"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya The Princess Bride
The blogosphere is buzzing over David Shuster's comments regarding Chelsea Clinton being "pimped out" by the Clinton campaign. I'm not going to link to the comments or the apology. It's all over the place. I know you've seen it. Instead, I'd like to offer not so much a defense or an excuse but a different take...
I don't know David Shuster personally. I've never met him but I've always liked the investigative pieces he did for MSNBC and when he would be an analyst for "Morning Joe" with Joe Scarborough. However, as the Kelly Tilghman Incident on the Golf Channel shows, turn on a live microphone on live TV and the opportunity to say something dumb increases. Just as many came to Tilghman's defense to say she wasn't racist but her comments were offensive, I think this situation was similar in that I don't think Shuster meant "pimped" in the way of Chelsea Clinton being a prostitute. From watching his comments I don't think he was attacking Clinton at all or trying to smear her. I do however think "Pimped" has taken on a whole new meaning as of late. And it is this new "definition," while slang, is more generational than anything else.
If he has said Barack Obama has been pimping out Ted Kennedy lately, there wouldn't be the firestorm this is causing. I agree with Josh Marshall when he says:
I do not think the comment played to specific stereotypes about women in general or about Hillary in particular as it would if you refer to a black man as "lazy" or "shiftless" or a woman as "shrill" or a "shrew." Nor am I aware that Shuster has any history of such comments -- unlike some other MSNBC TV personalities.
Shuster doesn't have that history. Now Hillary's campaign is using this as an excuse to hold MSNBC hostage over the debates. (But this is another issue for another time.)
I guess what I am trying to say is that I think Shuster is genuine in his apology but when we live in a country with a show like "Pimp My Ride" on MTV or to have something that is "pimped out" (or stylish) using the word "pimp" around younger people would take on a different meaning. MSNBC demographics clearly aren't for a younger audience so it did get lost on many. When I heard David Shuster say what he did I didn't think he was trying to be offensive just someone using the wrong phrase at the wrong time.
But hey, I've been wrong before.