This weekend, Hillary Clinton was "savaged" by the media over a comment she made in answer to a question posed to her by Executive Editor Randell Beck of The Argus-Leader newspaper in South Dakota. Below is the complete transcript from The Argus-Leader's editorial board meeting. I have emphasized the relevant sections to put in context Hillary's comment: read on...
HRC: People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.
Q: Why?
HRC: I don't know. I don't know. I find it curious. Because it is unprecedented in history. I don’t understand it. Between my opponent and his camp and some in the media there has been this urgency to end this. And historically, that makes no sense. So I find it a bit of a mystery.
Q: So you don't buy the party unity argument?
HRC: I don’t because again I've been around long enough.
My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?
We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it. There's lots of speculation about why it is.
Q: What is your speculation?
HRC: I don't know. I find it curious. And I don't want to attribute motives or strategies to people because I don't really know, but it's a historical curiosity to me.
(Emphasis mine)
The Argus-Leader issued a statement shortly after the media circulated her comments:
"The context of the question and answer with Sen. Clinton was whether her continued candidacy jeopardized party unity this close to the Democratic convention. Her reference to Mr. Kennedy's assassination appeared to focus on the timeline of his primary candidacy and not the assassination itself."
Keith Olbermann: Worst Person In The World
Of all the media talking-heads to weigh-in, however, no one embarassed himself more and in such outrageous public fashion than MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
Instead of focusing his Edward R. Murrow impersonation routine on those who actually deserve it (oil company executives, Karl Rove, or the EPA official who admitted that White House operatives pressured him into denying California's tougher emission standards), Olbermann chose instead to diminish himself even further than he already has with his shameful pandering to and promotion of Sen. Barack Obama.
By attacking Sen. Clinton for comments she made - knowing full well they were taken entirely out of context in order to "spin" a story that wasn't there - he and MSNBC owe her no less than a public apology. Olbermann's comments were nothing short of character assassination. And using RFK's "assassination" commentary - with photos from that fateful night in California - to get traction for himself and "Countdown" is not journalism. It is sensationalism of the worst kind.
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