Howard Kurtz on CNN: MSNBC Deceptively Edited Romney's "Wa-Wa" Remarks, And Has Refused To Apologize

Tommy Christopher, Media Matters hardest hit.

Vid at the link, but here's the transcript:

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Ever since George Bush, Sr. seemed surprised by a supermarket scanner, the media had been on the lookout for out-of-touch candidates. MSNBC appeared to catch Mitt Romney in such a moment.

[Clip of Andrea Mitchell's deceptively-edited story omitted]

KURTZ: But as first pointed out by a blogger named Sooper Mexican, here is the problem. That clip was deceptively edited. Romney had started out talking about a doctor being entangled in government paperwork. And here is how the supermarket anecdote actually ended.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: There's your sandwich. It's amazing. People in the private sector learned how to compete. It's time to bring some competition to the Federal Government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: So Romney wasn't amazed by the touch screen, but by the contrast between a supermarket chain and the government. That kind of editing is enough to give you indigestion.

Now, Andrea Mitchell played the full sound bite the next day, but expressed no regret for the earlier editing.

NBC's covering itself in glory lately, eh?

If you want to get angry, Bill Maher talked about Fast & Furious with (of course) Rachael "The Boy Who Lived" Maddow, Nick Gilespie and Mort Zuckerman (neither of the last two were buying the "witch-hunt narrative"). Corrected: Damn, I wrote "Michael Bloomberg" instead of Mort Zuckerman. It was the latter, Zuckerman.

Bill Maher actually said this: 1, Republicans don't care about dead Mexicans, and 2, it doesn't matter if US government guns killed Mexicans, they'd be dead anyway.

"So is this really a scandal?" he wanted to know.

So, Bill Maher actually said, to paraphrase, "Who cares about Dead Mexicans, they'd be dead anyhow, and those Republicans, why they don't care about Dead Mexicans, just like I don't."

Well then thank you for your support, Bill.

He further admitted he did not know what Fast & Furious was until this past week, then made two breathtaking statements: "they [Republicans] live in a bubble" (we do? We're not the ones who literally thought (as he admits) that people were talking about a Vin Diesel movie until this week) and further that Republicans are trying to convince ignorant people of some crazy conspiracy theory, not well-informed people like Nick Gilespie (and, by implication, himself).

You're one of the well-informed ones? The guy who just found out this wasn't about a 2001 movie, this past week?

So, if you can bear it, the video, at Real Clear Politics.

That last one thanks to steve.

posted by Ace at 02:34 PM

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