While the segment was pitched as a conversation about the double standard in how liberals get away with what conservatives would be run out of town for, they didn’t actually get around to that part. But the panel on Sunday’s Meet the Press did unload on both Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee for their disgusting and deranged behavior. And when NBC’s Katy Tur tried to downplay Bee’s misogynist smear of Ivanka Trump, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan scolded her.
When it was Tur’s turn to give her two cents, she complained about how loud the anger and hate have gotten over the recent years. Of course, according to her, President Trump was to blame. “It's this coarsening we’ve seen before Donald Trump started campaigning but certainly that we’ve seen exaggerating since Donald Trump started campaigning,” she suggested. She then tried to carry water for Bee and make her argument about immigration:
I do think what's unfortunate here is that the Samantha Bee controversy, it’s now overshadowing what is the story that she was trying to bring attention too, which is a story that families are being ripped apart at the border. That this administration is claiming there is a new law when it's just a policy and they're taking families apart even when families are coming in, according to reporters, asking for asylum. That is a real issue.
“That is not being covered because we're all talking about Samantha Bee using a word that she should not have used,” Tur concluded.
But Noonan shot back in flash, saying, “It wasn't just a word! It was an obscene personal attack! Obscene and personal attack and that did obscure her point, but that also showed maybe she wasn't serious about it.”
Even before scolding Tur, Noonan had a harsh reality check for Barr and Bee in asserting that neither comedian knew how to be a responsible public figure. “[P]art of the problem is public figures having a hard time being public figures. When you are lucky enough in America to be a public figure, your celebrity is not only your pleasure it is your responsibility,” she explained.
“What is that responsibility? Don't make it worse. Don't make it uglier. Don't make it sicker. Samantha Bee doesn't seem to understand that responsibility. Roseanne didn't understand it,” she continued. Noonan also said she was glad to see the large backlash from the public against both women because it showed people were tired of the nonsense.
And it wasn’t just Noonan who had harsh words against Bee. While NPR’s 1A host, Joshua Johnson didn’t find the comments “equivalent,” he didn’t go easy on Bee. “Samantha Bee made a cruel misogynist joke and even a very good one. If you have to end the joke with an insult it means you couldn’t think of a good punchline. So she needs to be a better writer next time,” he jabbed.
Johnson was also concerned about the pervasiveness of what he called the “cultural current” that allowed for both women to think it was socially acceptable for them to say what they said. “[It’s the same current] that gave Stephen Colbert cover to say the only thing the Donald Trump’s mouth was good for was being Vladimir Putin's you-know-what holster,” he added. He also warned it was what allowed Russian to stir up animosity between us during the election.
To play off of Noonan, National Review Editor Rich Lowry paraphrased a friend who lamented how “the problem with institutions: no one considers themselves an insider anymore has a responsibility for being better and being a steward. Everyone considers themselves to be an outsider.”
While it was great that they were able to come together to condemn Barr and Bee for their heinous comments, it would have been nice for them to touch on the double standard for liberals and conservatives since NBC is still defending Joy Reid’s lies.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC
Meet the Press
June 3, 2018
11:24:51 AM Eastern(…)
CHUCK TODD: Let me bring everybody else into this conversation. This spark of the culture wars with Roseanne and Sam Bee. Is this about our inability to deal with race in this country? That’s what the left sort of sees it at, Joshua. Or, is this about a double standard in that we sort of hold—we’ll hold folks on the right more accountable with their bad tastes than we will on the left?
JOSHUA JOHNSON: Well the comments that Samantha Bee and Roseanne made were not equivalent. Roseanne Barr made a racist slur. Samantha Bee made a cruel misogynist joke and even a very good one. If you have to end the joke with an insult it means you couldn’t think of a good punchline. So she needs to be a better writer next time. But they’re not equivalent comments.
I am more concerned about the fact that the same cultural current that gave Roseanne Barr cover to tweet this and Samantha Bee cover to broadcast this, is the one that gave Stephen Colbert cover to say the only thing the Donald Trump’s mouth was good for was being Vladimir Putin's you-know-what holster. I mean, it’s the exact same current that the Russians exploited to influence the 2016 election. It's our hate. It's our misgiving. It's our fear. The fault is not in our TV stars but in ourselves. And that is where the problem is. We have the power to change this.
That doesn’t excuse what Roseanne said, it doesn’t excuse what Samantha Bee broadcasted. But they broadcasted to us and we reward them for it. So, who do we really blame? Where is the root of this really? I don't think it's there. I think it's here. [Points around the room]
PEGGY NOONAN: I would think -- look, part of the problem is public figures having a hard time being public figures. When you are lucky enough in America to be a public figure, your celebrity is not only your pleasure it is your responsibility. What is that responsibility? Don't make it worse. Don't make it uglier. Don't make it sicker. Samantha Bee doesn't seem to understand that responsibility. Roseanne didn't understand it. I am very glad to see a certain amount of backlash against them almost as if the American people are saying, “stop it already, this is terrible, you’re making it worse.”
KATE TUR: And getting too loud. It's this coarsening we’ve seen before Donald Trump started campaigning but certainly that we’ve seen exaggerating since Donald Trump started campaigning. And all of the insults that he would throw out.
I do think what's unfortunate here is that the Samantha Bee controversy, it’s now overshadowing what is the story that she was trying to bring attention too, which is a story that families are being ripped apart at the border. That this administration is claiming there is a new law when it's just a policy and they're taking families apart even when families are coming in, according to reporters, asking for asylum. That is a real issue. That is not being covered because we're all talking about Samantha Bee using a word that she should not have used.
NOONAN: It wasn't just a word! It was an obscene personal attack. Obscene and personal attack and that did obscure her point, but that also showed maybe she wasn't serious about it.
RICH LOWRY: I don't think Samantha Bee and Roseanne are really comparable. I think some people are saying Trump enabled Roseanne Barr. She has been a kook for 20 years.
NOONAN: True.
LOWRY: And her Twitter timeline has been grotesque for 10 years or however long she’s been on Twitter. But Samantha Bee was hired to be a partisan vulgarian. And underlining something Peggy said, my friend Yuval Levin of National Affairs makes a point, the problem with institutions: no one considers themselves an insider anymore has a responsibility for being better and being a steward. Everyone considers themselves to be an outsider.
(…)
