HARDBALL disses Community Organizers w/video

HARDBALL disses Community Organizers w/video - UPDATED

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 09, 2008 · 9:55 AM PDT

2008/09/09 · 09:55

By now we are all too familiar with Sarah Palin's sarcastic remark made during her RNC speech, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities."

Now MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Chuck Todd, and guest Stu Rothenberg (of Rothenberg Political Report) are continuing to marginalize and discredit the valuable work being done by community organizers. During Monday night's airing of Hardball, Matthews wondered aloud "Is ["community organizer"] the new "welfare queen"?", calling to mind Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign. "Is this a new symbol . . . [for] troublemakers, outside agitators, all those phrases?"

More after the fold:

What disturbs me about this particular video is how the Traditional Media lazily adopts Republican talking points and helps build a case against Obama. Matthews, Todd, and Rothenberg do absolutely nothing to educate viewers about what community organizers really do. Rather, they simply reinforce the Republican's assertion that community organizers are to be trivialized because they aren't elected officials.

Here's a link to the video. Skip ahead to about the 7:00 mark:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Chris Matthews: "There's a phrase I wonder about. 'Community organizers'. Do Republicans think that when they say that we're supposed to think Al Sharpton? Is this the new 'welfare queen'? Is this a new symbol?"

Stu Rothenberg: "Most voters don't really know what a community organizer is. For the conservative activists it's a loaded word. It has to do with workin' the neighborhoods . . . ACORN . . .

Matthews: "Troublemakers . . . outside agitators . . . all those phrases."

Chuck Todd: "I'll be honest, I have never understood why the Obama people . . . Look they're the one who introduced this phrase in the lexicon."

Matthews: "They were naive to think it was a plus."

Todd: "Exactly. And the Republicans took it and redefined the phrase in a way that I think at this point the Obama campaign wish it weren't out there."

Matthews: "Community organizer is not a winning phrase for a place like Scranton."

Rothenberg: Chris, your point is that it's an urban phrase, an urban term. I think you're absolutely right. In rural America when they hear community organizer if they have any idea, they associate it with Philadelphia, New York and troublemakers as you think. So I think it's turned into a problem for the Democrats.

Matthews: "Yeah, I think it has Al Sharpton connotations."

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.