Every bad thought you have had about Ethan Bronner

by on March 9, 2010 8

has not been wrong. After seeing the spurious evenhandedness of his comments tonight on Matthews in Jerusalem. And the complacent smile with which he showed himself well satisfied with his performance.

Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine

{ 8 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Bruce says:
    March 9, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    I know Phil likes Matthews, but watching him on this video was much more painful than listening to Bronner. Clueless would be too generous for his commentary. (Clinton was a successful Mideast President, just one example.)

    Is this the only anchor MSNBC could send to Israel? Oh, I forgot Maddow and Olbermann don’t discuss I-P.

    By the way, Matthews is paid millions, and his ratings suck. There must be a reason General Electric keeps him around. He must be good for their other businesses, as he definitely is not helping MSNBC be profitable.

    I know lots of people who refused to watch MSNBC for ages, as they couldn’t stand Matthews loud-mouth interruptions and antics. He encapsulates what is wrong with the Inside the Beltway media.

    • marc b. says:
      March 9, 2010 at 1:23 pm

      I am always interested in the motivation of the likes of Matthews. Aside from money, that is. Does he convince himself that his audience consists of intellectuals or members of the elite, thus justifying his puny ratings? And am I reading the ratings correctly? Matthews has been pulling consistent viewership in the 500,000s with MSNBC having cable coverage of 93M households. This feels like the same sort of phenomenon as politicians and pundits being paid to ‘write’ books that no one reads.

  2. Pamela Olson says:
    March 9, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    WTF? Obama is unpopular in the Middle East because he has Muslims in his family and because he’s black? Seriously, I didn’t think the discourse could get any more retarded, and it just did. How about Obama saying in crystal clear terms in Cairo that settlement expansion had to stop, and then saying, “Just kidding! Ha, y’all thought I was serious? Get real, and please thank Mr. Netanyahu for his unprecedentedly overt insubordination, and our abject backing down in the face of it.”

    Ya think that had just a li’l something to do with it?

    link to

  3. potsherd says:
    March 9, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    OT but this is one of the best things Uri Avnery has done: link to maannews.net

    How I wish he could get some mainstream press.

  4. potsherd says:
    March 9, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    Bronner on the Biden Insult: Gee, how embarrassing!
    link to nytimes.com

    JERUSALEM — Hours after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed unyielding American support for Israel’s security here on Tuesday, Israel’s interior ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem, prompting Mr. Biden to condemn the move as “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”

    Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

    Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly embarrassed at the move by his interior minister, Eli Yishai, head of the right-wing Shas party who has made Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem one of his central causes.

    A statement issued in the name of the Interior Ministry but distributed by the prime minister’s office said the housing plan was three years in the making and that its announcement was procedural and unrelated to Mr. Biden’s visit. It added that Mr. Netanyahu had just been informed of it himself.

    Mr. Netanyahu supports Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem yet wants to get new talks with the Palestinians going and to maintain strong relations with Washington. But when he formed his coalition a year ago he joined forces with several right-wing parties, and has since found it hard to keep them in line.

    Mr. Biden came to Jerusalem largely to assure the Israelis of Washington’s commitment to its security and to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

    He began the day on a note of support, asserting the Obama administration’s “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.”

    But by the end of the day, Mr. Biden’s tone had a very different quality. He issued a statement condemning “the substance and timing of the announcement” of the housing, and adding: “Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent status issues.” He said the announcement “runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”

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