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UP w/ Chris Hayes
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I watched the recorded version of UP with Chris Hayes which airs live over the weekend. He to his credit usually has at least one or two black folks from the ivory towers to talk about the fodder from the week past.
But this Saturday I began to wonder if they were not more than window dressing. When there is something that relates to black people that’s one thing. But when it comes to economics or something really heavy the black people are made to sit silently. McWhorter did not say more than two short sentences this saturday and the woman Michaela Davis, don’t know what she’s doing there, said even less.
I am starting to notice a pattern with his show. Okay we know Chris is Jewish and he got his start from another Jewish host–Rachel Maddow. But he typically has one or more Jews on his show and peppered with at least one black, which is a good thing.
But don’t let them be seat holders Chris. I expect a little more. Melissa does speak up whenever she is on anybody’s show. Nobody is going to shut her up. I hope she does not take over her show like Joe does and talks over everybody and uses up the majority of air and waves.
No show is perfect but at least don’t let the black knowledgeable folks embarrass themselves with their stupid silence.
Related articles
- MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Confronts His Daily Mail Alter Ego, ‘GOP Strategist Chris Haynes’ (mediaite.com)
- Melissa Perry-Harris (biracial) lands show debut, title on Feb 18 (heloise8.wordpress.com)
- Up With Chris Hayes Story of the Week: Democracy for Billionaires (crooksandliars.com)
Melissa Perry-Harris (biracial) lands show debut, title on Feb 18
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1326407570.html
MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY whose show will bear her name “Melissa Harris-Perry”
TO DEBUT WEEKEND PROGRAM ON MSNBC (where my old boss Aretha Marshall works–I wonder, since she is in charge of hiring talent DID she play a role in hiring women who look like her! Especially Alex Wagner)
—FEBRUARY 4th 10 AM-NOON ET–or pushed back to Feb 18?
WEEKEND LIVE PROGRAMMING TO EXPAND: “WEEKENDS WITH ALEX WITT” TO AIR 7-8 AM ET SATURDAYS, NOON-2 PM ET SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
“UP W/CHRIS HAYES” TO AIR 8-10 AM ET SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
NEW YORK—January 5, 2012—MSNBC contributor Melissa Harris-Perry is the latest addition to MSNBC’s expanding weekend lineup. Her new program, set to air Saturdays and Sundays 10a-noon ET, will debut on MSNBC February 4th. The announcement was made by MSNBC President Phil Griffin.
I mentioned her in a blog http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/the-age-of-opinion/
And what would this hour of power be without a woman? Melissa Harris-Perry, writer and professor at Tulane University, has been popping up like dandelions in a hot rainy spring. She’s everywhere these days after making frequent appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show. I don’t think anyone could have assembled more staunch supporters of President Obama. They comprise the new insiders, as long as Obama is president. Then there are the outsiders: Tavis Smiley and Cornell West. They are undertaking a bus poverty tour and asking Obama not to change the subject. The subject is jobs, jobs for the black community who is hurting at 16 percent unemployment nationally. Shouting matches have been breaking out all over national television between authentic blacks and plantation politicians. Both terms have been around for decades, but in the age of opinion they take on new meaning in light of this country’s first “black” president.
Read more: http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/the-age-of-opinion/page-2/#ixzz1lBJWJRVz
Related articles
- Melissa Harris-Perry’s MSNBC Show Gets Title And New Date (huffingtonpost.com)
- Melissa Harris-Perry’s New MSNBC Weekend Show Has A Name: Melissa Harris-Perry (mediaite.com)
- TheGrio’s 100: Melissa Harris-Perry, bringing race and politics to the forefront (thegrio.com)
- Melissa Harris-Perry to get show on MSNBC (heloise8.wordpress.com)
Melissa Harris-Perry to get show on MSNBC
It seems that MSNBC loves biracial women. She is born the same year as my daughter. But my daughter (multiracial) has green eyes and natural hair that looks like a Diana Ross wig.
So, yet another biracial woman from a middle class educator background has landed a plum job on the network that begins February 4 in the 10-12 slot. Does that mean she is moving from NOLA in order to do the show? She recently married and recently changed her hair to look more black with the fat weave braids. It will pull out your hair eventually Melissa. I asked for more diversity on TV but it seems it’s more like biracial diversity. That’s okay too. What are her credentials? She is a poli-sci professor which makes her an instant professional pundit. She has a good sense of humor too. We will see how long it lasts.
http://lezgetreal.com/2012/01/harris-perry-gets-her-own-show/
Melissa was born in 1973, daughter of William M. Harris, Sr., the dean of Afro-American affairs at the University of Virginia and Diana Gray, a white community college professor and activist who worked for non-profits that assisted poor communities. Melissa has said of her heritage, “I’ve never thought of myself as biracial. I’m black.” Perhaps her next book might look at the psychology and life choices of biracial persons in America, given both her attitudes and the problems of our President.
Above is a sarcastic sort of blog about why Rachel Maddow stand ins end up with their own show? Two so far and that is significant if you ask me.
Related articles
- WATCH: Melissa Harris-Perry Spars With Stephen Colbert (huffingtonpost.com)
- Harris-Perry Gets Her Own Show (lezgetreal.com)
- TV on Tap: Melissa Harris-Perry Gets an MSNBC Show, “Pretty Little Liars” Picks Its Hitchcock Homage, and Which “Downton Abbey” Character Would You Be (pinkbananaworld.com)
- Melissa Harris-Perry Snags MSNBC Weekend Show, Will You Be Watching? (clutchmagonline.com)
Inspiring recent book titles
Image by pamhule via Flickr
Two new books are out Greedy Bastards Dylan Ratigan. And Throw Them All Out by Peter Swiezer. You can read first chapter of the latter book if you can go to amazon.
I read the preview of Throw Them All Out which is a shortened version of what I wrote back when “Throw the bums out.” And it has gotten lots of traction.
Then there’s my phrase “greedy bastards” that I used in a post back in February. We can say stuff like that but most folks on TV the pundit class usually don’t say greedy bastards. Speaking of same Gingrich said “baloney” when you know he wanted to say “Bullshit” when someone attacked one of his positions.
Related articles
- Dylan Ratigan Releasing New Book (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Dylan Ratigan | Greedy Bastards Favorite Financial Innovation: The Swaps Market (Part 1) (zerohedge.com)
IMO Alex Wagner is not black
Alex in 2001 she has aged
Here’s another observation I made about Alex that adds to my hypothesis that she is NOT black. Her ear lobes are attached. That is far more common in whites observed than in other races. Also I think I see a wedding band on her left hand. That would indicate, although, not online, that she is married and is using her married name.
If I had photos or names of her parents I could end the speculation. She looks Eurasian which equals NOT Black.
I borrowed and cropped this photo. She was at an event with a guy who looks Hispanic. From the bio I read she is half German and half black. Wagner is a german name so perhaps her dad is German. I don’t think she is married so that would be her maiden name. She was born and raised here. But if she is actually biracial and does not look black then she is by default white.
Given the naturally high percentage of European blood most blacks have including myself, even my blood type it is safe to say that Alex is more white than she is black at least 85%. She might marry black or think she is culturally black. But wait let’s look see at her pedigree. Where did she come from?
She is a native of DC and has hobnobbed with the rich and famous. I used to wear my hair exactly like she wears it on the show (not in the pic) for a long time. She went to Brown University which was my first choice except I was so tired of cold weather and sunless days that I opted for California universities.
She went to Brown therefore IMO she ain’t black. Follow her on Twitter.
Related articles
- Alex Wagner’s NOW Debuts With Question On Obama’s Leadership On Supercommittee (mediaite.com)
- Alex Wagner’s New Show Tackles Penn State Scandal (huffingtonpost.com)
- Alex Wagner’s New MSNBC Show Gets Title And Premiere Date (huffingtonpost.com)
Alex Wagner “Now” that’s okay– updated
After watching her show now for a week or so I have one big complaint. Alex you are talking too damn fast and saying too much at once.
Please slow down and say less with more focus. Thank you.
Okay my bad it seems that Alex is not replacing Andrea Mitchell with the time zone thing i thought she was relacing her thus my beauty over nepotism. I get stuff wrong sometimes. My bad.
Now we know that Alex has chosen a prosaic word like “now” to title her new show that debuts this week. Studies have shown that people who are attractive, pretty or have a good appearance are thought of as being smarter than say ugly people. I mean I was accused of getting plum jobs in college because I was pretty. I thought, and said, I was qualified for the job and didn’t know who else applied but yes I got the good university student jobs while in college.
But then there is the thought that people who get a leg up on their looks is a kind of nepotism. I don’t think it takes the meaning too far afield. If it cannot be a relative or a Greek buddy that you network for or give a job to then it can be because the person is damn good-looking and young. The new discrimination is all about age. Alas, that’s the way it is.
Now we have a new kid on the talking heads block and her name is Alex Wagner. Alex is half black half German according to a bio I saw. She could pass for Mexican but she is not a Mexican. Based on her mixture she’s white if you use the you are what you look like method.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc-adding-noon-show-hosted-by-alex-wagner_b93836
In the coming months a biracial beauty will be replacing Andrea Mitchell for the noon slot talking politics on MSNBC. That bastian of left wing politics. The talking heads just keep getting prettier and less experienced in the politics they talk.
I will record her show and she what she has to add to the age of opinion. So far it’s predictable in guests and opinions.
MSNBC political analyst Alex Wagner is getting her own show, TVNewser has learned.
At some point in the next few months, the channel will debut a new NoonET program
Related articles
- MSNBC Analyst Alex Wagner Developing Her Own Noontime Show On The Network (mediaite.com)
- MSNBC’s Newest Host (huffingtonpost.com)
- MSNBC’s Up With Chris Hayes: A DVR Gem In The Making (mediaite.com)
- IMO Alex Wagner is not black (heloise8.wordpress.com)
The Age of Opinion by Heloise
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Fran Leibowitz has something to say about everything, including opinion. She told an audience that no one knows what news is nor do they care. Readers and listeners really want opinions so these days when you read a piece (or listen to a “news” program) you have to read three paragraphs down before you get to the news of what happened in Iraq.
If TV news were dinner, then we should expect a particular service order, unlike the heyday of celebrated, but dead journalists, when anchors would lead with fresh fish and close with dessert. These days that order is plainly reversed, the little cupcake with white frosting leads, followed thirty minutes later by baked chicken. Clearly outclassed, today’s face of journalism, whether espousing left, right or center values, must first master cherry-picking and the 140 word sound bite. Competition is tough as the news market shrinks in the age of microtechnology. Only the strongest primetime opinion survives.
MSNBC is managing to survive technology and the ratings game. Standing as the harbinger of all things left wing, partisan politics, Obama worship and most of all, full-as-a-tick blood opinions. It has found its voice, or rather voices, to fill precious opinion slots. In case you missed it, there is a new word sheriff in town and his name is Rev. Al Sharpton. Just as his name suggests, Sharpton is one sharp shooter who never misses when he shoots from the lip. I’m impressed and you should be too. MSNBC has taken a grassroots activist who has never seen the inside of a journalism class nor hurriedly traversed the Charles River bridge late for a physics study group at Harvard University, off the mean streets of New York City and put him on the primetime fast tract. What a pedigree! We are interested and so are right wing talkers who will save his every gaffe for future loops. He has been hired to replace Cenk Uygur in MSNBC’s 5:00PM slot. We think it’s official.
I, for one, have been calling for more diversity in anchors and guests on Sunday morning and prime time. I probably had some company who shared this view, however, black journalists are not too happy about the old bait-and-switch routine applied to the few available slots. I don’t blame them for seeing red in a black and white world watching nonjournalists gain ascendancy. That was one of my first thoughts: hmm, there are no black journalists here, then voilá we get Al Sharpton, who has been called a paid opinion hustler, among other things. He and others are pushing what has been the golden age of journalism right into silver tongued seconds.
But there is unofficial talk that Sharpton is no lone ranger. He has company, and that person is someone I’ve been watching for a long time. Michael Eric Dyson, author and well known wordsmith who trots out opinions faster than Silver, the Lone Ranger’s horse. An erudite college professor, Dyson has authored numerous books on subjects from Martin Luther King to hip hop princes (which makes him at least a writer). This man never trips over his tongue but some folks struggle to understand his lingo and the often strong dose of philosophy that accompanies his orderly opinions. I can’t wait to hear his take on the current state of politics often filtered with true hip-hop verve.
And what would this hour of power be without a woman? Melissa Harris-Perry, writer and professor at Tulane University, has been popping up like dandelions in a hot rainy spring. She’s everywhere these days after making frequent appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show. I don’t think anyone could have assembled more staunch supporters of President Obama. They comprise the new insiders, as long as Obama is president. Then there are the outsiders: Tavis Smiley and Cornell West. They are undertaking a bus poverty tour and asking Obama not to change the subject. The subject is jobs, jobs for the black community who is hurting at 16 percent unemployment nationally. Shouting matches have been breaking out all over national television between authentic blacks and plantation politicians. Both terms have been around for decades, but in the age of opinion they take on new meaning in light of this country’s first “black” president.
Finally one must ask what are the network talk shows selling really? I mean does opinion sell? No, I think what sells is the unpredictable nature of opinion. News is predictable, it has a beginning, middle and an end; sometimes boring, sometimes surprising. But opinions are, well, endless and pointless, but somehow better.
Speaking of news, I hope to get an earful of news in the coming weeks. And not just word about who is leading in the latest GOP polls, but about present leadership or lack thereof. We know that there is certainly enough news to go around. Take your pick: there are the congressional hearings over what I call “Gungate” or who authored the Operation Fast and Furious debacle, the stock market crashes and the new approach to illegal immigration that makes rulings done on a case-by-case basis, whatever that is. Yes, the news horizon shines like a full moon from the rocker on my large front porch. And I can see backdoor amnesty sitting next to gungate, both hiding behind the jobless in America. It’s no wonder the opinion brokers will have their mouths full.
Until 2012, that is.
first published at: http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/the-age-of-opinion/#ixzz1VnfJN62s
Related articles
- The Age of Opinion (blogcritics.org)
- TV News’ Next Reverend Al (thedailybeast.com)
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Ed Shultz in deep water over “black cloud” at MSNBC
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I always turned the channel quickly everytime I heard Ed Shultz because he is just another MSNBC shill. He has been suspended but will he be fired? http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/08/17/will-ed-schultz-be-fired/
Schultz rails that when Perry states that a “Black Cloud” hangs over America, Perry means President Obama. So there is no confusion, Schultz starts his piece talking about the overt racism in the United States:
I think there’s an element of racism every time people claim the first black President doesn’t love this country. Perry comes from the radical country club that loves to remind white America President Obama is other; not like you. Perry also wants you to know that he is pro-business.
We will set aside Schultz’ inane attack on Capitalism, and focus on his primary lie. This meme, put forth by other key Racers like Janeane Garofalo, Al Sharpton and Keith Olbermann, is not based on reality or truth. Rather, Racers push the meme solely as an attack vehicle, designed to engage class warfare and intimidate the target. In this case, the target is the biggest threat to Obama’s re-election chances to date: Governor Rick Perry.
However, Schultz and his team at MSNBC lied. The video, when played in its entirety, clearly shows that the “Black Cloud” Perry is talking about is the debt, not Obama.
Related articles
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MSNBC Courts Al Sharpton sporting a new do for his new gig
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I know that Al Sharpton sat in for Cenk somebody who is leaving his show but just now watched him interview two female Latinas, Hispanics or Mexicans, not sure what they are now, and he is just everywhere. We know that MSNBC is the most liberal of all the stations, wonder why? I know why. But heard rumors that Al was going to take over the young turk slot when that Turk gets the boot, oops he said he resigned. My bad. Anyway, Al Sharpton was speaking to these two women because the GOP snubbed their little party and none of them showed up but Obama did.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/25/cenk-uygur-al-sharpton-is_n_908385.html
Cenk Uygur continued his anti-MSNBC tour on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday–and he suggested that he was getting replaced because Al Sharpton, the man all-but-certain to succeed him as the network’s 6 PM host, is friendlier to the White House.
Uygur left MSNBC very publicly last week, claiming that the network implied to him that his anti-Washington “tone” was not in keeping with the “establishment” bent that MSNBC was trying to cultivate. MSNBC has strongly denied the claims, insisting that it was just giving Uygur television style tips.
Speaking to a slightly skeptical Howard Kurtz, Uygur repeated his charges. Kurtz said that Uygur seemed not to have any direct evidence that MSNBC was caving to political pressure by admonishing him. Uygur replied that he didn’t know who the “people in Washington” that MSNBC Phil Griffin said had a problem with him were. Then, he turned to Sharpton.
Related articles
- Ex-MSNBC Host Goes After Al Sharpton (huffingtonpost.com)
- Howard Kurtz Challenges Cenk Uygur’s Claim That MSNBC Dumped Him For Criticizing Obama (mediaite.com)
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The Trough 