MSNBC has suspended David Shuster for pondering whether or not Chelsea Clinton had been “pimped out” by mother Hillary’s campaign.
Despite the fact that he’s already apologized for the remark – which we find completely reasonable, although the phrasing may have been wrong – MSNBC says that he will again offer his apologies and then be off the air for an indefinite amount of time.
We imagine their reaction has to do with the Clinton camp intimating they would boycott MSNBC debates, but that’s total conjecture on our parts.
Read the MSNBC statement after the jump…
MSNBC’s release:
How about we take this to the next level?
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On Thursday’s “Tucker” on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.
chandler in lasvegas
That’s the problem with slang. Wouldn’t pander be polite yet appropriate?
emb
Sounds to me like the Clintons are getting just a bit touchy. Could be that falling behind in delegates, lagging in fundraising and hearing a chorus of public revulsion at the nightmare scenario (i.e., Hillary’s Plan B) of Clinton-loyal superdelegates and ghost voters from Florida and Michigan deciding the nomination is having some impact on tempers?
mozzer13
After every bit of claptrap Tucker Carlson has said in that timeslot, this is what gets someone suspended? Seriously?! I mean, didn’t Tucker admit to gay bashing a guy who flirted with him in a bathroom without any consequences from MSNBC, the alleged “liberal” news channel?
Bitch Republic
Oh, please. Queerty just thinks it’s ridiculous because they’re too busy sucking Obama’s cock.
Jack Jett
Had this happened to the daughter of Obama, Al Sharpton and Oprah Winfrey would demand the heads of all the Clinton’s on a platter.
MSNBC is clearly on the Obama bandwagon, which is fine, but I challenge you to turn on that network and try to watch it for ten minutes without any Clinton bashing. The problem is that the minute he gets the nomination, all that Hillary hate is going to turn to Obama hate. For them NBC, it is about the corporate tax structure.
I think any Mom or Dad would be furious to hear the word “pimping out” in reference to a daughter.
john
You don’t get it. Yes, the Clintons are being touchy, but they’ve always been touchy about Chelsea! Pundits have been making inappropriate comments about Chelsea since she was 12 years old! At 12 years old, the media said she looked like a dog! Excuse her parents for being a little sensitive! In the White House, they made it clear that if you fuck with Chelsea, you lose your media access. They’re simply continuing that doctrine, and I don’t blame them.
And yes, Jack. Good points about Sharpton/Obama. Jeeze talk about what a public crucifixion that would have been.
marco
She has said she wants to debate on Fox. That network has been purposefully horrible to Obama! Especially pushing the false Muslin story and Madrassa story to their shit-for-brains audience.
If Hillary plans to not debate on MSNBC anymore, she should understand how Obama feels about not wanting to appear on FOX, and not push the matter, when he turns her ass down.
Will
Haven’t various press people talked/praised/wondered at the hard work and great visibility of Huckabee and McCain’s daughter? Why is it different when Chelsea stumps for her mom? Why is she getting pimped out and the other girls just love their dad?
Tanja
EXACTLY, Will.
Always interesting to see a queer blog post something so flatly sexist and blind.
Better responses here:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/02/broadside.html
mozzer13
Oh they’ve definitely always been touchy about her, and rightly so. I think that’s one thing positive I can say, they’ve done a fantastic job protecting her from the media, and at least from what we’ve seen, they’ve been excellent parents. And I think that’s where the comment comes from. After all these years, she comes out on the campaign trail…it’s just odd that suddenly they are allowing her to be in the spotlight after all these years of shielding her, so of course someone is going to question it. Yes, people would throw a fit if someone said the same thing about his kids…his children are actually children, and not adults. It’s different.
MSNBC has been really quite terrible to Hillary Clinton, no doubt about it. But this isn’t a case of that. Suspend Chris Mathews, not some substitute flunky who made a legitimate observation about a political daughter suddenly getting put out on the campaign trail after a lifetime of isolation.
Bitch Republic
Marco, she has not said she wants to debate on Fox. Hillary has specifically said she refuses to debate on Fox.
hells kitchen guy
I don’t see anything that wrong with “pimping out.” What am I missing here? seriously.
marco
Nitch Republic, I guess you haven’t heard the latest news. She has agreed to debate on Fox.
See here:
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/02/05/team-hillary-accepts-fox-debate-invite/
Obama has refused:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=24108
marco
I meant to say *Bitch* — Not nitch
sorry 🙂
reasonable
What if he had said that “Obama was pimping his wife out on the campaign trail?” Would that be OK with you? Or would that be racist?
Paul
It shows the inability to convey a message without the use of slander. All of the news people are struggling to find anything to say. This whole process is out of date. Until we stop selling the White House we will watch this “reality show” and all of its pettiness.
mozzer13
Again Readable, it would be different. Chelsea is a grown woman who is suddenly out campaigning when she’s always been shielded from the media. Obama’s kids are both under 10 years old. It’s different. Like I said earlier, MSNBC has been shitty to Clinton, but this isn’t a case of that.
Billie
That’s good of you, Jack Jett, to hold down the queer racist front.
M Shane Walsh
Did everyone already lose track of the symbiosis between Hillary and Rupert Murdock (Bush supporter and Death of Free speach advocate. Rupert gave Hill her first big fund raiser to which she happily marched: she ‘s the one who’s gettin pimped now. That was the moment that I decided that if she was hanging out in the Bush league, she was the wanten . . .A ho can serve only one pimp! Then that’s just radical politics; tell me how it works?
M Shane Walsh
Besides, can anyone possibly imagine that someone who’s sociopathic enough to vote for and give support a genocidal war(Bush’s) on innocent kids, women, old people possibly give a hoot what anyone says about Chelsae!
Red Herring: some fish!
Steve M
This is what happens when people with poor manner. Referring to Chelsea as being “pimped out” infers she is a whore. This is typical bad behavior that is very common in our world today, people acting and behaving badly towards others. He got what he deserved. Be polite and respectful to others and you won’t have any problems. All through our society rudeness is occurring at an alarming rate. It’s just not acceptable. Poor conduct. The problem seems to be that of many adults who have never fully matured or who were not taught to behave. I don’t feel sorry for this guy one damn bit, and neither should you.
Rick Allen
I cannot believe the pro-Obama anti-evil-corporatist Hillary bs on this board. Since when have gays become the new blue-collar champions of the working man?? If anything, gays have been responsible for the extensive gentrification of many poorer neighborhoods. If anything, working class people have been far more bigoted to gays than corporate America which has enacted widespread reforms against homophobic practices. Where the hell would gay rights be without the backup of major corporations like IBM, GM, Levi Strauss etc.?
I cannot believe that gays are now playing the anti-corporation snobbery card. Like, inner city people and blue-collar workers are sooo invested in letting their sons come out and take up ballet lessons. Pull your heads out of your asses and recognize which side of your bread is buttered.
I have consistently admired our community for standing up for our rights and backing candidates who have shown a consistent record of sympathy for gay rights. But, the swell of support for Obama tells me that there are still too few people, as in any oppressed group, who understand who is our true supporter and who is full of hot air.
Your support for Obama is myopic and shows that just like the straight, you too are blinded by the power of good speech-writing.
I really hope Obama gets elected and then when his power-grubbing cronies from the black fundie churches ala Donnie McClurkin and Kirbyjohn Caldwell take over and start destroying the rights of minority gays, then maybe you’ll realize your error.
Oh and another thing, if McClurkin and Caldwell were white, there would be no support for Obama from the gays. The gays are just as racist as the straights. ANd the fact is that WHite gays don’t really give a rat’s ass about the plight of Black gays. At the end of the day, White gays feel much more ok with pardoning Obama for hiring Black Homophobes who are anti Black Gays. This would not happen if Obama was stupid enough to hire white homophobes to shill for him.
Obama played you and black gays. And you’re just too naive to see it because your racist and simultaneously idealist/socialist asses can’t see thru his schtick. MAybe it’s because it’s so similar to your own.
Jack Jett
Billie
Thanks for the kind words. One can be pro Obama and not be sexist and one can be pro Clinton and not be racist.
I would be thrilled to have either one of them in the White House. With Obama, I would be happy to have him in the White House or my house.
marco
Obama/Bayh ticket I say! That would be hot!
Hillary can be top chef at the White House cafeteria. I hear she makes a mean meatloaf. mmmm
jk jk
blackiemiko
she has agreed to fox debates. and this suspension pisses me off. she needs to speak out against it.
mozzer13
Wow Rick, that is quite a rant. Given your corporate love, are you suggesting we vote for McCain?
Rick Allen
Absolutely not. McCain too, like Romney, is a ‘reformed liberal’ type flip-flopper who will do anything to placate the fundies, including going so far as to reinvent himself as a religious wingnut.
What I’m saying is that I’m astonished at the gay love for Obama given his weird track record with gays this election season. And I’m also astonished at gays,of all people, rejecting Hillary, of all people, for being “too corporate”.
Why reject a candidate who has never once sponsored an ex-gay to campaign for her using homophobic slurs? Why reject a candidate who has never pandered to the minority homophobe vote??
And I think the answer to that is that white gays don’t really see Obama’s assholery with Kirbyjohn Caldwell and Donnie McClurkin as assholery. Because Obama was messing with black gays.
And black gays simply do not count in the gay movement as people to be respected and taken seriously despite all the rhetoric from the gay community about being a diverse group et al. LGBT is diverse in terms of who wants to have sex with who, not in terms of skin color.
The message white gays are sending with their embrace of Obama is that they don’t really give a shit about what happens with black gays. As long as Obama doesn’t hang out with and actively sponsor white homophobes, all is well with white gays.
Jack Jett
Rick Allen
Very well put. The GLBT community has been very quick to turn their backs on Hillary. Not only turn their backs but stab her in it at the same time. While Obama is a great choice and a beautiful one…..remember that it is Hillary that really pisses off the right wing…so she must be doing something right.
It would be nice if the liberal blogs would, at the very least, be a little less bashing of a woman who has been on our side from day one.
Again, one can be pro Obama and not be anti Hillary.
emb
“Why reject a candidate who has never once sponsored an ex-gay to campaign for her using homophobic slurs? Why reject a candidate who has never pandered to the minority homophobe vote??”
OK, Rick, first, that’s not entirely true: Hillary has accepted donations and support from Bishop Eddie Long in Atlanta (who hosts an ex-gay ministry and has marched against marriage equality) and publicly thanked California Rev Harold Mayberry for his fight “for civil rights and equality” when Mayberry regularly preaches against homos. (check out the Washington Blade, Nov 2 07). And let’s not forget her co-president’s fabulous DADT and DOMA, while we’re at it. Neither Dem in this race is pure and perfect on GLBT issues, I’m afraid, so that’s one soapbox you really need to step down from.
Secondly, there are plenty of reasons to “reject” Hillary Clinton (just as there are, I suppose, perfectly legitimate reasons to rejecet Obama). She is the one candidate certain to unify the republicans in november, and has the lowest approval ratings of anyone running. In national polls, she either ties with McCain or just barely squeaks out a win, while Obama handily trounces him (sure it’s early, but we’re all flapping our gums now anyway). She does not play particularly well with others, and the result of her political myopia will be that none of her promises will be fulfilled–she doesn’t get to be dictator.
The thing HC’s passionate supporters fail to recognize is that those of us who do not support her in the primaries are not doing so because we’re vile sexist creeps. I would happily support a woman for president; it just so happens that I do not particularly support THIS woman. If she gets the nom, of course I’ll fall into line, because the ultimate goal is to cleanse our nation of the republicans.
mozzer13
Well said, EMB! What’s more, everyone who supports her does seem to tie her to her husband’s administration. That’s fine, just remember how many times they threw us under the bus. Obama may do the same, but there is still up in the air…at least he doesn’t have a track record of disposing of us when it is convenient the way the Clintons do.
PJ
Hillary is not the first candidate to pimp out their child for votes.
Shuster messed up and apologized for it. That is not enough for Hillary. She is still angry and Shuster has to apologize again.
It must be nice to never say anything that could be considered politically correct. It must be nice to never have made any bad decisions. (Voted for the Iraq War without enough information. Has stated that she will not end the war until its proper conclusion.)
Hillary is no better than the men she is running against. In fact, she’s worse. She should take a lesson from her husband. When he lied, he apologized for it. Even false humility is humility.
todd
I was shocked that David Schuster would say such a thing. I expected that out of Tweety Matthews, or Fucker Carlson – not David. I can’t believe how mysogynistic this channel is. Even that woman they have on Mornign Joe appears to hate women. It’s too much.
seitan-on-a-stick
Like we said in the 90s when the Corporate Media came after an underaged First Daughter: LEAVE CHELSEA ALONE!
Jack Jett
Dear Stick
Brilliant concept for an You Tube video……
LEAVE CHELSEA ALONE!!!!!
Rick Allen
Thanks for your reply, EMB.
I must say that I am shocked at just how misogynist our country is. Your commentary was the first on Hillary Clinton, that I have seen for a long time, that was not replete with misogynist slurs and put-downs. Watching this election has revealed to me that the United States is far more sexist than it is racist. And that American misogyny transcends such narrow barriers as race, gender, sexual orientation and national origin.