Posted on 06/22/2012 7:16:25 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Politico Suspends Reporter Joe Williams for 'Controversial Comments' About Mitt Romney By Noel Sheppard Created 06/22/2012 - 9:56am
Politico announced Friday that it has suspended White House correspondent Joe Williams for "controversial comments" he's made about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in recent days.
Dylan Byers reported hours ago:
"Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams's public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility," POLITICO's founding editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei wrote in a memo to the staff. "His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way."
"Joe has acknowledged that his appearance reflected a poor choice of words," the continued. "This appearance came in the context of other remarks on Twitter that, cumulatively, require us to make clear that our standards are serious, and so are the consequences for disregarding them. This is true for all POLITICO journalists, including an experienced and well-respected voice like Joe Williams."
"Following discussion of this matter with editors, Joe has been suspended while we review the matter," they wrote.
The MSNBC incident, reported by Washington Free Beacon, involved Williams saying on the Martin Bashir Show Thursday that Romney appeared most comfortable around "white folks." This was quickly linked by the Drudge Report receiving a huge amount of attention.
Hours later, Breitbart's John Nolte caught Williams tweeting, "Either Ann Romney meant Mitt is flaccid or that when we 'unzip him' we'll find he's a dick." This included a link to an ABCNews.com blog.
Certainly, Politico is to be commended for its action, but this raises some other issues.
First, will there be any disciplinary action taken by MSNBC against Bashir for tacitly agreeing with Williams's comments Thursday by not challenging them?
Let's understand that since Romney has become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, virtually every hour of MSNBC broadcasting includes someone making deplorable comments about the former Massachusetts governor and his family.
Maybe it's high time the head honchos at NBC, Comcast, and General Electric recognize as Politico has that its anchors and commentators regularly fall "short" of "standards for fairness and judgment."
On the other hand, MSNBC has practically become Politico's news network. You almost can't turn on this cable station without seeing a Politico reporter or editor either speaking Democrat talking points or trashing Republicans, in particular Romney.
If Politico has any intention of being perceived as an impartial news source and not as Rush Limbaugh would say "an annex of the Democrat National Committee," it seriously needs to rethink its ties to MSNBC.
To be sure, the exposure the publication gets as a result of its employees constantly being on this so-called "news network" is considerable despite the low ratings.
But as no one on the planet takes seriously what emanates from this farce of a station, having your representatives regularly on television laughing and guffawing with the likes of Martin Bashir, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, and Lawrence O'Donnell as they exclusively trash Republicans can't possibly help your brand.
When you open up and look inside a liberal’s heart you only find hate and anger.
LOL!!! Liberals don’t have any “class.” They may be obsessed with arguments over class and class warfare, but they rarely exhibit any.
media madders awaits...
MSNBC?
Mitt
Slanderer
Non-stop
By
Communists
or
More
Socialism
No
Brained
Communists
Breitbart strikes again
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/06/21/Politico-reporter-obama-comfortable-white-folks
Politico has standards for fairness and judgment?
Who wudda thunk it...
Both have nothing but contempt for the T.E.A. Party and our Traditional Christian American Values.
“........Romney appeared most comfortable around “white folks.”
“.......tweeting, “Either Ann Romney meant Mitt is flaccid or that when we ‘unzip him’ we’ll find he’s a dick.”
Maybe, just maybe, we could find this information AT THE BEGINNING so we don’t have to read through the entire article. Inquiring minds want to know.
There was a time where FR can be construed as MSNBC you suggested (the first one). Just change Communists to Conservatives.
“Its MSNBC for Pete’s sake; viewing audience of 20,000. A channel pattern gets more viewers.”
900,000 watched Rachel Madcow, last night, per the ratings posted at TVByTheNumbers.
Many of these people are MEDIA people themselves, and get their talking points, marching orders for the next day from this show, while she herself gets her orders from MEDIAMATTERS via Daily Kos.
You can actually WATCH how this process progresses throughout the day, if you pay attention, and I have noted it for several years.
DO NOT underestimate the Power of Propaganda.
Politico claims to have standards?
Who knew Politico had standards? Wonder if they will ever have truth.
Sorry dude, gotta call you out on this one.
No one's slandering Romney when we point out his flip-flops, lack of core convictions, RomneyCare, and other RINO behavior.
I am under no illusions what a Romney Presidency will portend for this country. It will likely be better than a second Obama term, but my expectations are minimal.
The truth is an absolute defense.
There really isn’t anything coming from any “news” outlet that is not pure propaganda. The only exception are puff pieces that are simply distractions. All media stories should be viewed in this light.
To be consistent we should be condemning Politico!
What! Are you MAD! Well, no.
The parallels between this and NPR firing Juan Williams are just to close. We all condemned NPR for being intolerant, and showing their bias for not allowing Juan his opnions. Yet - when this guy says something demonstrably stupid, and gets called to the carpet for his opinions, we applaud!?!
Just saying...
It may stop the bleeding, but it won't provide much of a transfusion.
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