MoveOn for a change of pace? No, MoveOver everyone, for on Monday, MSNBC's David Shuster, batting for the pathologically immature Tucker Carlson, showed broadcast journalists how the game should be played.
I wanted to feature this delightful incident yesterday morning, but the transcript was not yet available. Maybe it's only because I'm a creature of the printed word, but I often find transcripts more revealing than videos. There's something about their clean and clinical quality that seems to roast sacrificial phonies more thoroughly. And the transcript below of Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn being basted by Mr. Shuster is no exception. She went into the interview as pretentiously stuffed as a Christmas goose, and came out every bit as cooked as one.
So I present for your amusement, and for journalists' edification, Monday's transcribed slaughter:
SHUSTER: The Republican outcry is beginning to die down over that MoveOn ad, the one running in the New York Times that posed the question -- General Petraeus or General Betray Us? But there‘s a bigger question left unanswered, a question of hypocrisy when it comes to political attack. Where was the outrage when Rush Limbaugh said this about Republican Senator Chuck Hagel over one of the senator‘s stances on Iraq? Limbaugh said, "By the way, we had a caller call, couldn‘t stay on the air, got a new name for Senator Hagel of Nebraska. We got General Petraeus and Senator Betray-Us, new name for Senator Hagel." Here to discuss all this is Marsha Blackburn, a Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee. Congresswoman, thanks for coming in.
BLACKBURN: Good to be with you.
SHUSTER: Do you want to take this opportunity to condemn what Rush Limbaugh said about Chuck Hagel?
BLACKBURN: What I want to do is talk about the New York Times. Probably, Rush Limbaugh could have gotten by without saying that.
SHUSTER: Could of gotten by? It was wrong, wasn‘t it?
BLACKBURN: He was referencing what a caller said.
SHUSTER: But it was wrong for a caller or for Rush Limbaugh to call Chuck Hagel Senator Betray Us, right?
BLACKBURN: But Rush Limbaugh did not go in and buy an ad and place it with the New York Times and get a special, preferred rate....
SHUSTER: So there‘s a difference between buying an ad in the New York Times and Rush Limbaugh hearing something that he likes to hear from one of his viewers and repeating it on the air. What‘s the distinction?
BLACKBURN: Rush Limbaugh should not have done that. But Rush Limbaugh did not go out and buy an ad and circumvent [sic] the New York Times. It takes two weeks for them to tell the truth on this and we find out that they did get a favored rate.
SHUSTER: They didn‘t know they got a favored rate. As soon as they found out they got a favored rate, they wrote a check.
BLACKBURN: I don‘t believe that. I think they did....
SHUSTER: I understand that this is an issue that ... You‘re very concerned, of course, about the MoveOn ad, is that right?
BLACKBURN: Everybody is concerned about the MoveOn ad. Everybody is concerned about what seems to be the violation of the public trust by the New York Times. Look, we all know that their circulation is down, that their stock is down, that they ... I think it was last year fired 500 people. Everyone is aware of that. My goodness, to find out now that they are fire-selling their ad space.
SHUSTER: Congressman, let‘s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?
BLACKBURN: The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq, from my district, I do not know.
SHUSTER: His name was Jeremy Bohannan (ph). He was killed August 9, 2007. How come you did not know the name?
BLACKBURN: I do not know why I did not know the name. We made contact with the families in our district. When you have a major military post, you are very sensitive to this and sensitive to working with those families, and that is something that my staff and I do daily. Our district director is a gentleman who has served in the U.S. Army and currently serves in the National Guard. And we do everything that we possibly can do to assist those families. We are very appreciative of the sacrifice.
SHUSTER: But you were not appreciative enough to know the name of this young man. He was 18 years old and killed. Yet you can say chapter and verse about what‘s going on with the New York Times and MoveOn.org.
BLACKBURN: You‘re exactly right. I can say chapter and verse what was going on with MoveOn.org.
SHUSTER: Don‘t you understand the problems that a lot of people would have, that you‘re so focused on an ad? When was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? Yet here we have a war that took the life of an 18-year-old kid, Jeremy Bohannan, from your district and you didn‘t know his name?
BLACKBURN: Well -- and -- we work very closely, as I said, with those families. We work very closely with every one of our military members. We work closely with Ft. Campbell, because most of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, actually sits in Montgomery County, Tennessee. And that is a priority with us, how we work with them, how we reach out to those families, how we stay in touch with those that are being deployed, working with the leadership teams, making certain the community is involved with helping to care for those families.
SHUSTER: I know General Petraeus....
BLACKBURN: And our National Guard families as they are deployed, staying in close touch with those -- some of those that are not only from our district, but from Tennessee.
SHUSTER: I know that after General Petraeus testified, you said that there has been an opportunity created for progress at the local level, local political progress. Have you been to Iraq recently?
BLACKBURN: I have been -- not been to Iraq in the past 12 months. My last trip into Iraq....
SHUSTER: Just based on General Petraeus, that is how you can say that there was political progress being made in Iraq?
BLACKBURN: No, I stay in touch with those that are deployed. As a matter of fact, I e-mailed last night with a constituent of mine who is a chaplain in Iraq. And we have been working, getting some supplies, some items....
SHUSTER: What contact has the chaplain had with local Iraqi political leaders?
BLACKBURN: He is in touch with them on a regular basis. I e-mail with soldiers, different soldiers from my district who are deployed. I e-mail with their families and stay in close touch with them. I go and visit with their families and hear from them first hand what is going on. This is not just a once in a while, you go to Afghanistan or you go to Iraq or every once in a while you go to a military post to visit. What you do is stay in touch with them on a constant on-going basis.
SHUSTER: I agree, Congresswoman, you do stay in touch with these military families. But I again, I still think it‘s a little surprising that you did not know the name of the last soldier killed in Iraq, who is only 18 years old, and yet you know so much about the MoveOn.org ad and the tactics you don‘t like. But in any case, Congresswoman Blackburn, we appreciate you coming in today, Congresswoman from western Tennessee.
I can guarantee you that by evening there were right-wing Congressmen and -women everywhere frantically calling their aides, demanding the names of at least the last three soldiers from their districts killed. The jig was up, and they had no wish to be put down like the broken Ms. Blackburn.
More than that, Shuster singlehandedly showed how to effectively sideline manufactured hysteria. He did it not by returning name-calling for names called, but surgically, step by incised step. He led with the commonplace premise of hypocrisy, but only as bait for outing the deeper violation of the public trust -- her public's trust. Afterward, I doubt there was a rocky underside large enough to accommodate Blackburn's vast humiliation.
But even more than that, Shuster showed other broadcast journalists how their paychecks were meant to be earned -- that anything less is an unbefitting violation of their public's trust. Let's hope his superior strain of journalism is infectious.