MSNBC Delights in Ad Denigrating Cheney: 'Brutal, But He Deserves It,' 'Rather Undeniable'
Late Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC's David Shuster and Chris Matthews
made clear their agreement with the message of a new ad from the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) which ridicules former Vice
President Dick Cheney's past judgments and thus proclaims him "WRONG"
on the value of enhanced interrogation techniques, with Shuster declaring "he deserves" the "brutal ad" which makes, Matthews decided, an "obvious" and "undeniable" point.
Giving free publicity to the TV ad supposedly scheduled to begin
airing Thursday on cable channels, just before 5 PM EDT MSNBC played
part of the ad and Hardball viewers were treated to the entire 30
seconds about a half hour later. With "WRONG" on screen, the ad
features a clip of Cheney asserting what was conventional wisdom at the
time: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction." Then, with "HE'S STILL WRONG" on screen, viewers hear
Cheney maintain "the enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely
essential." The ad ends with:
DICK CHENEY
WRONG THEN
WRONG NOW
Following the ad clip, Shuster chirped: "You know, it's a brutal ad on Dick Cheney, so, ah, but he deserves it I suppose." Matthews set up the ad: "Dick Cheney gets called to account." Afterward, he insisted: "Well that's pretty obvious, anyway, and rather undeniable."
The DNC site doesn't seem to have video of the ad, but the Huffington Post has the video via YouTube.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
