Brent Baker told me I only found half the story in Newsweek’s coverage of Dick Cheney’s heart transplant. Posted in the middle of the Kent Sepkowitz hit piece was Monday’s edition of their daily NewsBeast in-house video. In the first seconds, the “highlight” was Newsweek/Daily Beast assignment editor Allison Yarrow saying of Cheney: “But can you imagine being that organ donor?...I would never do it. I’d say ‘give me my heart back.’”
Welcome to the latest edition of Compassionate Liberals Show Their True Colors. Openly gay Newsweek senior writer Ramin Setoodeh added, “I would never give my heart to Dick Cheney. It would freeze over.” Yarrow offered: “He may be one of the most evil people in the world.” (Video below)
Audio: MP3 clip
Yarrow also worked as a producer for NBC News (including some of those cheesy weekend MSNBC documentaries). That was a cozy fit, since NBC questioned Cheney getting a new heart on Monday.
John Avlon played host of NewsBeast and did shame both of his colleagues. He called it “ridiculous” that Cheney would win a global-evildoer contest. He began by suggesting “We wish him well, and his family well.” Avlon clearly wasn’t speaking for the rest of the staff. Yarrow also said "The news is that he has a heart, I think."
YARROW: But can you imagine being that organ donor? It’s such a difficult decision to say "I want to give my body to someone else after I’m dead." I would never do it. I’d say "give me my heart back."
In the middle of that, Setoodeh said Cheney’s heart would freeze over, then added:
YARROW: Apparently he waited longer than average for this heart....
AVLON: Seriously, the ill will toward Dick Cheney getting a heart transplant is stunning.
YARROW: He may be one of the most evil people in the world
AVLON: Come on! That’s not true.
YARROW: Is it not?
AVLON: Not even a little bit.
Setoodeh asked Avlon who was higher on his list and Avlon began with Stalin, and Setoodeh shot back, “You have to go to dead people to find people more evil than Dick Cheney?” Avlon then turned to the Assad family. “To name Dick Cheney as one of the most evil people alive is ridiculous.”
Allison Yarrow is married to Ben Yarrow, who in the last decade was chief speechwriter for liberal Gov. Jennifer Granholm in Michigan and then worked as Communications Director for Bill Clinton's foundation.
