America’s Pretended Outrage Syndrome — MSNBC Staff Member Fired for Relatively Mild and True Anti-Conservative Tweet — another Example of Just How Idiotic Our Political Times Are

© 2014 Peter Free

 

30 January 2014

 

 

Much of the news these days seems to be about who said silly or bigoted what to whom —

 

— with the media doing its best to make:

 

(a) these petty conflicts seem meaningful

 

and

 

(b) the idiots who start them worthy of national attention.

 

I suppose it’s all a way of distracting ourselves from the nation’s bitingly real problems, which (of course) are getting no attention at all from our dysfunctional government.

 

 

Here is a synopsis of the latest “he said what?” stupidity — and the silly reaction to it

 

General Mills’ new Cheerios ad features what commentators accurately refer to as a “biracial” couple, although that aspect is not what struck me the first time I saw it.

 

The story line revolves around Dad telling his daughter that she is going to have a baby brother.  He slides two Cheerio rings in front of Gracie to represent mom and dad.  She adds a third, symbolizing herself.  Dad slides in a fourth for the anticipated baby.  And Gracie adds a fifth for the new puppy she wants in compensation for putting up with the little new guy:

 

 

The Cheerios ad is the second spot to feature a biracial couple and their daughter, "Gracie."

 

When General Mills premiered the first spot last May, social media erupted with vitriolic, racist comments. The company disabled the comments section on the ad's YouTube site, though the spot also received much praise.

 

[In response to the new commercial, an MSNBC staffer tweeted:]

 

"Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/biracial family."

 

The tweet prompted Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus to call for a Republican boycott of the network.

 

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, MSNBC president Phil Griffin called the Tweet "outrageous and unacceptable."

 

"We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it," the statement continued.

 

"We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet. I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended.”

 

© 2014 Marissa Guthrie, MSNBC Fires Employee Responsible for Cheerios Tweet, Hollywood Reporter (30 January 2014) (extracts)

 

 

Well, wait a second

 

The allegedly offensive tweet was true, since General Mills had had to delete all the race-baiting under its first YouTube-posted commercial.  And anybody with an observationally accurate brain will know that the Republican Party seems to have a noticeably high proportion of race, culture, and sexuality bigots in its midst.

 

Furthermore, the MSNBC staffer’s tweet in regard to the second installment of the ad was prefixed with a slightly tactful, “maybe” (the rightwing will hate it).

 

This hardly qualifies as outrageous conduct.  Unless one figures that calling bigots “bigots” is a bad thing.

 

Nevertheless, in return for this relatively mild example of reasonably accurate finger pointing, the apparently spineless president of MSNBC decided he needed to fire the tweeter — so as to keep Chairman Reince Priebus — and the proportionately very noticeable bunch of not-so-closet “phobes” (of one kind or another) and neo-Confederates in the Republican party happy.

 

 

The moral? — When we start self-censoring approximations of Truth, where will that leave us?

 

I did not have a freedom of speech problem with Phil Robertson making an ass of his self-confessed “white trash” self, when he made his racist and homophobic comments a while back.  I figured that you pretty well knew from the guy’s looks and behavior what he thought, even before he said it.

 

A&E network, incidentally, hired him back after firing him (from Duck Dynasty) because there was so much money to be made in catering to the “downhome” types in the country.

 

So, why would anyone reasonably sane have a problem with an MSNBC tweeter, who said something approximately true about the political party that has a substantial proportion of “the South shall rise again” neo-Confederates in its midst?

 

With the staffer's firing, MSNBC has completely lost the very little respect I previously had for it.

 

At least Fox News, purveyor of all sorts of untruths and anti-sense filth, has the balls to metaphorically piss on those who challenge its right to speak its drivel.

 

MSNBC’s Phil Griffin, in comparison, seems to be exactly the unmanly twerp that Fox News advocates claim most “liberals” are.

 

People pretty much act out our lowest expectations these days.  There is lots of money to be earned in that, it appears.