Barney Frank forces Andrea Mitchell to admit she and the rest of the MSM are a fraud

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Rep. Frank extracts media mea culpa from Andrea Mitchell: ‘We plead guilty’ to ‘gotcha’ journalism.

On MSNBC this afternoon, Andrea Mitchell asked Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) about Tom Friedman’s New York Times column today, in which he called it “insane” that “dozens of key appointments at the Treasury Department” are held up over minor infractions. Frank replied that “it’s a problem,” adding, however, that it was “a little self-serving” for the media to “blame that entirely on the Senate.” After Frank said that the media’s “over-focus” on minor infractions “is the problem here in part,” Mitchell conceded, saying “you’re right”:

FRANK: No, I mean the media is the problem here in part. It is the over-focus on the part of people in the media to relatively minor infractions that cause this. I guarantee you that my colleagues would not on their own be doing this. So, yeah, I do think we are in a culture now where a lack of perfection exacts too strong a toll. But that’s the politicians reacting to the media.

MITCHELL: I take your point. Mr. Frank, Mr. Chairman, you’re right. And we plead guilty because this culture right now of gotcha has gotten completely out of control.

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/11/mitchell-media-apology/


Transcript:

MITCHELL: I also want to ask you about, I know it’s the other House, it’s the Senate, but Tom Friedman’s column today, who said “I read that we’re actually holding up dozens of key appointments at the Treasury Department because worried whether someone paid Social Security taxes on a nanny hired 20 years ago at $5 an hour.” Wrote Friedman, “that’s insane. It’s as if our financial house is burning down, but we won’t let the fire department open the hydrant until it assures us that there isn’t too much chlorine in the water. Hello?” You know, I don’t know what you think about the fact that Tim Geithner doesn’t have a deputy secretary and a lot of assistant secretaries, and whether that is making this…

FRANK: Oh, I think it’s a problem, although I will say this, Andrea. For the media to blame that entirely on the Senate seems to me a little self-serving because…

MITCHELL: You mean the White House has sent some people up either?

FRANK: No, I mean the media is the problem here in part. It is the over-focus on the part of people in the media to relatively minor infractions that cause this. I guarantee you that my colleagues would not on their own be doing this. So, yeah, I do think we are in a culture now where a lack of perfection exacts too strong a toll. But that’s the politicians reacting to the media.

MITCHELL: I take your point. Mr. Frank, Mr. Chairman, you’re right. And we plead guilty because this culture right now of gotcha has gotten completely out of control where…

FRANK: We often bring out the worst in each other.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/11/mitchell-media-apology/

[Myrina]

1. OhNoes! Sarah Palin was right!

"The Gotcha Media" is what kept her from being Vice President!!

:eyes:

[w4rma]

2. Frank did a poor job. It appeared he supported Republican efforts at holding these nominees up. (nt)

[azmouse]

3. I saw that this morning and it left Mrs Greenspan speechless for a few seconds.

Anything that leaves her speechless provides a blessed few seconds of quiet.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Well, corporate tv always found a way to let us know how perfect her husband was.

At least they didn't specifically provide specifics - they didn't specifically say say that he was honest and ethical. The lie meter would have gone off far and wide.

A couple like that and the roles they played in our downfall should be blasted around the world.