It’s not secret that most Republicans do little more than stick to the talking points when they go on the talking heads shows. Why not? The talking heads love to toss them softballs and they’ll usually hit them out of the park. Every now and again, though, you find that someone will flip the script. Take this exchange that happened between Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and talking head David Shuster, filling in for Tucker Carlson on MSNBC. In the midst of this woman ranting on and on (and on and on) about the Moveon.org ad in the New York Times, Shuster throws out the playbook and blindsides her (care of Crooks and Liars, which also has a video clip of this exchange):
Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”
Blackburn: “The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -”
Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”
Blackburn: “I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name…” [Snip]
Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and MoveOn.org…. But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”
It’s an honest shame that we don’t see more journalistic integrity like this, because that’s exactly what it is. For once, instead of just letting them fly with bullshit softball questions and letting them reiterate talking points, a talking head actually stood up and called this woman on her bullshit. And here I thought the only ones who did this were Keith Olbermann, John Stewart, and Bill Mahr. Too bad that was probably a once in a lifetime thing, but it’s good to see when you can.
EDIT: Apparently, the kid was not from this woman’s district, but from a town one district over. Shuster apologized for the mistake in a subsequent show (as stated at C&L). It still proves his point nonetheless.
Technorati Tags: msnbc, david shuster, marsha blackburn, talking heads, crooks and liars
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