The Most “Kumbaya” Guy in Cable News Says We Shouldn’t Hurt the MAGAs Fee Fees

Gotta love bothsiderism in the news game, and nobody practices it better than CNN weekend personality Michael Smerconish.  Growing up, other young men may have had sports heroes or, if they were of a certain age, Lynda Carter or Farrah Fawcett-Majors. but you have to think Smerconish had a David Broder poster.  The guy’s whole act is a calm and measured version of Rodney King’s plaintive cry, “Can’t we all get along?” coupled with a heaping helping of “both sides!”

Today Smerconish asked a most profound question: “Are those most opposed to Trump aiding his election?”  Smerconish’s methodical analysis of this question starts with Rachel Maddow’s announcement on MSNBC that it wouldn’t carry Trump’s victory speech after the Iowa caucuses, and to him, this was a journalistic sin of the highest order.  He cites Mark Halperin — yeah, the “good news for John McCain” guy who got punted during “Me Too” -who offers the following:

OK, so you don’t get much more authoritative than a disgraced pundit like Mark Halperin.  But after Halperin, Mellow Mike brings in the big guns.  Ladies and gents, I bring you the singular wisdom of “Holt from Richmond”, a guy on a Sirius XM call:

A couple of things here: first, note the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” notation on the Halperin graphic.  Is Smerconish suggesting that Trump opponents have “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, echoing Dimestore Mussolini himself?  Second, does anybody seriously believe that “Holt from Richmond” was ever going to vote for anybody other than Trump, and that his mind was changed by Rachel (specifically named in the call) hurting Holt’s fee fees?  I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying.  Not surprisingly, Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” comment comes up, and it’s seen as a transgression against all that’s good and decent.  Very fine people on both sides, ya know.

‘This whole episode, including an interview with the dean of Northwestern School of Journalism, is marked by much hand-wringing about how to cover Trump.  To his credit, the J school dean (Charles Whittaker) argues that Trump’s speeches should be aired live but should also be “put under a microscope”, something Smerconish seems indifferent to.  In a nutshell, Mellow Mike seems tothink that if we play nice with the MAGAs, the Both Sides Fairy will come down and we’ll be back to being a sane country. 

It’s tempting to wonder how Michael Smerconish  would’ve covered things if he were in William L. Shirer’s shoes in 1930s Germany.  Should Shirer have been concerned about whether the coverage he did for CBS Radio would have angered the followers of Hitler in Germany and his sympathizers in the United States?  Unfortunately, it seems we have the answer to that question.  Perhaps Mr. Shirer should’ve only reported on how the autobahn was coming along.  

Mr. Smerconish should get his head out of the sand and understand what exactly we’re dealing with.  Bothsiderism or catering to cultists is no way to respond to this.  What should we do, replay an almost certainly bogus Sirius XM call from “Holt from Richmond”, who was almost certainly going to be opposed to Trump but got his fee fees hurt because he heard MSNBC (a network he almost certainly never watches) didn’t carry Trump live?  

Or maybe we should defer to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who makes an appearance and says Trump was right about NATO? Trump wants to break up NATO, does Dimon? Does Smerconish?  

Should we ignore Trump’s dictatorial ambitions, the fact that he is a fraudster and has also been held liable in a court of law for the sort of thing you see on Law and Order: SVU every week, or that he and his lawyers are arguing that he should have absolute immunity from any crime.  OH NO! Don’t want to upset Skeeter with his bright shiny new MAGA hat, or Jamie from Long Island who’s licking his $36 million a year chops over the tax cut Trump will give him!   OH NOES!

Memo to Mr. Smerconish: Michael, if you think catering to Trump will make things better, give me a call.  I have some oceanfront property in Lincoln, Nebraska you might be interested in.  And “Both Sides Now” may be a wonderful Joni Mitchell track, but some news stories just don’t have “both sides”.