On Monday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow embarrassingly called attention to a story on the website Christwire that indicated former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had advocated for an American invasion into Egypt. What Maddow did not know at the time was that Christwire is a satirical site.
The Blaze reports, “The story, ‘As Egypt Descends in Chaos, Should Sarah Palin Support a US-Led Invasion?,' drew the ire of Maddow on last night’s program, as she used it to mock conservatives such as Palin for their far-out ideas.”
According to the satirical article:
The escalating crisis in Egypt could become a defining moment for Sarah Palin. Rioters have taken over the streets, top presidential cabinet members have fled the country and numerous reports of Christians having their phone and internet services cut off have reached America. The thirty-year reign of Hosni Mubarak may be finally reaching an end…
This dilemma does have a silver lining, however. It offers Sarah Palin an incredible opportunity. Stung after the events in Tucson, where leftwing activists tried to blame her for the acts of a mentally disturbed occultist, she could rise to the occasion and show off her credentials on the international stage…Governor Palin needs to speak out publicly and forcibly for an American-led invasion to protect our interests in North Africa…The Governor could become the center of their rallying cries.
Rachel Maddow read portions of the article on her television show, and used it as a moment to mock conservative thought, reminding her viewers that the assertions made in the article were not actually Palin’s, but were those belonging to some far-fetched conservatives. She concluded: “This is actually a moment where there is a real center in American policy; the center is a bipartisan thing, but it doesn’t mean that everyone is in the center.”
The video of Maddow’s faux pas was later scrubbed from MSNBC’s website, but Maddow did address her mistake on Twitter, where she wrote: "The bad news about a free and open Internet? Sometimes you get had by brilliant satirists. Christwire: 1 TRMS: 0."
Whatever dignity Maddow had hoped to maintain by her tweet, however, was undone by statements she made on her Tuesday night episode, where her lengthy "excuse slash explanation" focused on Fox News television host Glenn Beck:
For some folks opportunism is not about pushing for a specific policy, it’s about using every occasion as the right occasion to push for their favorite idea, for their favorite story. Like for example, the idea, the story that it’s "the end of the world."
Maddow then revealed video footage of Glenn Beck covering the story of Egypt, in which segment Beck referred to the crisis in Egypt as the first stages of the “coming insurrection.” Beck went on to discuss the subversive Marxist and radical Muslim movement behind the crisis in Egypt.
Maddow mocked Beck’s assertions, including his statement that the coming insurrection could result in the creation of a radical Muslim caliphate in the Middle East. Beck added that China could emerge as a major world power from this crisis, overtaking control of Asia, the southern half of Africa, part of the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and “God knows what else,” and that Russia could potentially control all of the old former Soviet Union bloc, plus maybe the Netherlands.
After Maddow criticized Beck for his alleged fear-mongering, she stated:
If you’re wondering, yes, this is all an elaborate excuse slash explanation for us believing that Christwire.org was something other than satire yesterday … In a world where China taking over New Zealand is what passes for real analysis on the situation in Egypt, how do we know that’s not satire too?
Maddow’s ranting prompted Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters to remark, “It takes a lot of rationalizations to be a liberal these days,” adding,
If she can no longer discern between fact and fiction, serious commentary and satire, she can’t possibly be trusted or taken seriously about anything, for who knows what her next source will be and whether or not it’s actually legitimate.
Maybe more importantly, how can anyone on television — Rhodes scholar or not! — be deserving of the public’s trust if she blames her own mistakes on others not at all involved in her program?
Sadly, this is par for the course on MSNBC as well as other liberal media outlets.
Following Maddow’s embarrassing segment, Christwire.org responded with a follow-up story, wherein they wrote, “[Maddow] mocked many with a surprisingly vicious assault on Sarah Palin and her grassroots supporters across the country. It was the height of unabashed media bigotry and this liberal icon’s career may very well suffer from the repercussions already stirring around the globe.”
