains. In a book of more than 400 pages, these are the only references to her radical physical transformation.
To be sure, many of us have old marriages and old personas wed just as soon forget. But why write a memoir if you wont confront the past? Andrea Mitchells life is indeed the stuff of drama, and maybe even a movie. But she is not the one to tell it. When youve spent your life hop-scotching the globe for big stories in the glare of TV lights, its difficult to imagine that the biggest story of all might be somewhere inside of you, if only you had the inclination to dig for it.
http://www.broadstreetreview.com/index.php/main/article/Andrea_Mitchell_reinvents_her_past/
LostOne4Ever
(9,288 posts)But from your description I THINK what she is saying is that by asking that question, she very easily could have been killed; and what she is trying to imply is that shes not afraid to put her life on the line for a story. Of course, I could be wrong.
But yeah, bad wording is bad.
sendero
(28,552 posts).... I might need some convincing on the "woman can do it as well as a man" front.
For a politician or a lawyer or a reporter or a computer programmer I don't need any convincing because I've seen it.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,339 posts)... for spending time as a prisoner of war.
Sometimes it's enough to merely survive.