Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes interview spews Repug talking point: "Democrat Party"

[zulchzulu]

I watch (mostly with horror and disgust) the interview with Scott Pelley and George Bush on 60 Minutes. What was a very telling point in the interview was when Pelley laid out obvious Republican bias when he said in the interview:

PELLEY: The Democrat leadership says, "We wanna support the troops who are on the ground. We just wanna redline the extra 20,000."

BUSH: Yeah. I will resist that. That would mean that they're not willing to support a plan that I believe will work and solve the situation. Listen, we've got people criticizing this plan before it's had a chance to work. And I, therefore, think they have an extra responsibility to show us a plan that will work. In other words, they're saying, "We're not even gonna fund this thing." And they're not gonna give it a chance.

PELLEY: There's no Democrat plan.

More: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/14/60minutes/printable2359119.shtml

Perhaps Pelley should go on the news and report that there is no Democrat plan for the war in Iraq. Maybe his staff needs to know that...

This is nothing new for Pelley and not a first time for him using the "Democrat" term. Media Watch exposed him for this with this article:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200608160005

A snippet of that article shows the roots:

"...Hertzberg wrote that "among those of the Republican persuasion," the use of " 'Democrat Party' is now nearly universal" thanks to "Newt Gingrich, the nominal author of the notorious 1990 memo 'Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,' and his Contract with America pollster, Frank Luntz." While Hertzberg noted that Luntz "road-tested the adjectival use of 'Democrat' with a focus group in 2001" and "concluded that the only people who really dislike it are highly partisan adherents of the ... Democratic Party," he also wrote that Luntz had told him recently that "hose two letters <'ic'> actually do matter," and that Luntz "recently finished writing a book ... entitled 'Words That Work.' "

More about Newt's word games:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1276

The interview:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/14/60minutes/main2359119.shtml

Didja know that Scott Pelley is a native Texan...


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[originalpckelly]

1. I caught that too. Little fuckers...

can't even manage to restrain themselves when it comes to our name!

[rwenos]

2. Ongoing Weirdness

I'm glad they misuse "Democrat Party." The reason is I can ALWAYS tell whether the reporter or pundit is friend or foe. ALL the foes use "Democrat Party."

They think they're dissing us. In fact, those among them who pose as "objective" are revealing themselves.

Meanwhile, why on earth is KCBS in Los Angeles NOT running 60 Minutes? A little judicious re-editing maybe? Pretty dumb -- in view of the fact the entire transcript is on cbs.com.

Dumb and dumber . . . .

[mitchtv]

6. Not running it on KPSP Palm Springs either

What gives?

[Clark2008]

3. Slap 'em down:

It's very concerning to me that a journalist like Scott Pelley doesn't know proper grammar.

In his interview with George W. Bush, he repeated called the Democratic Party, the "Democrat" Party. First, not only is this incorrect terminology, it's also improper English.

"Democrat" is a noun and should be used when speaking about a person who is a "Democrat." However, when speaking of the party to which Democrats belong, it's the "Democratic" Party. "Democratic" is the adjective describing the Party.

The only people I hear using the "Democrat" Party are right-wingers who think the name is somehow degrading to the Democratic Party - they don't even consider that it makes them sound like idiots who don't know the English language.

Journalists, however, should not fall for this base behavior and should use proper grammar.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml (Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Contact Us." )

[muntrv]

4. I say we respond by calling them "pubs" or "pukes."

[Warren Stupidity]

5. "PELLEY: There's no Democrat plan"

While strictly speaking that is not a lie, there are as far as I know at least four plans put forth by various Democratic Leaders to get us out of Bush's Blunder. There are many Democratic plans.

[zulchzulu]

11. You have to ask CBS why they'd keep that in the final cut...

Unless there is no editorial responsibility within the news room, CBS should certainly make some kind of excuse why they let Pelley use the "Democrat" phrase as well as that there is "no plan".

Maybe it was a demo tape for Pelley to move over to Faux Snooze.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I noticed that too. nt

[durtee librul]

8. "Didja know that Scott Pelley is a native Texan..."

Native? No. Naive, yes.

[snowbear]

9. How cute. The freeps in the Republic Party are rating up Pelley's comments..

BigD must've invited his friends over...

[JohnnyLib2]

10. Hmmmmph. Even Cheney avoids that one.

Sly devil that he is.

[Bozita]

12. Pelley's way of saying, "I'm with you. You can talk to me."

My ears perk up whenever I hear the word "Democrat."

I didn't like Pelley's attempt at ingratiating himself one damn bit!

[Orangepeel]

13. "Democrat" isn't an insult.

"The Democrats don't have a plan" is a republican talking point that needs to be aggressively countered. "Democrat Party" is nothing more than a verbal stick to poke at Democrats with. Nobody but Democratic activists care about it. I know they do it deliberately, but the only thing they get out of it is the satisfaction of annoying us.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. So they say it deliberately to insult us but it isn't an insult.

OK. Oh, and the deliberate insulter was a journalist, not a politician. Journalists are supposedly neutral, or are at least supposed to try to strive for objective neutrality. This particular journalist is obviously a partisan hack.

[Orangepeel]

22. "This particular journalist is obviously a partisan hack"

that, I won't dispute.

[Vinca]

15. It's an insult and it's gone on for decades.

Read this article: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060807ta_talk_hertzberg

[Dinger]

18. Thanks ForThe Link : )

:)

[Orangepeel]

21. you are letting it be an insult

Do you believe that Americans will think that the Democratic party is less democratic because some asshole refers to it as the "democrat party"? I don't.

It is exactly the same thing as if your name was "Carolyn" and some jerk purposefully kept calling you "Caroline" (with a long i sound). It is obnoxious and disrespectful, but it isn't going to make anyone think less of you. The only thing it would do is make you angry.

[Vinca]

26. You make a good point. In the grand scheme of things,

it's an insignificant matter. No troops were killed by a demeaning adjective. That said, our party is deserving of respect. We're committed to repairing one hell of a mess and snide "rat" references are inappropriate. That's why I email every talking head, pol or pundit when I hear it. My name is Jayne and it's routinely spelled Jane. I can let that go.

[AtomicKitten]

16. Pelley has a history of using that term.

GOP strategists christen "Democrat Party" -- and the media comply

Summary: Several media figures, including news reporters, echoed Republicans by employing the word "Democrat" as an adjective to refer to things or people of, or relating to, the Democratic Party.

article at: http://mediamatters.org/items/200608160005


View Media Matters video of
Scott Pelley at: http://clips.mediamatters.org/static/video/democrat-party-20060816-2.wmv


From the August 13, 2006 broadcast of CBS' Face the Nation:

PELLEY: On Tuesday, it looked like a pretty good idea to run against the war in a Democrat primary; then, Wednesday, the plot came up that was revealed of the bombing of -- potential bombing of airliners into the United States.

<...>

PELLEY: I should mention that we invited Senator Lieberman to be on the broadcast. Even though you defeated him in the Democrat primary, he's decided to run as an independent in the general election, but Senator Lieberman is attending the wedding of his daughter this weekend, and it's undoubtedly a more pleasant thing to do than be on Face the Nation.

<...>

PELLEY: Our CBS News polling in your race showed that among Democrats in Connecticut, more than 80 percent said the war was important to them in -- in their vote. Now, that's one state, and just the Democrat Party. The question is: Do you think an anti-war candidate can win the presidency in 2008?

<...>

PELLEY: Running as a -- as an anti-war candidate in Connecticut, in the Democrat primary -- again, a very small slice of the national pie -- what lesson should the Democratic Party take from your victory when looking at the nation as a whole?

[zulchzulu]

19. Yep...he's exposed his Newtroid politics before

I wonder of anyone in the CBS news division has a problem with it...

[zanne]

17. Did we really expect an authentic interview?

When was the last time Bush answered questions that weren't pre-arranged with an interviewer who wasn't chosen by the White House?

[Doctor_J]

20. By 2008 or so, the last few honest journalists will have been purged from the MSM

We have already seen ABC's lurch toward Fox-ness. Lauer's and Williams' right-wing sympathies are well known, and GOP Newsmodel Katie Whouric replaced journalist Dan Rather on CBS.

The upside is that at some point they will become as irrelevant as Pravda or Hitler's organs. With each step away from objectivity they lose one of the few shreds of credibility

[benny05]

23. Yes, Pelley is a moderate

Or Conservative-moderate from Lubbock, TX. He was 2 years ahead of me in my HS and he was good at journalism then, so it's no surprise he moved up in the ranks.

Still, the interview was shockingly more in Bush's face. It made me think many in Bush's camp are deserting it.

[Blue_In_AK]

25. I sometimes wonder if these journalists

who interview ** don't do and say things to ingratiate themselves to him just so he'll let his guard down and be more candid and revealing -- which ultimately may be more damaging to him than if he gets defensive in response to tough questions. It's easy for people to say, "Well, no wonder he responded in that way because look how he was attacked," but if the journalist is being all friendly and ** says something stupid, which he invariably does, there's no fallback position, no blaming the journalist -- it's just him being stupid.

I don't know whether or not this was Scott Pelley's plan or if he even thought about it, but still sometimes you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, or however that saying goes.

[kskiska]

24. Using "Democrat" is the same as saying "Jew" instead of "Jewish"

* chose Pelley to interview him because of his political persuasion, and because he was a Texan (just like himself :sarcasm:).