Lipstick, Pigs And The Media
Earlier today, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell asked a guest on her newscast about losing how the campaigns could lose 48 hours on "lipstick." Are you kidding me? How dare she ask that question! Who does she think is responsible? For all Sarah Palin's whinging and moaning about how "liberal" the press is and how "biased" MSNBC is (Ok, it is and I love it) stories like "lipstick on a pig" are created completely by the media. What I mean to say is, in answer to your question, Andrea: It's the fucking press, you ninny!
If the press had ignored it as a funny, "last 5 minutes of the newscast" kind of an item, the story wouldn't have had nearly the legs it had, but instead it was the LEAD story! Are you kidding? With McCain, Obama, Palin and Biden, not to mention their dozens of surrogates) out there stumping, holding town hall meetings and generally going about the very serious business of trying to educate the general voting public about who might be best suited to lead the country going forward, MSNBC, CNN. etc. still lead with the damn pig comment.
According to UsingEnglish.com (by way of Wikipedia): "Putting lipstick on a pig" is a slang rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product.
It's been used in politics for ever and John McCain used it no fewer than 4 times in the past year to refer to Hillary Clinton's policies. No one for a minute thought that he was referring to Hillary Clinton as a pig.
Now, the McCain campaign response is so absurd as to be laughable. They are calling "sexism" on Obama, claiming that he's referring to Palin as a pig. Now, ignoring for a moment that he wasn't referring to Mrs. Palin, let's for a moment assume that he was. It's still not sexist. He could call her a "bog rolling, shit eating, smelly-assed heifer" or maybe even a "reactionary, creationist, under-employed, inexperienced, abusive, neophyte, know-nothing, petty bureaucrat" and it still wouldn't be sexist. It would be rude and uncalled for, but sexist? Nope. "Sexism" is prejudice or stereotyping against someone on the basis of their gender. Simply calling someone a bad word or insulting them is not sexist. You know what is? The following joke told by McCain earlier this year at a republican fundraiser:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?Because her mother is Hillary Clinton and her father is Janet Reno."
How about when he reportedly said the following to his wife Cindy in response to her teasing him about his balding scalp, according to Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain. "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."
And of course there's that "marvelous ape rape joke:
All of this would be kinda not the point, if the media would do their job and actually act like journalists. How is it they let McCain get away with some of this shit, but repeat this harmless phrase, over and over again, like it's important? Whatever happened to journalists who ask the tough questions? If this bunch of softball tossing lightweights had been the press corps in 1972, Nixon would be on Mount Rushmore.
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