NBC: Raul 'Officially Chosen'; Penn and Pile O' Donuts

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein | February 25, 2008 - 10:02 ET

Here in Ithaca and no doubt in other liberal bastions across the land, you can still see cars festooned with those bitter bumper stickers: "Re-Defeat Bush!" and "Bush: Selected, Not Elected!" Those sentiments remain reflected in an MSM still smarting from Florida 2000. All of which made Ann Curry's words on this morning's Today, announcing the ascendancy of Raul Castro in Cuba, so ironic.

ANN CURRY: In the news this morning, we begin with Cuba and its [first] new president in nearly half a century. Raul Castro was officially chosen on Sunday to take over from his brother Fidel who announced his retirement last week.

View video here.

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Just what does it mean to be "officially chosen" in a totalitarian police state? Would it have been too indelicate for Curry to have pointed out that there are no free elections in Cuba and that the officially prescribed method for expressing dissent is to raise your hand and say "throw me in prison, por favor"?

A bit later, Andrea Mitchell reported infighting within the Clinton camp about mistakes that had been made. Just as she was discussing the issue of the campaign's overspending, there appeared the image displayed here, juxtaposing chief campaign strategist Mark Penn [who would never be confused with Sean] and . . . a pile of donuts.

Ouch.

Note: the background on Penn and the donuts is that, as per this article, his firm has billed the campaign $10 million, and the campaign spent $1,200 on donuts in January. But I sensed some malice on the part of the producer who chose to juxtapose the images.

Update | 9:40 AM ET: Appearing on Morning Joe this morning, Andrea Mitchell described the situation inside the Clinton campaign as "a mess," with people "openly at war with each other." She added that there have been charges of "campaign malfeasance."

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Mark the Overeater?

Is NBC implying the Hillary campaign has overspent because the fat bas**** ate too many donuts?

 

His firm has billed the

His firm has billed the campaign $10 million and a story came out about the campaign spending $1400 on donuts in one state. Still, I sensed some malice on the part of some producer!

Good find!

Not a day seems to go by anymore, that the MSM doesnt disturb the hell out of me. They won't budge on admitting Bush is our elected president after 2 victories, but they will announce that Castro's brother was chosen. It boggles the mind.

They cannot accept the truth or live with the truth

What happened in Florida is that Bush won the state. PERIOD!!! He won the state on the initial ballot count. He won the first ballot re-count. He won the second ballot recount. And he won EVERY official and non-official recount thereafter. PERIOD!!! (Speaking of recounts: people can have serious arguments over just how many recounts there were!) For liberals and the MSM, who cannot accept the truth and live with the truth, the Supreme Court stepped in to settle the matter.

Isn’t ironic that liberals and the MSM in particular have such a “thing” about the Supreme resolving the Florida ballot situation, on the one hand; but, on the other hand, they uphold as essentially holy revelation the Supreme Court’s creation of wholly nonsensical “interpretations” of the constitution when it comes to abortion, sodomy, and other sinfulness that they like to revel in.

Really it is redundant to say that liberals and the MSM cannot accept the truth or live with the truth; it is practically what defines them.

Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.

Cuban Election Returns

Shouldn't we wait until all the election returns are in from Oriente province before officially declaring Raul as the winner?

Why wait, P.J.?

I believe Oriente province is just a large cemetery so we can assume they voted for the communist.

LOL. Russert did have that

LOL. Russert did have that whiteboard up on MTP yesterday: "Oriente, Oriente, Oriente!"

Verifiable Paper Ballots

Were these election results valid? Did they use electronic balloting? Where are the screams for "verifiable paper ballots?"

Where's Jimmy

Perhaps we need to send in Jimmy Carter to certify the election.

→ Gladnick

Would that be the Pon Raul campaign?

♣ a seal

Olbermann excels in Cuban debates!

Didn't Keith Olbermann and MSNBC do a bang up job moderating the Cuban Presidential debates?

I loved the split screen as the two candidates Raul Castro and Raul Castro argued with each other.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.

The Suspense was Killing Ann Curry

Do any of you feel as I do, that Ann Curry was biting her fingernails just waiting for the results of the Cuban selections?  What a  shocker, huh Ann?

At least Ann can feel the Cubans had fair elections, not like the US in 2000.

Maybe Ann can high tail it down to Cuba to suck up to Rauol.  No doubt she will be nicer to Castro than she was to Bush in Africa.

What the heck is with that

What the heck is with that video? Curry says Castro resigned last Sunday, and a picture of HRC appears and she's talking aobut the cmpaign?????

It's an edited clip with

It's an edited clip with bits from two separate segments. I did insert a fade-in from white to denote the separate, second segment.

Oh, OK, I see it now. The

Oh, OK, I see it now; it was pretty quick. The first time I guess I wasn't really paying attention, I just thought it was a goof. Sorry.

Ann Curry?

Ann Curry? Isn't that the same "B" who gave President Bush a hard time in Africa? She should try that with the Castro brothers. When she returns to America after twenty years in a Cuban prison, she might appreciate us.

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

Because a campaign

Because a campaign ultimately reflects the character of the candidate, I have to say that watching Senator Clinton's true colors shine is brightening up my morning, but I had hoped that she could wait until after she had the nomination sewed up to self destruct. But since we are running her twin on our side, I guess we can look forward to McCain smoking his campaign later on this summer or fall.

What a dismal election season we have to look forward to!

Okay, enough self-pity. I am going to go work on my taxes to cheer myself up.

Dictator Raul

Can Ann or Andrea or anyone in the MSM say “Dictator?” No? Didn’t
think so. MSNBC website: Raul Castro succeeds Fidel as
president…Pulleeze…Raul Castro succeeds Fidel as dictator. Fixed it.

I always like statements such as

"First new president in almost a half century."

Considering the left wing education system in this country, I think CNN/USA Today should poll 10 to 18 year olds and ask them, multiple choice of course, what a half century is:

A. Greater than 100 years

B. Less than 100 years

C. None of the above / Undecided / (Stupid)

→ Yahoo

Why limit the range to 10 - 18 yr olds.

Ask their moms and dads as well.  They're still trying to blame their subprime greed on the Government.

♣ a seal