Too Much Information: Vieira Informs World Guest Had Hot Flash

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Rather than the "liberal bias" rubric, file this one under "coarsening of the culture." We had a dubious first this morning: a network news host informing the world that one of her guests had just experienced a hot flash.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman was Meredith Vieira's guest for purposes of discussing the good news that scientists have discovered a way to extract stem cells from amniotic fluid and placentas, a breakthrough that could render moot the embryonic stem cell controversy.

But at the end of the interview, in promoting an upcoming segment devoted to menopause, Vieira "outed" Snyderman in these terms:

"You'll be back for our menopause series. And Nancy was actually fanning herself earlier. She had a hot flash. She knows what she's talking about."

Snyderman took it in good-natured stride, acknowledging with a chuckle "it's true, it's true."

Perhaps realizing she had gone too far, Meredith threw it back to Matt Lauer with a nervous laugh.

View video here.

If might have been understandable, perhaps even praiseworthy, had Snyderman in the course of the menopause segment decided to mention this herself. But was it really Vieira's role to "out" her guest in this way, or was this, to use the current phrase, too much information?

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Hot flash to Today show list.

[alicewonders]

I have a "hot flash" when I hear these idiots speak.

[showme_the_Glory]

PMS network?

[Balding_Eagle]

Given that Snyderman had jsut announced one more reason against abortion she's lucky to have escaped with just being outed. It could, and probably will will be much worse else where.

[tiredoflaundry]

I prefer to call them "power surges".

[PJ-Comix]

I hope some future guest on the show mentions that Meredith Vieira just farted...whether she did or not.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

LOL. Rush, who likes to talk about PSNBC, should get a chuckle out of this one!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

LOL. To use another 'in' expression: you go girl!

[iceskater]

We'll have to see if Rush picks up on your story.

Is it me, or is Meredith really that stupid? The more I listen to her, the more I have to wonder how she ever got the job. Aside from her liberal credentials, that is. She seems to have a habit of making inappropriate, stupid remarks during interviews, during the chit chat moments, almost all the time.

Katie makes me crazy but I don't think she's stupid. Meredith makes me crazy AND she's stupid.

[MadelineZapeezda]

power surges..............LOL!!!

[johnny7]

Either farted... or involuntarily emptied her bladder.

[Wombat101]

In the grand scheme of things, is this minor kerfuffle really important enough to waste bandwidth on?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

In the grand scheme of things, is this minor kerfuffle really important enough to waste bandwidth on?

As mentioned in the opening line, I do think this story is a reflection of the coarsening of our culture. This kind of thing would have been unthinkable just a generation ago. But if you feel strongly about it, perhaps you should submit a complaint to the admin mods who of course have the ability to pull threads they consider inappropriate or a waste of bandwidth.

[Wombat101]

That was not my point, and you can stop with the holier-than-thou-fur-breasted-Culture-Warrior attitude.

Who cares if Meredith Viera "outed" someone over something as insigificant as a hot flash? It doesn't matter in the least, except to perhaps embarrass the outee. Your interest in the whole affair is to simply hop up and down, like a schoolboy bursting for a pee, about how inappropriate it all is, with the urgent sense that this particular incident spells the end of Western Civilization as we know it, that is common amongst the perpetually pany-bunched.

If a passing, although admittedly crude, reference to a "woman's problem" that until recently was not discussed in "polite society" gets your Irish up, you do indeed have a problem.

[PGalt]

Probably Meredith's (whoever she is...never watched her) nuanced way of attacking Dr. Nancy Snyderman's reporting of good news. Thanks for reporting.

[Wombat101]

Excuse me, that should have read:

"...perpetually panty-bunched..."

[YellowRoseofTx]

I like your term, "power surge" better than my "heat wave"

[sportutegrl]

Dr. Schneiderman was apparently on to dispel the myth that you need to destroy babies to get stem cells, so naturally she is the enemy in the View's view. Menopause is a very personal thing, rather like saying that someone is having her period, to me. It seems like an extremely catty remark.

[tiredoflaundry]

;o)

[Wombat101]

I don't disagree, sport, however, there are plenty of more pressing problems facing us this morning other than Meredith Viera.

As we speak:

-140,000 Americans are risking their lives in a foreign country, in a conflict in which the US Government (at all levels)is either unable or unwilling to take the actions necessary to ensure a successful conclusion.

- A middle eastern power, inimical to the West in general and the United States in particular, is about to acquire nuclear weapons (if they don't have them already), causing consternation here, and outright fear in Israel, which might pre-emptively strike and perhaps make our position in Iraq that much worse.

- We face the spectre of a resurgent Soviet Union, and a nuclear Korean peninsula at the same time as the old European alliances are beginning to crumble.

- The republican party having been pasted in mid-term elections two months ago, has, instead of concentrating on just how and why it lost, and how to correct it, is instead consumed over the question of whether we should select as our next Presidential candidate a mental patient (McCain), a guy who wore a dress as a gag (Giuliani), or one of the numerous backbench-second-stringers who can bring out the church vote, but drive the rest of the electorate straight into the arms of democrats.

- The Bush tax cuts will expire in two years, and the democratic (small 'd' intentional) party will ensure that they stay dead, with subsequent dire effects upon the US economy.

I could go on, but that should do to start.

In the grand scheme of things, the world being what it is, Meredith Viera (and anything she might have to say about menopause) doesn't count for anything.

[visualops]

I agree.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Wombat, don't know if you read my threads regularly, but if you do you'll note that I spend the great amount of my time discussing just those sort of issues you consider most important.

So perhaps you'll cut me some slack if occasionally I write about something other than pressing issues of national security. As someone watched by millions of Americans every day, I think what Vieira says does count. She helps shape the culture, and in this case, I think she struck an unfortunate blow for its coarsening.

[BallyBill]

In the grand scheme of things, is this minor kerfuffle really important enough to waste bandwidth on?

Well said. I think Newsbusters has too many employees and not enough to do!

[visualops]

There are always dramatic, life and death situations, etc., that are "more important" than issues such as manners, public composure, what constitutes the niceties of polite society, etc. That does not mean the latter shouldn't be discussed. In fact your strawman is taking this thread off topic.

[veronica]

These liberal View-types are an embarrassment to sensible women everywhere. Totally self-obsessed. The concept of "suck it up and deal" is beyond them. Everything must be revealed and confessed to the world.

[Wombat101]

"She helps shape the culture, and in this case, I think she struck an unfortunate blow for its coarsening."

Wrong on two points:

a) The Culture is not shaped by the media quite as much as the media is shaped by the culture. That is the nature of free markets; the networks give the people what they want, in much the same way as the Roman emperors gave them bread and circuses. If the mass of people wanted wholesome, family-friendly entertainment which didn't discuss women's plumbing so openly and jokingly, then the networks would provide it.

b)Taken in context, a passing joke to a hotflash (and I don't subscribe to the theory posted by sport above that Meredith made it as a subliminial, personal editorial on stem cell research -- I don't believe Meredith can be that cunning) does not signal the coarsening of a culture.
Quite frankly, I'm slightly offended (when I'm not laughing uprorariously) by the spate of commercials that run several times a day about erectile dysfunction, herpes outbreaks, weak bladders and a laundry-list of minor pseudo-medical problems (like chronic dry eye, for example), not because they are subjects that shouldn't be discussed in "polite society", but because they are indicative of the arrogance and selfishness of the Baby Boomer generation (the target audience of these commercials), who expect to be kept in perfect health forever with their sexual potency intact, via medication (which the rest of us will be paying for, incidentally).

How 'Brave New World' it all is!

So, if you want to set a "root cause" of the coarsening of the culture, governs, then at least be honest and accurate when you point the finger; the problem is not Meredith Viera, the problem is the generation that opened the floodgates which lead to it in the first place with their libertine behavior. Meredith, in speaking about menopause and hot-flashes wasn't speaking to 12 year olds; she was speaking to the Flower Children who need to know about hot flashes and such because they are experiencing them now.

[Wombat101]

It's not a "strawman" at all, ops.

I'm sure the next Marine who gets a sniper bullet through his brainpan would be very grateful to you for having denigrated his plight as being somewhat less important than the great debate on whether or not menopause should be discussed on televion.

I'm not diagreeing with governs that the whole subject was unseemly and perhaps inappropriate, but where was it written that you had the right to go througfh life unoffended?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Wombat, I certainly agree that issues of life and death and national security are more important than this. Don't know, for example, if you read my 'Iraq Diary' at NewsBusters, chronicling my recent trip to Iraq, most of it spent on Marine bases in Anbar province.

But whether the MSM influence the culture, or vice versa as you believe, I believe this morning's episode was a noteworthy cultural marker.

[Wombat101]

I must admit to not reading NewsBusters much, as I find it biased and often concerned with issues I don't consider worthy of investigation (that's a matter of taste, granted).

And I would hardly find a passing remark made by Meredith Viera to be a noteworthy cultural marker in the same way as, say, Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education, unless your view of our culture is incredibly narrowly defined. Those sorts of "cultural markers" have had a lasting and irreversible effect on America, with far more impact than a pathetic attempt at humor by a newscaster.

[uglybiker]

She was channeling James Brown.

AIIIIEEE!

HOT! TOO HOT!! HEH!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

With respect, you have used a number of straw men. You make the unassailable argument that Vieira's comment is not as important as the death of a Marine or Brown v. Board of Ed. But I never said it was. I'm simply saying that I found it noteworthy.

[HitmanLV]

I've never heard of her.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

By this logic, should newspapers only have a front page? Should only the most vital issues of the day be reported, or is there room for other stories of interest, if not of transcendent importance?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

"Today" remains the #1 morning news show. Millions continue to tune daily news and views. That's why,as my tagline suggests, I think it's worthwhile keeping track of what they're up to.

[HitmanLV]

No doubt, but I still never heard of her. I'm just out of touch.

[Wombat101]

With respect, I don't see the strawman. All ofthe arguments I have put forward are perfectly valid with regards to the original question (i.e. just how important is anything said in passing by Meredith Viera on any subject?)

You make the assertion that you found the remark "noteworthy" without putting it in the context of just why. One is left with the impression that what made it "noteworthy" is simply your own biases about what is right and proper and what is fit to discuss on the airwaves.

With regards to the "coarsening" of American culture; when you live in a society in which disposing of inconvenient children is considered a "right", where ethics (in every possible setting you can imagine) are fungible, where honesty and integrity will soon lose their place in the dictionary because they have fallen out of use, and where all sorts of abhorrent behavior are routinely excused as matters of "personal preference" or reduced to a psychological condition worthy of extensive and expensive medical treatment, just how bad is a passing joke about a hot flash?

I think governs, that you are paying WAY too much attention to the trees and not enough to the forest in this case.

[Wombat101]

"By this logic, should newspapers only have a front page? Should only the most vital issues of the day be reported, or is there room for other stories of interest, if not of transcendent importance?"

Now who's putting forth strawmen? Somehow, now I'm in favor of censorship, governs? Wasn't it you who first intimated that such things as jokes about menopause had no place in the public arena?

There is certainly room for all manner of discussionon all subjects that might be of importance to anyone. In particular, television segments about menopause and hot flashes on network television, to use your own thought about "transcendental" issues. It was important to somebody, somewhere, and so the network decided to air it, probably based on the belief that a segment of their viewrs actually wanted to hear about this stuff. I'm sure they didn't expect Meredith to make a tasteless remark embarrassing or injurious to someone, but there you go; life often works that way. You found it offensive and implied that it had no place on the Today show, and somehow expanded that in such a way as to imply that Meredith Viera was a trailblazer and final arbiter of American culture.

I think you've made a mountain out of a molehill, that's all.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Not out out of touch; spending your time on more important things. That's why we're here - to watch so you don't have to ;-)

[governsleastgovernsbest]

My point about newspapers only having a front page had nothing to do with censorship, but with news judgment. It seems clear I won't convince you that it was worthwhile for me to report on Vieira's comment. Hopefully you will find other of my threads here worthwhile.

[Wombat101]

"That's why we're here - to watch so you don't have to ;-)"

Thank you, so much! Why, I'd never realized just what a bumbling, drooling bunch of idiots we'd all be, if it weren't for dedicated professionals listening to every word said by Meredith Viera, ready to put it all in the proper context for us!

This is the same argument the MSM always uses with regards to it's own perogatives; the people have the right to know everything (or at least what WE choose to tell them), in the proper context (i.e. in the manner which is consistent with our own prejudices and preferences).

Well, thank you, but I don't recall asking you to pre-digest my information for me, in the manner of a Momma seagull and her chicks.

I would suggest that perhaps if you simply reported what was said without adding the commentary about "coarsening of the culture" you might have been engaged in legitimate journalism.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The comment you quote was directed at another reader, but be that as it may, I don't understand why you are so angry. The papers and internet are filled with hard news as well as commentary of all sorts. Readers are free to pick and choose as they please. Others have enjoyed these threads enough to have requested to be put on a ping list for them. Obviously you didn't like my thread of today. So be it, but as suggested, I'm guessing that if you occasionally checked these threads out you might find material that would be of interest to you.

[HitmanLV]

;-)

[SuziQ]

As a middle aged woman I worked with when I was in my twenties said, "It's not a hot flash, honey, it's a power surge!"
I like to call them my "personal summer".

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I like the positive attitude!

[Wombat101]

I'm not angry at all, and I apologize if you inferred that I was. I was simply stating that Meredith Viera is not a threat to our culture simply because she appears on television screens making crude comments about hot flashes.
You want to pick an icon that has a real impact on the culture? Start looking at Madonna or Jesse Jackson, not the Today show.

If I didn't know any better, I'd start to believe that, perhaps, it's a slow week over at NewsBusters, and that a lengthy article under your by-line will soon appear on this subject, complete with a regurgitation of everything, por- and con-, posted on this thread. I certainly will be watching NewsBusters just to see if I'm correct.

I'm beginning to believe that, perhaps, you're just trying to manufacture a story, and have picked a rather weak subject, but you seem determined to orchestrate an outrage over it in order to make said (potential) story relevant.

As for your Iraq articles and Marine Diary, I just might skip over there one day and read it over. I do hope, however, that they are full of facts and honest reportage and not hyperbole and personal bias.

[KimmyJaye]

Have you considered the bandwith you're wasting arguing your stupid point? If you find the subject matter unimportant, pass it. No one has a gun to your head for God sakes!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Here is a link to my Iraq Diary. For some reason, two articles by other authors were mistakenly placed at the top of the diary thread - please ignore:

http://newsbusters.org/taxonomy/term/580

I hope you will find them honest, but by the same token a diary is, by definition, a very personal take on things. I also did hard-news stories for Cybercast News Service, if you're interested.

[Wombat101]

Ah, but there is here you are wrong, KJ!

I didn't put the comment out and build it up as a cultural catastrophe in the making. Governs did. While he (is it a he? I'm not concerned enough to check) sees this as a sign- post on the Highway to Hell, I see it as a person with too much free time on his hands simply waiting for something that can be construed as an outrage, so that he may expound upon it and dazzle us with his superior intellect and concern.

Perhaps is governs had exercised restraint in the first place, I wouldn't have to debate him on whether or not it was important.

I have already received a ton of Freepmail of a congratulatory nature over my posts this morning from Freepers who wish they could have said what I have, but who won't come forward to get flamed by the "Culture Warriors". Unfortunately, this is becoming a common problem for many of FR these days.