Given the multiple media comparisons being made between President Obama’s handling of ObamaCare and President Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, it was bound to happen that someone on MSNBC would go nuclear and chalk up 9/11 to be George W. Bush's fault.
Speaking to MSNBC host Ed Schultz on November 18, radio host Mike Papantonio MSNBC leapt at the opportunity to slam the nation's 43rd chief executive, arguing that:
3,000 Americans were murdered, because the Republican administration didn't have the discipline or the good sense to read a presidential briefing.[MP3 audio here. See video after break.]
That is of course wildly offensive to the victims of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 as well as factually untrue. Suffice it to say, Schultz refused to attempt to rein his left-wing comrade in by challenging his offensive and misleading assertion.
The segment began with Schultz running a montage of clips showing a variety of media commentators reacting to the Katrina-ObamaCare comparison, with Schultz commenting that, “if those folks had lived through Katrina, they might have a little bit different opinion of the whole thing. Immediately, the “Ring of Fire” host Papantonio blamed the media for pushing this comparison, arguing that:
You can only conclude a couple possibilities, Ed. And that is that the media's handling of everything is either a sense that they're woefully ignorant and uninformed, or that they have a design to sell more commercials, based on poorly analyzed attacks on this White House.
Ah, yes it’s that evil conservative media at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN , and MSNBC that’s out to get President Obama according to Papantonio, who hypes his ridiculous theory by claiming that:
What makes me really wonder about this, is whether it's just haphazard, just sloppy work on part of the media, or whether it's designed. You look at the CBS report on Benghazi, where there was this fraud, clownish attack on Obama. And CBS can apologize all they want. But it's very clear that it was all about an Obama hit job. And we're seeing more and more of that from the media.
Nowhere during Papantonio’s rant did his buddy Ed Schultz dare to challenge his guest on his disgusting assertion that Republicans killed 3,000 Americans on September 11. Furthermore, other than throwing out wild accusations, neither Schultz nor Papantonio could really substantiate where this so-called media “hit job” against Obama existed. Instead, Schultz and his guest laughably concluded that the vast conservative media on network television is out to get President Obama and ruin his presidency.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
The Ed Show
November 18, 2013
5:22 p.m. Eastern
ED SCHULTZ: Joining me is Mike Papantonio, “Ring of Fire” radio host. You know it’s interesting, if those folks had lived through Katrina, they might have a little bit different opinion of the whole thing. Mike good to have you with us tonight. What's your take on this comparison coming from actually both sides of the aisle, that Katrina and ObamaCare have some kind of parallel to be made to the American people?
MIKE PAPANTONIO: Well, Obama saw a health care disaster and he ran in to fix it. The Republicans saw a Katrina disaster and they ran away from it. I don't know why the media can't quite get that. You can only conclude a couple possibilities, Ed. And that is that the media's handling of everything is either a sense that they're woefully ignorant and uninformed, or that they have a design to sell more commercials, based on poorly analyzed attacks on this White House. This Fox News methodology of attacking this White House is not just Fox News. You know, if you take a look at the comparisons, you've got comparisons that the Katrina comparison is a great one. But what about the handling of Iraq? Where you had -- there were no lives lost because of a computer glitch. The computer can be fixed. There were 5,000 lives lost, American soldiers, in Iraq, not because of anything but lies and misinformation. So one can be fixed and the other one can't. What about the idea of 9/11, where 3,000 Americans were murdered, because the Republican administration didn't have the discipline or the good sense to read a presidential briefing. That can't be fixed. But this computer glitch can be fixed. So these comparisons are really a little bit obscene, and you wonder, Ed, what makes me really wonder about this, is whether it's just haphazard, just sloppy work on part of the media, or whether it's designed. You look at the CBS report on Benghazi, where there was this fraud, clownish attack on Obama. And CBS can apologize all they want. But it's very clear that it was all about an Obama hit job. And we're seeing more and more of that from the media. And this glitch with the computer system is just a perfect example of it.
