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Fail: Media Favors Newt Gingrich ‘Take A Bath’ Byte Over Child Labor Quote 10 to 1

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by Tommy Christopher | 2:49 pm, November 22nd, 2011

» 37 comments

This past weekend, as with any normal weekend, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination said several stupid things that deserved mockery and outrage. In this case, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a Harvard crowd, on Friday, that the solution to income inequality involves replacing adult janitors in poor neighborhoods with nine year-olds. On Saturday, he told Occupy protesters to take a bath. Guess which quote the media picked up and ran with?

Lest you think I’m exaggerating, take a look at the full context of what Gingrich said. The summation above is actually kind. Gingrich explicitly, sweepingly denounced child labor laws as “stupid,” and singled out nine to fourteen year old children in “poor neighborhoods” to replace “union janitors.”

If the sickening classism and child exploitation isn’t enough for you, contemplate, for a moment, Newt’s word choice for who would oversee these poor child janitors: a “master janitor.”

Since Saturday, all I’ve been hearing about is Newt’s “take a bath” quote, which is definitely stupid in its own retro-douchebag way, and is admittedly “Keep on Truckin’”catchy, but next to a call for the decimation of hundred year-old protections against the exploitation of children, it hardly seems worthy. I was shocked that, all day Monday, most of the colleagues I spoke to, at the White House and elsewhere, had not even heard about the child labor comments, but all of them were talking about “take a bath.”

Last night, I appeared on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann to discuss the issue, and honestly, spent most of the segment trying my best not to start cursing at such a stark demonstration of the media’s screwed-up priorities. When I got back to my hotel room, I was heartened to see that both Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow addressed Newt’s “let them eat urinal cake” plan for impoverished children on their respective shows, and with far more eloquence than I’ve been able to muster. “Maybe it’s just me,” I thought, “maybe I’m missing all the shows that are playing this clip.”

Apparently, though, it’s not just me. I searched the TV Eyes transcript database this morning, and mentions of the “take a bath” quote outpaced the child labor remarks by almost a ten to one margin, 335 to 35, including Rachel and Ed.

The one heartening part of this whole thing is that, aside from some mostly anonymous internet and Twitter commenters, I haven’t really heard any conservatives defending Newt’s remarks. If Mitt Romney is smart, he’ll be putting this clip in an upcoming attack ad. How’s that for “family values?”

Most of the idiotic defenses that I have heard have involved comparisons to things that aren’t illegal, like paper routes. That’s the whole point: child labor laws are there to allow reasonable opportunities for minors to earn some walking around money, but to prevent them from being exploited, and to prevent such work from interfering with their education. The people of this country decide, through their elected representatives, what is reasonable. It is the fruits of this process that Gingrich finds “stupid.”

Children in this country don’t have a lot of rights. They’re essentially the property of their parents or legal guardians. A person unfamiliar with poverty, or exploitation, or children might think that being a janitor would be a nice “choice” for a nine year-old to have, but the fulcrum of almost all laws designed to protect children is the notion that children, to varying degrees, aren’t capable of giving informed consent for adult activities. By targeting poor families, Newt’s plan exploits their economic vulnerability as well.

Telling the protesters to take a bath was dickish, but I’m sure each and every one of those Occupy protesters would agree that they can stick up for themselves. The media ought to be sticking up for children, instead.

Here’s the clip of my appearance on The Big Picture, from RT America:

2012 Election, child labor, Class Warfare, ed schultz, Mitt Romney, newt gingrich, Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann

Anonymous

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Moderate

I did lots of odd jobs as a kid, it was a valuable lesson in life.I learned how to negotiate with old people because their value of labor was outdated.
The Real Royal Emperor

TOMMY WROTE: “This past weekend, as with any normal weekend, the frontrunner for the
Republican presidential nomination said several stupid things that
deserved mockery and outrage.”

RRE RESPONDS: You are going to get all sorts of “librul by-us” charges over that one, TC. And, if it were not objectively, demonstrably true …. This is an important comment on the state of our media. Very well done.
Anonymous

No he won’t. Nobody really cares what far-left extremists think about Republican candidates.
The Real Royal Emperor

Been there did that. Learned all sorts of valuable lessons from lawn mowing, garage cleaning, grocery sacking, selling women’s shoes, working in a lumber yard, being a wine buyer, &c. I think every young person should work in such a manner as does not interfere with primary job of any student: learning. But, I do think the Newt was being silly about 9 year old children becoming janitors in their schools, and, knowing far more about the Newt than I care to, I suspect he is being terribly draconian here.
The Real Royal Emperor

You know very well if Michelle-in-Utah weren’t banned again she would be bleating, kvetching, moaning and whining. I have no doubt we’ll have choirs of harpies and sirens doing just the same.
Jason_in_Vegas

Liberals don’t seem to think that adults having jobs is important, so I would expect them to re-coil in horror at the thought of a kid having to sweep up some dirt, rather than playing video games 24 hours a day and getting fatter on the couch.

Children learn valuable life lessons? OH THE HORROR!!!!!
Jason_in_Vegas

All you ever do is kvetch, moan and whine. Who are you to bitch about some random chick doing it? At least she has the ovaries and mood swings as an excuse. What’s yours?
Jason_in_Vegas

Tommy Translation: “They’re doing a good job obsessing over Newt, and completely ignoring Obama’s failures, but I sure wish they’d focus on the trivial things I’m currently whining about”
FunnyTonyMase

Gingrich thinks if students had jobs, they’d have money to spend on dates with their chubby geometry teacher.
one pissed off liberal

I had a paper route when I was nine….I would have gladly swept the school for an hour a day to make 15 bucks a week instead…
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Lol!! She got banned again?? This is like her seventh time!! Lol!! Too bad Mediaite is not willing to consider banning Stonepark3 for outrageous personal attacks!!
Anonymous

TC- have you taken your bath yet?

I’m still laughing over your call for Boehner to resign because he asked your Messiah to change the date of his address to Congress.

Man, that was and remains so, so funny.
Anonymous

This from the biggest whiner and blooter on Mediaite.

Take a bath you phony.

And your other persona, Rex the Wonder Fart, fools no one- your posts as REX are just as stupid as are your posts as the King.
Anonymous

Poor white trash boy, whining again?

I have so many more “likes” than you its not funny.

You are such a puerile failure.

I truly love bitch slapping you around!
Anonymous

a job- that is something so foreign to you and other libs.

As a matter of fact, JOBS is a real 4 letter word to libs.

LOL
Jason_in_Vegas

That was classic, wasn’t it?

It’s almost as if liberals like Tommy Boy have no clue what a small speck of dust they are in the grand scheme of things. Almost like they could believe that if they just recycle their evian bottle and drive a hybrid, polar bears won’t drown. Oh wait… they ARE that stupid.
Anonymous

Yes it was.

And if anyone deserves to apologize for things he has said or written , it is TC.
Anonymous

Funny, when libs said that a certain group of people should go straight to hell or that they should be “wiped out”, I didn’t hear a peep from libs.

But when a Repub says that a group should get a job and take a bath, MG, you would think that someone called for the murder of someone.

LOL
Anonymous

OK…it is incumbent upon me to point out that a solemn Mediaite vow has been broken. Colby Hall promised many months ago that he would not force any of his staff….especially the more naive amongst them….to wear his neck ties. It is obvious, after watching this video with Tommy, that Colby has transgressed. I would hope that he comes forward on his own…admits his misdeed and repents. It is for the good of the site….his country…and for all of mankind. The ball is now in his court.
FunnyTonyMase

Except it’s not for all kids, just the lower income ones. A child of a parent with a six figure salary probably won’t give up their afternoons to earn extra cash.

That kid from a wealthy family will probably be spending their time getting tutored in math and science, or some other extra curricular activities that will help them get into a good college and get a good job.

The kid from a lower income family will spend their after school time waxing floors and taking out the trash (which, I’m sorry, are not valuable skills in today’s job market).

A kid in school has a job, and that is to learn. The problem with the American work force isn’t a lack of work ethic, it’s a lack of skilled labor. Handing a ten year old a mop isn’t going to help us compete in the 21st century.
Anonymous

A kid in school has a job, and that is to learn. ”

B.S- I worked my way through college.
And my brother worked 3 years out of 4 when he was in HS.

Try again.
Rex the Wonder God

Yeah, they thought you came with the rest of the property.

And Tommy:

“Newt Gingrich told a Harvard crowd”

There certainly was a crowd, and it was at the Harvard JFK School – but that doesn’t mean it was “a Harvard crowd”.

It’s sort of like how Newt claims to be an academic & historian – when actually he was denied tenure at a Deep South school no one ever heard of, after putting out a PhD dissertation on how Belgiums tried to teach their Congolese slaves to speak French, organizing a program on global warming & not getting elected to Congress twice, and then years later got run out of Congress over his one & other post-doc paper.
Rex the Wonder God

Nobody but us Democrats and other humans not from Planet R! See y’all in November 2012!
FunnyTonyMase

Gingrich was not talking about working during college. I think you need to listen to what he said before rushing to defend him.

Gingrich repeatedly mentioned the word ‘kid’, and the topic was ‘child’ labor laws. Child labor laws don’t concern people working during college (18+).

Plus, high school students are able to work from ages 14-17. Their time is limited because their most important job is to attend school and learn. That’s why the schedule limits are only in place during the months that they are attending school.

I really hope your college education helped you in some area other than reading comprehension, Stonepark3.
Norbit

Tommy, it’s a “course” in personal responsibility and work ethics he’s attempting to impart with his suggestion.

As for “decimating” child labor laws, Democrats gave us a 50 year curriculum on generational welfare, and the only thing “decimated” from that experiment was the black family unit.

ps) Can you source this Newt’s quote on this? – I didn’t think so!

”In this case, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a Harvard crowd, on Friday, that the solution to income inequality involves replacing adult janitors in poor neighborhoods with nine year-olds.”
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Lol!! Come on!! You know if we were ever to met face to face… I would beat the sh*t out of you and while you were begging for mercy, I would beat the sh*t out of you again… and you know it!! Lol!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=690550741 Michael A. Leach

Tommy,

Not to be shallow, but you’re a REALLY handsome man, and well dressed too. I mean, all black. Black shirt, black tie, black jacket. Was Brooks Brothers closed when you decided to buy that outfit?

Oh, and tell your boss, Barack Obama, hello for us as you walk back to your desk in the EEOB.

Have a nice day.
Concerned Citizen

Two ultra liberal jerks. The end.
Pablo

Thing is, Newt didn’t suggest 9 year old janitors so what’s silly is a product of your imagination.
Pablo

I don’t think they like people teaching kids about work.
Pit Boss

The conservative mantra has officially become:

“Put the kids to work. If they refuse, you have two choices: hit them with a belt or pepper spray them. This is what Jesus would have done.”
Norbit

Uh, in-between he orchestrated the biggest coup in political history, to date.

He’ll CRUSH the intellectual fraud in the White House!

Remember, the American people will be the judges here, not some politically-correct indoctrinates from Harvard or the Democratic Left!
Pit Boss

And please stop it with the “liberals don’t want to work” crap already. It’s about as accurate, old and tired as saying “take a bath” to anyone who protests crony corporatism.
Norbit

You’ve got bigger things on the plate, PB.

Specifically, they are:

Starting pitching…stuck with a $100 million OUT in the middle of the lineup…and Steinbrenner’s kids still making a mockery of the most successful sports team in history!
Pit Boss

The fact that you pay attention to your aggregate number of “likes” and compare it to others is unbelievably pathetic.
exploited

Have got to be the biggest idiots I have ever listened to. Not a brain cell between them.