Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Rachel Maddow’
May 2nd, 2012 at 12:07 pm
The Reality of “Fair Pay” for Women
Posted by Print

Last weekend, liberal MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow and Republican political consultant Alex Castellanos got into a dustup on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” over pay disparities between men and women in the workplace.

Maddow, working from the first principle of modern American liberalism, assumed that the absence of pure equality is de facto proof of systemic oppression. Here’s part of the exchange (note the utter failure of NBC host David Gregory to moderate impartially):

Since Castellanos didn’t get much a chance to get a word in, allow me to augment his remarks with the observations of Thomas Sowell, writing in his book, “Economic Facts and Fallacies”:

The empirical fact that most male-female economic differences are accounted for by factors other than employer discrimination does not mean that there have been no instances of discrimination, including egregious instances. But anecdotes about those egregious instances cannot explain the general pattern of male-female economic differences and their changes over time. Those changes are continuing. While in the period from 2000 to 2005 most women were still holding jobs making less than the weekly median wages, women were also 1.7 million out of 1.9 million new workers earning above the median wages.

Given the numerous factors that impact the incomes and employment of women differently from the way they impact the incomes and employment of men, it can hardly be surprising that there have been substantial income differences between the sexes. Nor can all these differences be assumed to be negative on net balance for women — that is, taking other factors into account besides income. For example, the wives of affluent and wealthy men tend to work less and therefore to earn less. But the wife of a rich man is not poor, no matter how low her income might be.

Had Ms. Maddow hoped to have a real conversation about the causation of pay disparities, there was a rich body of research available to her. She didn’t of course. That wouldn’t make for nearly as good television.

February 1st, 2011 at 7:35 pm
MSNBC Incapable of Detecting Satire
Posted by Print

In a recent Freedom Minute, we told you how MSNBC’s journalistic irresponsibility included an incident where Rachel Maddow falsely accused a Republican Congressman of having advance knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing and failing to act. Apparently, Maddow’s show hasn’t added any fact-checkers since that earlier faux pas.

On last night’s broadcast, Maddow lit into a litany of conservative critics of President Obama’s Egypt policy. One of her targets, however, deserves special attention. According to the Atlantic Wire:

The Internet’s finest satirists hooked a big fish in the media world last night. In an embarrassing segment on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow slammed conservatives for attacking President Obama’s Egypt policies. Her targets included Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Stephenson Billings at ChristWire.org. Only problem is Stephenson Billings is not a real person. He’s a fictional byproduct of a website that also warns readers that the Xbox Kinect is a terrorist training tool and the Japanese have created scary robot babies which “threaten humanity.”

The article that caught Maddow’s eye called for an “American-led invasion” into Egypt and begged former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to lead the war cry.

“The escalating crisis in Egypt could become a defining moment for Sarah Palin,” Billings wrote. “Governor Palin needs to speak out publicly and forcibly for an American-led invasion to protect our interests in North Africa.”

It’s embarassing to see any supposedly mainstream news show get duped like this. But when a show as self-consciously snarky as Maddow’s can’t detect satire, it’s also a nice bit of poetic justice.

February 16th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Wait… Aren’t Tea Partiers the Violent Ones?
Posted by Print

According to a Boston Herald report, a relative of murderous University of Alabama-Huntsville professor Amy Bishop described her as a far-left political extremist:

“A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children – the youngest a third-grade boy – was a far-left political extremist who was ‘obsessed’ with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.”

Admittedly, we cannot muster the gastrointestinal fortitude to continuously monitor the silly MSNBC triumvirate of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, but weren’t the Tea Partiers the potentially violent political extremists, according to them?  The trio repeatedly manages to locate the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack Tea Party protester carrying a distasteful “Obama = Hitler” placard, and they constantly suggest a sinister proclivity toward violence amongst those who actually treasure the Tenth Amendment and concepts of federalism.

We certainly won’t hold our collective breath awaiting Matthews’s, Olbermann’s or Maddow’s hard-hitting expose on the danger of violence among “far-left political extremists,” even though that perfectly describes Lee Harvey Oswald himself.  But it might be a nice change of pace from their usual unicorn-chasing and suggestions that the Tea Party movement is merely cover for a return to slavery.