Monday, August 13, 2007

Piggish Prerogatives

by digby

There is lots of interesting stuff in the ether today, not the least of which is the fact that Rove is coming off the taxpayers payroll at long last, but I want to start you off with this little Media Matters gem from last Friday that absolutely floored me when I saw it. In fact, I backed up the TiVo and watched it twice because I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing:

BURNETT: Well, they were part of the biggest increase in home ownership in this country that we've ever seen. I mean, home ownership's ticked up a few percentage points over the past few years, thanks to low interest rates –

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

BURNETT: — and all those creative types of mortgages. And you could say that's a good thing, but, you know, Chris, I guess just to throw it out there and, you know, be provocative, but also ask a fair question — you know, maybe not everybody is able to own a home. We like to think of owning a home as a right in this country.

…..

Anyone who doesn't understand the insidious nature of sexual harrassment should take a look at the video of that exchange. Here you had a professional woman discussing a very serious and urgent subject on a news program. And Chris Matthews, (in an apparent attempt to disprove the fact that he has a sexual fetish for mature, beefy men) treated her like someone he was trying to pick up in a bar (very clumsily, as you would expect.) She was confused, embarrassed and knocked completely off balance by his inappropriate remarks, made all the worse because she was on the air. (It would have been just as wrong, however, if she'd been in a meeting or in a regular workplace conversation.) The woman was trying to do her job and this moron got all cute acting as if he couldn't hear a word she said. How "nice" of Matthews to make her feel and look like a fool in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I'm sure she really enjoyed that "compliment."

(read the whole post on Hullabaloo)