Fox News And ABC Team Up On Rep. Alan Grayson’s “Whore” Comment
Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson hasn’t shied away recently from making controversial comments, that have heaped on him a lot of attention. The new one – calling a female adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke a “K Street whore.”
Greta Van Susteren and ABC News’ Rick Klein discussed this last night.
“We’re in this culture where you’ve got 435 members of Congress and the way to be known and be the one who people are talking about is to say something outrageous,” said Klein.
Grayson has since apologized, saying, in part, “This characterization of Ms. Robertson, made during a radio interview last month in the context of the debate over whether the Federal Reserve should be independently audited, was inappropriate, and I apologize.”
But the soundbite is out there. And with Pres. Obama saying how “outstanding” Grayson is at a Miami fundraiser this week, the media has a new angle.
“I’m not so sure I’d advise the President to be praising Grayson,” said Van Susteren.
“Careful what gets fed into the teleprompter there for you,” joked Klein. “This is kind of the staple language you use at fundraisers.”
The “K Street whore” comments got the full press from Fox News in prime time – it was discussed on every show. And it wasn’t mentioned by its cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC on any show in prime time. But having Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity discuss it comes across differently than when an ABC News correspondent comes on to weigh in. Klein appears periodically on Shepard Smith’s 3pmET Studio B, and George Stephanopoulos has made a few appearances on the network.
But on a story like this, getting a perspective from a traditional, hard news outlet like ABC News helps FNC continue to make the case to its critics (like, the White House), that it is a news outlet and does cover the news. And it doesn’t hurt ABC News either – there’s a lot of viewers it would certainly like to pull into its programming that watch Fox each night.
Here’s the Grayson segment On The Record last night:
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7 comments
DWHarper says: This is really a non-story but, of course, Mediaite is making it a story. Its a story because the tabloid press make it a story. “OOOOOOOO, he said WHORE!” Please! He called her what she is. By the very job description of a lobbyist, they can ALL be called whores whether they are a woman or not. The real story is that she is a WHORE for the health insurance lobby but Mediaite, ABC and whoever jump on Fox’s bandwagon and make a WORD the story instead of the corruption of our government and health care system. Krakauer, you are a hack and your editors are possibly worse.
m says: I think it’s really, really inappropriate by Grayson. I know it’s easy to insult women because our language has ten times as many derogatory words for women than for men, but there are a helluva lot more words that don’t have any association to gender at all. He brings a lot of fire to the table and rallied a lot of Democrats with his Republican-like spiteful rhetoric, but he needs to learn how to shut up every once in a while before his good will really start to come around and bite him in the ass.
Pat Doherty says: If only Alan Grayson was a physically attractive, female Republican. The fact that he can be reliably expected to parrot the talking points of the MoveOn wing of the Democratic Party and looks like he comes from hearty Cro-Magnon stock apparently makes him a man of honor.
ImNotBlue says: Grayson continues to be an embarassment to the Democrats.
Where is the civility Pelosi promised? Where is the respect Obama said would come with his election? Hmmm?
The guy is just a hack trying to make a name for himself… and the thing with hacks of that stripe, they never know when enough is enough. This was bound to happen… Grayson finally goes “too far.” Of course, all the other garbage he said (which was insulting, uncalled for, and inappropriate for anyone in a government position) got a pass because… well, he was talking about Republicans, FOX News, and Cheney… so the media was less than concerned. But now that he said something about a woman (a media protected group), there will be more coverage.
Oh well… Grayson is burning his candle at both ends. I’m sure his political career is nearing an end… expect to see him as a commentator/pundit on MSNBC before long, and on Air America spewing forth lies, distortions, and attacks on all that which his blue-blog masters tell him.
Oh… and before the false equivalency of Grayson and say… Rep. Wilson comes up (it already has, but that’s not the point)… let’s remember that Wilson said, “You lie,” to the President. While Grayson said this about the former Vice President:
“By the way, I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking, but my response is this: he’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Alan_Grayson_v_Chris_Matthews.html
Interesting how THAT didn’t make the evening news… or a post around these parts…
m says: It’s amazing how Grayson talks and acts like a Republican, but is a liberal Democrat.
ImNotBlue says: No… what’s amazing is that somehow that’s acceptable to you.
See… that’s called being a hypocrite. Funny how you’ve figured that out.
(Of course, I don’t remember any Republicans saying anything remotely close to the nastiness of Grayson… but who wants to get in the way of a good strawman argument?)
Dandee says: I just had a thought that I do not think has been brought up. Has anyone heard any comments from the family of this horrible man? Wonder what his wife thinks about it? If my husband were to make that kind of stupid remark, I would not like that at all and I’m sure she doesn’t either. OR maybe she approves, whatever!! His try at apologizing was NOTHING except him getting caught on tape. Just as he said earlier that the Republicans said, IF YOU GET SICK THEY WANT YOU TO DIE QUICKLY.
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