MSNBC's Brewer: 'Rude & Illogical' for ASU to Deny Obama Honorary Doctorate

May 13th, 2009 12:20 PM

Update #2 (16:15 EDT): Greg Hengler of Townhall.com has video of the interview mentioned in my first update. He notes that while Brewer is hot under the collar, the student she talked to didn't seem to care that Obama was not receiving an honorary degree tonight.

Update (14:45 EDT): A few minutes ago Brewer pressed an ASU student for his thoughts on Obama not receiving an honorary doctorate. As usual, she was quite irate at the perceived snub.

MSNBC's Contessa Brewer is bound and determined to maintain a grudge on behalf of President Obama against a university at which he's honored to give the Class of 2009 commencement speech this evening.

Today, via her Twitter account, Brewer picked up on her televised rant from early April [video below page break] about how Arizona State University is neglecting to give President Obama an honorary degree when he delivers the commencement speech there this evening:

Tonight the Pres. gives commencement speech at ASU. I'm still shocked ASU won't give him an honorary degree. Seems rude & illogical.

As NewsBusters contributor Jeff Poor noted on April 10:

It's not often during midday cable news broadcasting you get to see raw emotion from one or two of the hosts. However, when President Barack Obama gets snubbed, there are exceptions to the rule.

On MSNBC on April 10, co-hosts Contessa Brewer and Carlos Watson put their disapproval on display for viewers to see while reporting a decision by Arizona State University not to award Obama an honorary degree for speaking at the school's commencement next month

[...]

"I mean - honestly, it's not like the president really particularly cares about getting an honorary degree from ASU," Brewer said, with a condescending tone. "However - he's a Harvard-educated, Ivy League man. But that aside, every university that I know of, when they invite a commencement speaker, they give an honorary degree. It's almost like it's a reward for saying yes."