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ehrnst

(32,640 posts)
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:03 AM May 2018

The Bizarre Reaction to the WHCD Reveals We're in Deeper Trouble Than We Thought

In this greater context of attacks on journalism as an institution and violent, sometimes deadly attacks on individual journalists, it has been quite a sight to see Washington reporters whining that comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner was too mean.

"I actually really like Sarah," Wolf said. "I think she's very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she's born with it; maybe it's lies. It's probably lies."

This is being cast as an attack on Huckabee Sanders' appearance, when in fact it's a makeup brand reference, as any casual reader of a woman’s magazine understands.
.........................................................................................

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the White House press secretary, not a vulnerable wife and mother being pilloried for no reason. Her boss is a man who lies with relish and without consequence, and she routinely lies on his behalf. This is an administration that has repeatedly tried to force undocumented migrant teenage girls into carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. "Aunt Lydia" isn't such a baseless comparison.
..............................................................................

Flint still doesn’t have clean water. That line was in the same speech as the one that mentioned eye shadow and Aunt Lydia. Only one of those things is truly offensive, and it didn’t seem to register on the list of outrages felt by members of the White House Press Corps. There are wives and mothers in Flint, too – if Michelle Wolf talks about their eye makeup, will we finally care about them?


https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a20102293/whcd-michelle-wolf-sarah-huckabee-sanders/
47 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The Bizarre Reaction to the WHCD Reveals We're in Deeper Trouble Than We Thought (Original Post) ehrnst May 2018 OP
Kick and recommend. Powerful and accurate. bronxiteforever May 2018 #1
I agree! Plucketeer May 2018 #30
Conservatives live in a bubble. Initech May 2018 #2
Good statement Caliman73 May 2018 #33
it's a makeup brand reference, as any casual reader of a woman's magazine understands Submariner May 2018 #3
I'm not a reader of women's magazines NewJeffCT May 2018 #5
Smoky eye is a makeup style favored by Huckabee and Hicks ehrnst May 2018 #7
So, it's Wolf's fault that you are ignorant of a widely known reference to stopbush May 2018 #13
At my age I did not know that smokey eye is a makeup Submariner May 2018 #19
I'm 63. stopbush May 2018 #44
I'm a guy AND Kurt V. May 2018 #16
Yep catrose May 2018 #38
I also do not read magazines like tomg May 2018 #23
That's your fault for being ignorant, not Wolf's fault. Cuthbert Allgood May 2018 #24
Thanks for your insight into the makeup world smart mouth Submariner May 2018 #34
Insight into how the reporting around the 2020 election will go down . Can't say anything bad lunasun May 2018 #4
Doesn't it say something about the current state volstork May 2018 #6
Teen Vogue is doing the same thing. (nt) ehrnst May 2018 #8
K&R for visibility. nt tblue37 May 2018 #9
Dave Chappelle even weighed in JustAnotherGen May 2018 #10
YES!!! (nt) ehrnst May 2018 #11
Next he'll be singing JustAnotherGen May 2018 #22
We've come a long way down... skypilot May 2018 #12
As usual, they want it both ways on Walmart Sarah. Still In Wisconsin May 2018 #14
K&R ismnotwasm May 2018 #15
talk radio is a big part - it creates the lies and believers and attacks the 'liberal media' and par certainot May 2018 #17
I noticed yesterday Turbineguy May 2018 #18
Outstanding commentary! CrispyQ May 2018 #20
The reaction to this skit worries me also Gothmog May 2018 #21
What really horrified the "press" was when Wolfe went at THEM Va Lefty May 2018 #25
The bigger question, IMHO Retrograde May 2018 #32
Good Me. May 2018 #26
Why react when you can overreact? BobTheSubgenius May 2018 #27
The groaners need to check their calendars. Plucketeer May 2018 #28
We're in deep doo doo Johnny2X2X May 2018 #29
Trumpworld: Bawdy Truthful Jokes Bad / Journo Prison Rape Jokes Good Teegraph May 2018 #31
Just one of hundreds, probably thousands by now, of Goebbels type stuff from them. Eliot Rosewater May 2018 #35
Thanks so much! Been meaning to jump on for a while. Teegraph May 2018 #40
"Comey Memos show that Trump is willing to rape Journos in prison..." .... marble falls May 2018 #42
Here is Washington Post's report about that part of Comey memos: wishstar May 2018 #45
GOP loves playing the victim. sarcasmo May 2018 #36
K & R SunSeeker May 2018 #37
My Liberal brothers and sisters, you MUST repeat after me... Moostache May 2018 #39
Joking that Huck Sanders uses the ash of truth as eye makeup... Beartracks May 2018 #41
For your viewing nostalgia - 3catwoman3 May 2018 #43
This message was self-deleted by its author Scurrilous May 2018 #46
Its just the russian bots. pwb May 2018 #47

Initech

(99,909 posts)
2. Conservatives live in a bubble.
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:09 AM
May 2018

They want their opinion to be absolute. They want absolute power. They can't stand to hear anything that even slightly differs from their absolute opinion. This is what we have been witnessing.

Caliman73

(11,690 posts)
33. Good statement
Tue May 1, 2018, 12:17 PM
May 2018

I agree 100%. It is the reason why Fox News was created and why the right wing radio networks were funded, why the internet sites that push right wing talking points followed. Conservatives have ALWAYS lost the fight over ideas because for better or not, change is inevitable. The human species was built on adaptation and advancement. When we stagnate, we die. Conservatives have been trying to halt progress since progress became a thing. "No, we cannot stop by the river and farm crops, we have to keep hunting and gathering or the gods will strike us down". "No, we cant build towns, the gods will strike us down", "No, we can't ...", that is what conservatives do and there is some validity to slowing change in some respects, but conservatives in this country have always seemed to do it in the service of power and wealth, in opposition to equality.

Conservatives like Christian dominionists, see anything that is not their complete dominance of the discourse as an attack on their very existence.

Submariner

(12,482 posts)
3. it's a makeup brand reference, as any casual reader of a woman's magazine understands
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:13 AM
May 2018

I never read women magazines casually or otherwise.

I'm a guy, and my first impression was Wolf was making fun of Huckabee's looks because of that droopy or lazy eye issue she lives with, which has been commented on before here on DU.

I did not make any connection to makeup, so I don't feel my reaction is bizarre.

NewJeffCT

(56,827 posts)
5. I'm not a reader of women's magazines
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:58 AM
May 2018

but, I remember the TV commercials "maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline"

 

ehrnst

(32,640 posts)
7. Smoky eye is a makeup style favored by Huckabee and Hicks
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:02 AM
May 2018

And "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline," is an old tagline for makeup.

stopbush

(24,375 posts)
13. So, it's Wolf's fault that you are ignorant of a widely known reference to
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:37 AM
May 2018

American commercial culture?

Check.

Those sneaky black women. Always looking to embarrass the white guys!

Next time she’ll keep the references to “tastes great, less filling.”

Submariner

(12,482 posts)
19. At my age I did not know that smokey eye is a makeup
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:02 AM
May 2018

and did not know, or wonder or care about, her skin color, which had nothing to do with it to me.

Please excuse my ignorance for not being up to speed on today's American commercial culture of skin products.

stopbush

(24,375 posts)
44. I'm 63.
Wed May 2, 2018, 02:23 AM
May 2018

Those of our vintage have more of a chance of understanding her reference to the old “maybe it’s Mabelline” ads than do the youngsters.

Kurt V.

(5,624 posts)
16. I'm a guy AND
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:56 AM
May 2018

I don't read magazines AND I'm single AND I don't watch TV and I knew what smoky eye meant just by the context. just sayin

tomg

(2,574 posts)
23. I also do not read magazines like
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:19 AM
May 2018

Last edited Tue May 1, 2018, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

those mentioned. I saw it as reference to her eyeliner, but the Maybelline allusion went right by me. My first impression was it was simply a joke I didn't get. I teach lit and - particularly with modernist literature which is often very allusive - my students miss things or misread details all of the time. I think I might even use the joke as an illustration when we talk about allusion. I wasn't aware of the lazy eye issue which adds another layer to the joke where it could be construed in a very different way.

Cuthbert Allgood

(4,857 posts)
24. That's your fault for being ignorant, not Wolf's fault.
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:21 AM
May 2018

I'm a guy and I knew exactly what she meant.

Oh, and if you don't know something, there's a thing called google...it does a great job of answering questions. Or maybe you have an Echo and you could have asked that.

lunasun

(21,646 posts)
4. Insight into how the reporting around the 2020 election will go down . Can't say anything bad
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:20 AM
May 2018

about Trump or call out his bad policies and the dem will be portrayed as a bully or abrasive depending on gender if they do. Trump will be blunt and honest
Look how the debates were post discussed 2016 on MSMs. He called Clinton a nasty woman and the devil, no blink of an eye from many of the talking heads .
Wolf is right that he is their gravy train and in fact many may not even have a job if he is not reelected and the country is calm and a WH not in constant calamity
They need thier clown show with no thought of the dangers as long as they can 'cover ' it
Also as they point out it was OK to make a body joke about Chris Christie . I think it could not be hyped so the media dropped it

volstork

(5,393 posts)
6. Doesn't it say something about the current state
Tue May 1, 2018, 09:59 AM
May 2018

of American journalism when an article as brilliant as this is published by a magazine that usually features "12 Ways to Blow His Mind in Bed" rather than by one of the so-called bastions of the Fourth Estate?
Well-said, Jill Filipovic.

JustAnotherGen

(31,681 posts)
10. Dave Chappelle even weighed in
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:11 AM
May 2018
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dave-chappelle-michelle-wolf-white-house_us_5ae7dd72e4b055fd7fcf0535

“I don’t know who those people think they are that she can’t say that to them because they offend people all the time,” he told PBS NewsHour. “For many people, it’s cathartic to watch that woman speak truth to power like that.”


He said the routine was “grounded in her truth” and that he respected Wolf’s artistry.


“I know how hard it is to do what she did in front of that lame-ass crowd,” he said.


Count me among those for whom that speech was cathartic.

Going high doesn't mean you have to turn the other cheek.

skypilot

(8,847 posts)
12. We've come a long way down...
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:34 AM
May 2018

...since the early days of this administration when even some here at DU thought that the press would start "doing its job" in reaction to the contempt and condescension coming from whoever was press secretary at the time. I remember holding out a similar hope but you know it's all over the first time the press corps chuckles at some lame joke coming from the podium. That moment always comes.

 

Still In Wisconsin

(4,450 posts)
14. As usual, they want it both ways on Walmart Sarah.
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:39 AM
May 2018

On one hand, she gets to spew vile, accusatory lies on a daily basis, impugn the character of pretty much anyone, and just generally be part of the Trump machine.

Then, if she gets a little back, it's poor Sarah, how dare you make fun of her appearance, you're awful, this is so over the line... BULLSHIT!

This is no different than people going after Ivahhhhnkah and Jahhhr-uhd for things they say and do as part of the administration. For god's sake, one joke about her eye makeup, and it wasn't even a put-down about her makeup.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
17. talk radio is a big part - it creates the lies and believers and attacks the 'liberal media' and par
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:57 AM
May 2018

particular media personalities that stick their necks out.

limbaugh on 600 radio stations can start a lot of screaming hate - then they all do it

and the right believes a lot of the lying because the left gives talk radio a free speech free ride - a think tank-coordinated chorus of 300 ignorant lying racists 1500 radio stations are ignored while they get to create big lie after big lie and then when sanders and trump repeat them they may as well be telling truth

calling them liars is the same as calling the talk radio gods liars and doing it to their face like that is a major threat to authoritarian power/certitude

ignoring talk radio while it gets to create this alternate reality that makes the current republican party and trump possible has been the biggest political mistake in history

Turbineguy

(37,206 posts)
18. I noticed yesterday
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:00 AM
May 2018

in his presser, Trump mentioned a Nigerian girl named Lydia who had been kidnapped by Boko-Haram.

CrispyQ

(36,221 posts)
20. Outstanding commentary!
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:09 AM
May 2018
It is revolting to see members of the press, who should have an adversarial relationship with the White House, comforting the press secretary and standing up for her honor when she is a chief architect of and apologist for these new political norms of idiotic crudeness, rank corruption, and unapologetic deceit.

Va Lefty

(6,252 posts)
25. What really horrified the "press" was when Wolfe went at THEM
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:22 AM
May 2018

"Every hour it's Trump, Russia, Hillary, and a panel of four people who remind you why you don't go home for Thanksgiving,"

You guys are obsessed with Trump,""Did you use to date him? You pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him."

"What no one in this room wants to admit is Trump helped all of you," "He couldn't sell steaks, vodka, water, college, ties or Eric. [But] he has helped you sell your papers, books, and TV. You created this monster, and now you're profiting off of him."

And then the killer...she reminded them that Flint Mich. still doesn't have safe drinking water. A reminder that maybe this was the sort of story they should be covering instead of all-trump all-the-time.

Retrograde

(10,068 posts)
32. The bigger question, IMHO
Tue May 1, 2018, 12:16 PM
May 2018

is why an industry event gets so much coverage. There's a good article in the NY Times entertainment section today (if you can get past the firewall)

I place a lot of the blame for the current White House on the so-called press, who spent much of 2016 treating Trump as a ratings-magnet whose every utterance needed to be covered while overlooking simple facts like his utter lack of qualifications for the job. IMHO, they helped create him: now they're whining when people bring it up.

BobTheSubgenius

(11,535 posts)
27. Why react when you can overreact?
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:44 AM
May 2018

This story would have been dead in 24-48 hours, had Michelle Wolf had a Y chromosome.

 

Plucketeer

(12,882 posts)
28. The groaners need to check their calendars.
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:52 AM
May 2018

This is the TWENTY-FIRST century. This is the birthplace of some sorta noise that many praise as "music" - music laced with profanity and suggestive themes about taking advantage of women. I'm old enough to recall when a kid really could get their mouth washed out with soap if someone heard them utter a profanity. I also know folks - young adults - adults of Ms. Sanders generation - who can't string 5 or 10 words together without half of them being "fucks". So I honestly don't think it's very cruel or demeaning to paint her as some kind of saintly lass. I mean.... Sarah Sanders works for a guy no more decent - no more respectful of women than Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and others of that strata. Gimmee a break - she's no more due respect than Satan's spouse.

Johnny2X2X

(18,731 posts)
29. We're in deep doo doo
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:52 AM
May 2018

You have to watch the Far Right to anticipate what is next.

Know that this group will accuse the Left of everything they themselves are guilty of. The scariest trend out there is Q Anon and it's gaining steam. Far rightwingers (And probably many in the White House) believe there is a global child sex ring and almost all major liberals will be implicated. They believe the latest Hollywood Sex Cult bust proves that Pizzagate is real. Forget how insane that sounds, but know this, they can hack anyone's email or computer and they will start planting evidence this way.

They will do ANYTHING! We have to be prepared for this. Get ready, because they are going to start trying to frame and jail their enemies, they've already started actually.

Teegraph

(2 posts)
31. Trumpworld: Bawdy Truthful Jokes Bad / Journo Prison Rape Jokes Good
Tue May 1, 2018, 11:59 AM
May 2018

The Comey Memos show that Trump is willing to rape Journos in prison to get them to expose sources. The fact (not fat ) that @margarettalev @whca would role over so quickly is a disgrace.

...“The president then wrapped up our conversation by returning to the issue of finding leakers. I said something about the value of putting a head on a pike as a message. He replied by saying it may involve putting reporters in jail. ‘They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend and they are ready to talk.’ I laughed as I walked to the door Reince Priebus had opened.”

Teegraph

(2 posts)
40. Thanks so much! Been meaning to jump on for a while.
Tue May 1, 2018, 06:29 PM
May 2018

I need to get my post numbers up so people don't think I am a RU Troll

marble falls

(56,353 posts)
42. "Comey Memos show that Trump is willing to rape Journos in prison..." ....
Tue May 1, 2018, 10:00 PM
May 2018

cheetolini really does that? From where in the Comey memos is that cited?

wishstar

(5,267 posts)
45. Here is Washington Post's report about that part of Comey memos:
Wed May 2, 2018, 04:46 AM
May 2018

"First is Mr. Trump’s private expressions of contempt for press freedom. According to a Feb. 14, 2017, memo, the president said Mr. Comey should jail journalists to compel them to identify government leakers, as Justice Department officials did in 2005 with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. When the FBI director said that such a plan would face legal barriers as well as reticence at the Justice Department, the president ordered Mr. Comey to talk to the attorney general about “being more aggressive,” saying, “They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk,” according to the memo. In response to this disgusting statement, Mr. Comey writes he laughed and exited the room.

Mr. Trump would not be the first president to bemoan leaks, but a president repeatedly suggesting the imprisonment of journalists should be unfathomable in a country committed to freedom of expression. It rings all the more threatening in the context of Mr. Trump’s historic hostility toward the media, which includes calling to “loosen” up libel laws , encouraging crowds at his campaign rallies to turn and jeer at the peaceful press corps behind them, and transforming the term “fake news” into a phrase now used by dictators across the world to dismiss truthful reporting they do not like. Meanwhile, his vulgar reference to making “a new friend” in prison trivializes the dehumanizing torture of prison rape that too many inmates continue to suffer. These comments deserved not a laugh from Mr. Comey, but the cold silence he reported giving to many of Mr. Trump’s other disturbing remarks."

Moostache

(9,895 posts)
39. My Liberal brothers and sisters, you MUST repeat after me...
Tue May 1, 2018, 05:04 PM
May 2018

When Trump or an asshole pretending to be offended on behalf of Trump feigns outrage, this is how we should all respond:

Beartracks

(12,761 posts)
41. Joking that Huck Sanders uses the ash of truth as eye makeup...
Tue May 1, 2018, 07:41 PM
May 2018

... would be as much a critique as saying Scott Pruitt uses baby seal leather to make his shoes.

Which is to say: it's not about her appearance. It's about her relationship with facts. Period.

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Response to 3catwoman3 (Reply #43)

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