MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Monday night acknowledged that his show had failed to play the full comments made by Bill Clinton about President Obama during his Friday night telecast, leaving out important context.
“We shouldn’t have done that,” Hayes said.
During the Friday segment, Hayes had played remarks made by Bill Clinton earlier that day about how he sees his wife Hillary Clinton as a “change-maker.”
“She’s the best change-maker I’ve ever known. A lot of people say, oh well, you don’t understand. It’s different now. It’s rigged. Yeah, it’s rigged because you don’t have a president who is a change maker with a Congress who will work with him. But the president has done a better job than he has gotten credit for. And don’t you forget it!” Clinton said at a Tennessee Rally.
“I’ve been there, and we shared the same gift. We only had a Democratic Congress for two years. And then we lost it,” Clinton continued. “Yet some of the loudest voices in my party said, it’s unbelievable, said “Well the only reason we had it for two years is that President Obama isn’t liberal enough!” Is there one soul in this crowd that believes that?”
However, on his show, Hayes cut off Bill Clinton’s remarks after he said that the United States does not “have a president who is a change maker,” failing to include Clinton’s comments about Obama not getting enough credit, as Mediaite noted.
During his Friday show, Hayes said that Hillary Clinton “might want to make sure her husband is in the loop. Bill seemed to go a bit off-message last night in Tennessee while campaigning for his wife,” according to a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
On Monday night, Hayes acknowledged that he did not provide the context for Bill Clinton’s comments.
“A number of people pointed out — quite a few actually, and rightly — that Clinton’s full remarks changed the context of that point, and that he actually went onto defend President Obama,” Hayes said, according to a clip from Mediaite.
“We did not characterize Clinton as trashing the president or slamming him, as some others did. We said he went off-message, which is arguably true,” he continued. “But here’s the important thing. In cutting off that clip, in the editing, we didn’t allow you the chance to make that judgment for yourselves in the full light of context. We shouldn’t have done that.”
Sloppy work, at a minimum; possibly biased work by somebody at MSNBC. Whichever, MSNBC should be mightily ashamed, and should take serious efforts to try to undo the harm done.
It seems Comcast, owners of NBC, would love to fuel the “Democrats in disarray” meme.
So much for the “liberal media.”
“We did not characterize Clinton as trashing the president or slamming him, as some others did. We said he went off-message, which is arguably true,” he continued.
It’s not arguably true. Providing the full context shows that. Hayes is a Bernie supporter and he’s not being honest here about why he did what he did.
I guess they are trying to make it seem as if Clinton has the same view as Sanders, who seems to repeatedly shoot himself in the foot on this point.
That’s some epic bullshittery, there. “Bill Clinton has gone off-message, and we’ve doctored the evidence to show just that!”
No, Chris, you “shouldn’t have done that”.