On Monday, the highest ranking individually elected female official in US history sought to provide MSNBC viewers with a slice of what Rachel Maddow calls “useful information.” Contrasting President Biden’s underreported (not to say memory holed) economic prowess with the Trump regime’s all-time “worst job loss” totals, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi effectively trashed the longstanding myth of the GOP’s chimerical (but somehow putative) prosperity chops.
Hooray for Nancy. And yet, host Katy Tur presumed to ‘correct’ her. Never mind that from Calvin Coolidge (R) to Bush 43 (R) to the Orange Ogre Himself (R), tax cuts for what Bush calls “the have-mores” have slashed, not stoked employment. For her part, Tur honked that Trump’s pathetic performance “was [due to] a global pandemic.” (Period.)
Thankfully, Pelosi begged to differ. Ditching the Dems’ trademark pliancy, she told Tur “if you want to be an apologist for Donald Trump, that may be your role, but it ain’t mine.”
And still Tur demurred. Never mind a pro-Trump thug (seeking Nancy herself) nearly killed Pelosi’s husband. Never mind pro-Trump putsch-pushers broke into our Capitol looking to slay Lady Liberty, Uncle Sam, Mike Pence, then-Speaker Pelosi, and countless others.
Not to forget the economy. As if hellbent to hogtie it, Trump now snarls “DO A DEFAULT!” on the national debt that he largely created. For all that, Tur had the gall to snort (at Pelosi) “I don’t think anyone can accuse me of being” an apologist for him.
Hmm. My New Oxford English Dictionary defines “apologist” as “a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial.” (While the text omits a photo of Tur, such a pic would not be out of place.)
And the plot thickens. Weeks before this writing, NBC hired (with a view to deploying, on broadcast and on cable) the J6 apologist Ronna Romney McDaniel. Granted, the network’s top brass heeded blowback (mainly from MSNBC hosts) and dumped her. But still. No doubt the suits can be counted on to keep normalizing (if not embracing) the undead sedition for which McDaniel stands; all too plainly, Tur seems to know where her bread is buttered.
Singling out MSNBC, Trump vows (given the chance) to “scrutinize” (translation: silence) reporters who’ve told some unsavory truth about him. Ouch. Even MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace (a long-time, now ex-Republican) can read the blood-red caps on the Capitol walls; she calls him a “real threat [to]…. all of our freedoms, and to the rule of law itself.”
Wow. With so grim a specter in the offing, surely we all can see our way clear to declare zero tolerance for Trump whitewashers. (For the life of us, deep in the bowels of Donald Land, let’s never cease to acknowledge our need for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.)
For the sake of her own credibility (and for our country, in a time of crisis), Tur will do well to apologize to her viewers, her peers, and Pelosi.