MSNBC's O’Donnell Defends Fox News's Shep Smith’s Attack on Supporters of Traditional Marriage
It seems as though the only time Lawrence O’Donnell has something nice to say about Fox News, it comes at the expense of nearly half the country. Following the incendiary comments Fox News’ Smith made following Obama’s public support for gay marriage, MSNBC’s O’Donnell rushed to his defense and praised him for violating FNC's central value of remaining "fair and balanced."
O’Donnell claimed that Smith is the lone voice of reason at Fox News and his comments caused the Fox News website Fox Nation to alter a headline reading "Obama flip-flops, declares war on marriage," to "Obama flip-flops." [Video coming soon. MP3 audio here.]
Never mind that Smith compared those who support traditional marriage to those who supported segregation. Such details don’t matter to the liberal O’Donnell. Lawrence followed up the segment by arguing, "now it's time to sit back and watch Fox News evolve on same-sex marriage, and all they really need to do to find their way on this one is to follow Shepard Smith, the Fox News man, on the right side of history."
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
The Last Word w/ Lawrence O’Donnell
May 9, 2012
10:49 p.m. EST
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: In tonight's rewrite, President Obama, Fox News and the right side of history. It did not take long after President Obama rewrote his public position on same-sex marriage for Republicans to declare that the President has declared war on marriage. On the Fox Nation section of the Fox News website, the headline was “Obama flip-flops, declares war on marriage.” And the war on marriage chorus began on Fox News.
SHEPARD SMITH: The President of the United States now in the 21st century and Ed Henry on the north lawn of the White House.
O’DONNELL: Wait a minute. What did he just say.
SMITH: The President of the United States now in the 21st century.
O’DONNELL: President of the United States now in the 21st century. That doesn't sound like war on marriage. That’s Fox News host Shepard Smith declaring the President to be in the 21st century. And he didn't stop there.
SMITH: In this time of rising debts and medical issues and all the rest if Republicans would go out on a limb and try to make this a campaign issue while sitting very firmly without much question on the wrong side of history on it.
O’DONNELL: But Shepard Smith has frequently been the lone voice of reason at Fox News, and now he's saying the President is on the right side of history. If Fox Nation wants a war on marriage, then Fox is going to give Fox Nation a war on marriage. Right, I mean they have to. Unless, of course, Shepard Smith said those things about President Obama being on the right side of history. The war on marriage was removed from the headline on Fox News on the Fox Nation section of the Fox News website after Shepard Smith said that, so now there is no war on marriage. Just a flip-flop.
SEAN HANNITY: And after years of voicing strong opposition of same-sex marriage, President Obama has reversed his position. It sounds like earmarks, it sounds like lobbyists, like cutting the deficit in half. Sounds like this President can't make up his mind very well on these things. Seems like Democrats wanted to say that Mitt Romney flip-flops, but this President flip-flops a lot.
O’DONNELL: And so now it's time to sit back and watch Fox News evolve on same-sex marriage, and all they really need to do to find their way on this one is to follow Shepard Smith, the Fox News man, on the right side of history.
- Jeffrey Meyer's blog
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Comments
Shep Smith
Submitted by Edward Cropper on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:28pm.
Smith is a pansy liberal who is about as obnoxious as they get.
he tries to be funny and fails,
he tries to be coy and fails
he tries to be intellectual and fails
he tries to be urbane and fails
he tries to be a real Mississippian and fails
this guy is a total loser.
he is FOX's token lefty wimp
Sheppo needs to come out of the closet
Submitted by frank14 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:40pm.
He isn't fooling anyone.
A-men...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 9:39pm.
.
What Ed said.
Submitted by Marcus Porcius on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 9:42pm.
We really got sick of Shep during the coverage of Katrina.
He was down by New Orleans whining about Bush and whether or not the "lack of response" was because of racism, etc.
After that we never listened to a word that liberal jerk had to say.
"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions." G.K. Chesterton
www.theconservativereview.com
Shep Smith A Lib?
Submitted by KevinB on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:28pm.
When somebody like O'Donnell starts defending you, you start to lose credibility with me.
I always knew there was something funny about Shep, especially when he starts getting excited about a certain topic and his voice starts to raise about 3 or 4 octaves above a female, I know I'm about to hear a rant from a bleeding heart liberal about fairness.
Shep
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:39pm.
I stopped watching his shows when he went to New Orleans and cried about the feds not doing anything, with never a word of criticism about the city and state's failures.
Shepard Smith
Submitted by nolefan2 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:42pm.
seems like a sweet guy, but I have to disagree with him on this issue. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Romney is right. Duh One is wrong. Of course, we know he flip flops all over the place depending on which way the poll numbers are going and right now they're going south.
When Liberals do it, it is not called "flip flopping". It is...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:21pm.
called "evolving".
Nothing sweet about Sheppo
Submitted by frank14 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:26pm.
He's a flamer. It was pure comedy seeing his contempt for Sean Hannity when he used to come on the 3PM show and promote Hannity and Colmes.
I remember those days. Hannity tried to get him to express...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 1:41am.
an opinion on something and he wasn't able to do it. "Shemp" was very proud of the fact that he never expressed his personal opinions on TV. Hannity's mistake was not asking him about "gay" issues.
Larry and Shemp need to get a
Submitted by rockyracoon on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:49pm.
Larry and Shemp need to get a room...with Moe!!
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
The #1 threat
Submitted by Shreve on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:50pm.
threat to marriage: no fault divorce, not two people who would love to show their commitment to each other by marrying, but they law says they can't.
Anna Nicole Smith
Submitted by elf1024 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:56pm.
I lost all respect for Shep when he consistently couldn't get "Anna Nicole Smith" name right. He was always referring to her as "Anna Nicole Simpson". I mean COME ON, she shares your last name... idiot.
For liberals, it's always
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 6:00pm.
For liberals, it's always Selma and always 1965.
They simply don't have any other frame of reference.
I don't watch MSNBC. I also don't watch the two hours...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:18pm.
"Shemp" Smith is on the air. The ideal solution to the problem for me is for MSNBC to hire "Shemp" Smith. That way Fox News could replace "Shemp" Smith with somebody that I could watch. Voila! Problem solved. I'm happy and O'Donnell is happy.
"Shemp" Smith needs to get a "haircut" from...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:23pm.
Mitt Romney!
Or have Obama bully him...
Submitted by frank14 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:28pm.
I hear Sheppo likes that.
Code word*
Submitted by cajun2 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 7:56pm.
The secret to this story is the word "traditional". Anything traditional has been under attack for some time. Tradition of celebrating the birth of Christ, tradition of Easter holidays for our schools, tradition of fidelity in marriage , marriage between a man and woman, the constitution , and our "politicians" once represented the PEOPLE. These are just some of the "traditions" that those all knowing progressives believe are backward. I am sure some of you could come up with a few more "traditions" that are no longer acceptable to the "progressives"...
Caj
Submitted by Radical1979 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 8:05pm.
Like.
I have always suspected Shep was a closet commie
Submitted by Dave. on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 8:55pm.
Now I am thinking he may also be a closet homo.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Call him OUT
Submitted by Dan Diego on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 9:25pm.
Hannity just did Media Mash on O' Flipper's Flop and omitted Sheppie's comment, disappointed.
He's not the only one.
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 9:45pm.
Megyn Kelly also supports the destruction of traditional marriage.
Shepard Smith
Submitted by Buck_1 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 11:39pm.
What a sell out. you will end in Hll if you don't change your ways
Shepard Smith
Submitted by Buck_1 on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 11:39pm.
What a sell out. you will end in Hll if you don't change your ways
Obama's Phony Evolution
Submitted by berlet98 on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 1:29am.
Obama's Phony Evolution
Now that President Barack Hussein Obama has emerged from his political closet and announced he has resolved his long-standing confusion, indecision, and lack of surety regarding the morality–and practicality–of same-sex marriages, his motivations should be examined.
Republican low-lifes will no doubt attribute the president’s sudden, radical flipflop as concrete evidence that he has no core values and he “evolved” only because he needs both gay money to supplement his campaign coffers and gay votes to supplement the ballot box in November.
They will say he has long favored men marrying men, women marrying women, and undermining the religious institution of marriage and was being coy about it all until he had “more flexibility” in his second term.
They will say Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan shamed Obama into his alleged epiphany by indicating they would be “comfortable” with gay marriage.
They will say North Carolinianians forced his hand when they voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to join 38 other states in opposing same-sex marriages and civil unions.
They will say that since Obama’s Democrats have already repealed the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and his DoJ secretary announced his administration would not defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, the president would logically have to endorse homosexual marriage.
And they would be absolutely wrong. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=23610.)
Better
Submitted by g55rumpy on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 3:53am.
better to be on the right side of God than the "right" side of history