US government totally controls MSNBC

A truthful man.

It's official. MSNBC tossed Cenk Uygur's show because he spoke truth to power.

Uygur said that, in April, MSNBC president Phil Griffin called him in for a talk. Griffin allegedly told him that "people in Washington" were concerned with his tone on the show.

Cenk also reported that MSNBC told him to have more GOP guests on the show. This, of course, would be impossible since Uygur doesn't just sit there while GOP blowhards burp up their breakfast and call it wisdom. And clearly, if you want to bring the truth to people there's no sense in having anyone from the GOP on your show. It's just a time-out from rational conversation. (And this is why I don't watch Bill Maher, who sucks up to these idiots.)

In any case, he's out and will be a guest on Keith Olbermann's Current TV show tonight (Thursday). Tune in. Should be fun!

Racist terminology on MSNBC

A headline at MSNBC today reads "The jig is up -- men like to cuddle more". I'm amazed at their insensitivity.

No one should use the term "the jig is up". It means "the black guy is hanging in the tree" and does not belong in civilized discourse.

In the culture-free zone that is our media, I'm sure the dimwit writer who produced this headline wasn't aware of the phrase's meaning. At least, I hope s/he wasn't. But there's no excuse for ignorance.

On the other hand, when I googled the phrase today I only found one reference to this historical meaning. It was a question on a page labeled "Phrase Finder Derivation Discussion". The writer asked:

I once took a course in Black History, and we were told that the saying "The jig is up" referred to the lynching of a black... "is up" meant that the black had been hung/lynched... the rope around his neck lifted him up... now dead. In the past week, I have heard officials/speakers at two different graduation ceremonies use the phrase, and when I looked it up, I was NOT able to verify my interpretation learned in the Black History course. One of the graduation speaker was the actor Tom Hanks, and I would assume he would have pretty good knowledge of what he spoke... Anybody help me?

And the derivation fools wrote in response, "Nothing to do with lynching." I beg to differ. This was a phrase used in the South to indicate a "successful" lynching. That America has decided to forget this is pitiful and disturbing.

This fact may have fallen down the white memory hole but I guarantee you there are many African-Americans out there who are greatly offended when this phrase is used. And that's why MSNBC needs to apologize. 

Any people of color want to chime in on this? Do you find it offensive? (Okay, white people can comment too.)

Reason for hope

I just found out Cenk Uygur (pronounced Jenk You-ger) is taking the 6PM slot at MSNBC. This is so great. Jenk is the smartest guy around and a truly powerful progressive voice. There's an interview with him on Alternet today. Here are some excerpts:

"I think defeating Fox -- and more importantly, getting the rest of the media to understand they do not do legitimate news -- is very important. I hope to do that through pointing out their hypocrisy, propaganda and general foolishness. But I also plan to beat them in the ratings and make them fear me."

And his take on Obama is spot-on:

"The only hope we have is that Obama is a much more progressive person when he is running for office than when he is actually in office. So, perhaps as he is pretending to be a strong progressive on the campaign trail he will accidentally beat the Republicans on some issues he didn't even expect to win on."

I love this guy. He created The Young Turks, the most popular news show on the internet, and now he's branching out into "classic" TV. He'll be on weekdays at 6 PM on MSNBC. Give it three thumbs up and start watching the show. (I'm not sure if he's on yet or this is a future development. I guess I'll find out tonight. The guide doesn't specify who's doing the 6 PM hour today.) I'm very hopeful about this development. Cenk's way better than Olbermann. Net gain here, not loss.

Update: Seems he got bumped by Tweety, because you really need a guy like Tweety when Egypt goes wild. Sigh. This man doesn't know up from down. Let's hope they let Cenk near the microphones tomorrow.