Here at the driftglass blog, we don’t usually play requests. But seeing as how I have gotten an alarming number of emails requesting some words on this subject, well, sometimes one must see the wisdom of bowing to the will of the people.
And so, from the Associated Press...
Analyst Matthew Dowd loses his MSNBC job following Kirk comments
Political analyst Matthew Dowd is out of a job at MSNBC after his on-air comment following conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing about “hateful words” leading to “hateful actions.”
MSNBC said Thursday that Dowd, a paid political analyst, is “no longer with the network.” Both MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler and Dowd issued public apologies following his commentary, which drew a heated reaction online.
Dowd said shortly after the shooting Wednesday that Kirk was a divisive figure “who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which lead to hateful actions. And I think that’s the environment we’re in.”
Kutler posted an online apology for Dowd’s commentary, which she called “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”
“I apologize for my tone and words,” Dowd said. “Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this attack. Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind.”
Dowd, once a political strategist for President George W. Bush, joined MSNBC in 2022 following a failed campaign for lieutenant governor in Texas as a Democrat. He spent nearly 15 years as an analyst at ABC News.
Self-congratulatory preamble: As of this writing, I believe, preserved on this blog for posterity like flies in amber, may be the only remaining samples of Matthew Dowd’s thoughts and prayers back when he was the King of Both Sides Do It.
So, getting on with it...
First, based solely on what he said, Matthew Dowd should not have been fired. It was a stupid and cowardly this for MSNBC to do, and since I haven't seen any signs that MSNBC operates according to a set of high-minded principles, I am left to conclude that, like every other decision they make, this was purely a business decision.
Jesse Watters was on Fox that evening demanding that Dowd be fired, and within hours Dowd was gone. I can't say if A led to B which led to the unemployment line, but it sure as shit looks that way. And even if it wasn't, it doesn't matter: Fox News gets to claim another "liberal" pelt and mount it on the wall of their trophy room. What it looks like is appeasement, which apparently everyone but C-suite media executives seems to understand never, ever works. As Churchill said, "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Today, MSNBC threw Dowd to the crocodile. Tomorrow or the next day or next week, it'll be someone else, because appeasers never fucking learn.
That being said, second, Matthew Dowd should never have been hired in the first place. He absolutely disgraced himself and betrayed this country when he used his huge ABC News platform in 2015 and 2016 to bombard his readers and viewers with Both Sides Do It poison. Vote Third Party! Disrupt the K'rupt Duopoly!
If he was not the worst of that bunch, he was definitely in the top five, and if you stroll through my archive you'll see why.
But what was worse was that he never recanted it or apologized for it. He just erased it. Zapped his Twitter archives, pretended it never happened, and blocks anyone who brings it up. Happened right in front of us. And you know what? With help from his former Bush administration pals like MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace and their Republican Reputation Rehab Machine, he absolutely got away with it.
Which is why, number three, don’t lose a minute of sleep worrying about Matthew Dowd. He's going to be fine. People like him always land on their feet. After tempers cool, they’ll fire up the Reputation Rehab Machine again. Phone calls to old cronies inside the media will be made. Favors will be called in or exchanged. And I guarantee you, you’ll see him again, fairly soon. Probably someplace like the Lincoln Project, or Crooked Media, or the Bulwark. The Meidas guys. Maybe even The Atlantic.
Dowd has all the right friends in all the right places, so don't feel you need to hold a bake sale to make sure he keeps body and soul together. Instead, may I recommend kicking a few bucks towards the tip jar of an area blogger, who does have many friends, but like him, they're mostly of the low and disreputable variety.
3 comments:
MSNBC is not our friend.
For the most. Our American press is owned by wealthy who too many have become arrogant and unhappy with the lower classes of citizens who do not deserve much and are irritated with their voting to direct the country toward a ore equitable way of life.
Many have owned media and others have been buying in and buying up media to feed the masses a diet of what benefits the wealthy most.
To convince us to enslave ourselves to work for Pharoah and build his pyramid until we drop and die. Which we should be grateful to endure for Pharoah.
They fear another take over as FDR did to Hoover.
It is why they so well fund the Charlie Kirk's. You notice Kirk doesn't go and preach to republican squishes. He targets young vulnerable minds to infect them as much as he can for as long as he can.
The Dowd's and others of its ilk are selected to be the soothsayer to the masses via the networks wealthy owners agenda.
Take the CN who the right viciously called "Communist News Network" all this time. Now they have exactly what they wanted. but cling to the FOX slop.
They are purchase slaves presenting what they are told until AI can be developed so it can be programmed to project what the voss of the AI client is capable of programming exactly what they want which will spread its slop and not have to be paid or provided health cae.
It can replace an mentally depraved man in the White House choice of selecting network employees to perform in government for him. When he can take the AI images and operate.
Perhaps they will run a AI candidate for president.
Jonathan Capehart just whiffed it on PBS Newshour. David Fking Brooks let loose some stupid, first by saying that "some people on the right think" of Kirk's murder as their George Floyd (which only proves Toni Morrison's contention that the white literary imagination can only see in opposites) and then had the idiocy/temerity to suggest that the way out of this was a Civil Rights Movement moment aided by a LBJ-like leader (DFB wants a Dem in times of crisis? - now I'm confused). And Capehart didn't call bullshit and say how can you possibly invoke the Movement when Kirk was doing and advocating everything possible to roll it back? I think Capehart is nervous enough about Dowd get axed that he was willing to not swing at the easy one that Brooks tossed him. Neither said a word about Kirk's words. So this is MY bothsides moment to say: shame on them both. Their cowardice and compliance in the service of remaining in 'the club' is duly noted. One idiot and one coward. The revisionist hagiography must continue.
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