NPR's Juan Williams went on Bill O'Reilly's show and said this about Michelle Obama:
WILLIAMS: Yeah. And let me just -- let me just tell you this: If you think about liabilities for President Obama that are close to him -- Joe Biden's up there -- but Michelle Obama's right there. Michelle Obama, you know --O'REILLY: But it's not her fault in the sense that --
WILLIAMS: -- she's got this Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine suggested, her instinct is to start with this "blame America," you know, "I'm the victim." If that stuff starts to come out --
O'REILLY: Yeah, it'll be death.
WILLIAMS: -- people will go bananas --
O'REILLY: Right.
WILLIAMS: -- and she'll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.
As dnA points out, sounds like somebody took that New Yorker cover to heart. Clearly, in the cable news world, an outspoken woman of color is downright militant when she's anything more than demure arm candy. There's no middle ground: she's either a passive object or an active threat.
And in what world is Michelle Obama a potential "albatross"?! The fact that Barack Obama's partner is a strong and outspoken woman is a good thing. Where Juan Williams sees a militant, a victim, an albatross, most women see dignified strength, intelligence, grace, and independence. Talk about going bananas.
Video is below the fold.
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I really like and admire Michelle Obama. I suspect she's the next Hillary--that after her husband has finished his presidency, she's going to enter politics herself. Maybe she'll be our first female president of color!
Much as I admire Michelle Obama, I think we've had more than enough dynasty presidents.
"Women should know their place" + "outspoken black people are scary reverse racists" = right wing media's caricature of Michelle Obama
Sounds like they're gearing up to give her the Hillary Plus treatment.
Then again, I haven't heard the ol' "B" word tossed around yet. Maybe something in Michelle Obama's manner will help undermine their attempts.
I've never liked Juan Williams. What a schmuck. I'm not going to watch that video, I need my appetite for lunch right now.
"If you're going to be an unpleasant, heavy-handed first lady, you'll end up like Hilary Clinton."
Um, the last time I checked, Hillary Clinton was SECRETARY OF STATE. That doesn't seem like too bad of a gig. Who wouldn't want to end up like her? It's a shame that she had to be perceived as being so "unpleasant" to get there.
Yes, but then you would have insecure men involuntarily crossing their legs when you speak, and what could be worse than that?
Just feeding into the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype. AGAIN.
I'm pleasantly surprised that Bill O'Reilly is seeming to defend Michelle Obama, even if in the most circumlocutory and foggy of ways. He dismisses the claim that she will become an "albatross" at the end of the clip, and he frankly says, "anything she says will be used against her," perhaps hinting at the fact that public opinion will be based less of what she actually says and more off of how the media interprets it.
Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit?
Interesting clip, nonetheless.
O'Reilly picks and/or approves his guests based on the talking agenda he wants to create for his program. Often he does so in a way that allows for a third party to make the statement he wants to perpetuate but in a manner which allows him to distance himself from it. Ultimately the typical O'Reilly viewer still comes away with that piece of bullshit pseudo-philosophy or agitprop that Billy boy wanted to put out there; but later on when someone shoves a mike in his face and calls him on just exactly what kind of bullshit he's putting forth he can, and has, claim "I'm not responsible for what my guests say. I personally did not say those things."
Of course this is like Kersey Warner saying they are not responsible for the idiotic antics on the cast on TRW, even though they hand pick these imbeciles for the sole purpose of creating bullshit drama.
Seriously, Juan Williams doesn't seem to know a thing about Stokely Carmichael. It's always the same with these conservapundits: they just cram out some names that they use as ciphers for a political movement. It's like Kevin James who was going on about Neville Chamberlain on Hardball without knowing anything about him.
If Williams actually knew anything about Carmichael, he'd be hard-pressed to talk about him in the context of victimhood, seeing as he basically coined the term "black power".
And conservatives wonder why they have so much trouble attracting minority and female support. Sheesh. The sexism, and even moreso the racism, of right wing "criticisms" of Michelle Obama is overt and astounding. It's especially sad to see the unveiled right wing racism coming from one of the right wing's few minority voices.
As I recall, the albatross was a good omen until some idiot shot it, and subsequently had lots of bad crap happen to him. So I'm guessing Williams didn't actually mean to prophecy his own doom, right?
"Clearly, in the cable news world, an outspoken woman of color is downright militant when she's anything more than demure arm candy. There's no middle ground: she's either a passive object or an active threat."
Which was Condoleeza Rice treated as?
John Kerry also got the unpatriotic, anti-American activist treatment, and he's a rich white man (and veteran). It's a Democratic thing.