Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Greta Van Susteren v. Tucker Carlson

Twitter is on fire tonight after Fox News' own Greta Van Sustern had it out with Tucker Carlson over the controversial article he allowed over at The Daily Caller a few days ago. The story centered around the discussion about a book written by Joe McGinnis in which he supposedly uncovers an unsubstantiated "affair" Sarah had as a single young woman with an NBA star. (Remember Joe?) Tyson appeared on ESPN radio and unleashed a stream of vile comments about the sexual encounter he imagines might have taken place or could take place, were she to have an encounter with a black man.  


First, let me just say that I like Tucker Carlson, and I think his intentions were good...sort of. If his intent was to shed light on a disgusting story, I applaud him for it. However, the point Greta was trying to make in the interview was that in the original post, there was no note from the editor warning the reader/listener about what was said. The title itself, "Mike Tyson: Sarah Palin met 'the womb shifter'", with no explanation, is outrageous. If the intent was to shed light on this pathetic excuse for a human being and what he said about Sarah, why not instead write a simple title calling Tyson out on his disgusting behavior?  Restating one of the many remarks Tyson made about Sarah in the title hardly gives the appearance of someone trying to defend her.





In the end, they walked away friends in spite of the heated on-air debate. My take? I think they both had good intentions. Tucker originally, perhaps, allowed the story in order to expose Tyson/ESPN. He exercised extremely poor judgement, however, when he permitted one of Tyson's comments to be used as the title. Tyson, a convicted rapist, is known for advocating violence against women and it is outrageous that he was allowed to spew the disgusting things he did on any radio/television station. I commend Carlson for attempting to expose him but am disappointed that more wasn't done in the beginning to make it clear that that's what he was doing. 


That said, I believe Greta's heart was in the right place. She, along with millions of her listeners, has had it with the mainstream media and it's inability to cover stories in a fair and accurate manner. The bottom line is, there is a different standard when it comes to covering stories about conservative women. Period. Advocate for just about anything against them in the liberal media, you get a free pass. Kudos to Greta for taking a stand...it sure did make for an interesting show. 

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