It's quite clear that on MSNBC, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's family is not going to be considered off-limits to commentator attacks during this campaign season.
On Tuesday's Martin Bashir show, in a closing segment about rock star Ted Nugent's endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor, the host attacked Ann Romney as being "fake" and "two-faced" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARTIN BASHIR: Now consider this: the Romneys attacked Hilary Rosen because she had failed to include the words “outside of the home” when she said Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life. Hilary Rosen, who doesn’t work for the president and is an independent commentator, admitted that it was a mistake and has apologized.
Actually, as National Review's Jim Geraghty reported Thursday, Rosen's ties to the Obama White House are extreme and undeniable - except of course for a shill like Bashir. But I digress:
BASHIR: Meanwhile, Mitt Romney welcomes the endorsement of a man who tells the president to suck on his machine gun, calls the president an expletive, calls the Secretary of State an expletive, and claims that the entire administration wants to turn America into an Islamic suburb of the most populated Muslim nation on earth.
Actually, Nugent's vulgar comments concerning Obama and Clinton happened in 2007 before the former became president and the latter the Secretary of State. At the time, they were both just presidential candidates.
Bashir should have known this as he played Nugent's related comments for his viewers earlier in the segment with "2007" in the top left corner of the screen.
But why let facts get in the way when you're on a roll:
You have to hand it to Mitt and Ann Romney. Even their righteous indignation is as fake and as two-faced as everything else that marks their presidential campaign.
Let's be clear: I in no way condone some of the things Nugent has said about Obama, and Romney probably shouldn't either. That's his call.
However, for a so-called "news anchor" on a so-called "news channel" to drag Romney's wife into his condemnation should be unacceptable even at MSNBC.
Or has this network strayed so far from any concern about journalistic integrity that this no longer matters to those running it?
If that is the case, maybe Comcast, General Electric, and NBC should make an announcement that MSNBC is no longer part of their news division and is instead just simply entertainment.
At least then viewers wouldn't be misled into thinking they were watching something they should in any way take seriously.
