The letter, addressed to NBC News president Deborah Turness and MSNBC president Phil Griffin and signed by SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford, asks whether MSNBC disciplines its anchors based on the”target of the remarks rather than the remarks themselves.”
After applauding the network’s decision to suspend Alec Baldwin over his anti-gay slur, Crawford’s letter asks: “We would now like to know what disciplinary measures you are taking about Martin Bashir’s appalling statement on his MSNBC show last Friday that someone should defecate and/or urinate in Governor Palin’s mouth because she used the word ‘slavery’ to describe the burden the federal debt will have on future generations of Americans.”
It also mentions that MSNBC has set a precedent of firing and discipling other anchors for “offensive language.”
“You fired Don Imus for offensive language in describing the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team, you suspended Alec Baldwin, and yet nothing has happened to Mr. Bashir,” the letter reads. “Are we to assume then, that disciplinary procedures at your network take place based on the target of the remarks rather than the remarks themselves?”
Last week, MNSBC suspended Alec Baldwin’s show, Up With Alec Baldwin, for two weeks after Baldwin was caught on camera using anti-gay slurs at a photographer on the streets of New York.
The letter notes that “Mr. Baldwin’s anti-gay slur was not uttered while he was on the air on your network, but Mr. Bashir’s violent rhetoric was.”
The letter concludes by saying, “Americans deserve to know that your network doesn’t condone violent and hateful rhetoric directed at anyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or political persuasion.”
Let’s take a look at some of Bashir’s recent acts of “political discourse” to see how “elevated” they were.
Last month, Bashir equated Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) to cult leader David Koresh.
Earlier that month, he said Republicans care more for War Memorials than kids with cancer.
In August, he and his crew deceptively edited a video of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to radically change the meaning of his words.
In July, he and a guest compared Republicans to drunks and chain smokers.
Earlier that month, he said Fox commentators and Rush Limbaugh were “a sewer of absolute crap.”
A week earlier he suggested that Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was “the most repugnant politician in the history of American politics.”
In June, he selectively edited 1981 remarks by a Reagan aide to make Republicans look racist.
Earlier that month, he said the Republican investigation into the IRS scandal was an attack on the “black man in the White House.”
In April, he wondered if Republican senators needed to have a family member killed to prevent a filibuster on gun control legislation.
Earlier that month, he totally trashed former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the day of her death.
In January, Bashir ran a deceptively edited video of a father of a slain Sandy Hook child supposedly being heckled in order to smear gun rights supporters.
Earlier that month, he compared the NRA to Adolf Hitler.
A week earlier, he compared a Republican governor to the former murderous dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Readers are advised that these are just vile comments made by Bashir this year, which means that Friday was not an isolated incident. Though none of these likely rise to the disgraceful level of his comments about Palin, they certainly aren’t elevating the political discourse, and thereby show a propensity on Bashir’s part to make highly offensive comments about folks he disagrees with.