Torching Meghan McCain’s Trumpless Trumpism

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PGage

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Mar 24, 2021, 10:08:50 AM3/24/21
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I just got around to watching Sunday’s John Oliver episode this morning, so am late to the party enjoying his burning of Meghan McCain’s hypocrisy in virtue tweeting condemnation of AAPI hate after the Atlanta hate crimes.

I would like to see him do an entire “Top Story” on the weird, hateful, modified Trump space that people like McCain, fellow Megyn Kelly, Nikki Haley and others are staking out. Some, like Haley, present this as the “good parts” of Trumpism, others, like McCain, market it as anti-Trumpism, but with much of the sneering, privileged intolerance retained.

I keep forgetting that McCain has a TV show, but not that there are still many millions of Americans who are hungry for her message.


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PGage

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Mar 25, 2021, 11:03:23 AM3/25/21
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She spews crap like this so often that it occurred to me this morning, perhaps I just don’t understand the nature of the show she is on. The linked article describes her as “the conservative voice” on the show; does that mean her job is to just drop conservative talking point bombs into the mix, whether she believes them or not, just to represent the Fox crowd and created buzz?

If so, it would not make me dislike her any less, but would make a little more sense of how she degenerated into what she now is.

“The View co-host Meghan McCain is once again under fire after saying Wednesday that she feared “identity politics” would allow Asian people to get jobs over White people.“

Tom Wolper

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Mar 25, 2021, 1:09:05 PM3/25/21
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On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 11:03 AM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
She spews crap like this so often that it occurred to me this morning, perhaps I just don’t understand the nature of the show she is on. The linked article describes her as “the conservative voice” on the show; does that mean her job is to just drop conservative talking point bombs into the mix, whether she believes them or not, just to represent the Fox crowd and created buzz?

That's pretty much it. When casting a group conversation show the producers want to be as inclusive as possible along white/non-white, young/old, straight/gay, etc. They also want a consevrvative voice to add that point of view to the conversation. The problem is that in national politics the conservative position is all about trolling and owning the libs. I assume Meghan gets a lot of pressure when she doesn't spew talking points and that keeps her in line.

PGage

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Mar 25, 2021, 2:32:21 PM3/25/21
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Okay, thanks that helps. I will go back to ignoring her.

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Kevin M.

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Mar 25, 2021, 2:46:29 PM3/25/21
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I use McCain as a barometer for a typical Republican, so for that purpose — to specifically know the mindset of the GOP — she serves a purpose. Her husband is to the extreme right, and her mom falls somewhere in the middle. Beyond that, all I can do is make wisecracks about her Covid hairstyles, but that’s what Twitter is for.

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brugdr

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Mar 25, 2021, 4:21:40 PM3/25/21
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This was baked into The View from the beginning.  Elizabeth Hasselbeck (sic) was the Meghan McCain back when the elder McCain ran against Bush.

David

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Mar 25, 2021, 6:28:31 PM3/25/21
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And if Meghan McCain left the show she would be replaced by another conservative no matter who else was available.

On Mar 25, 2021, at 4:21 PM, 'brugdr' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



Diner

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Mar 25, 2021, 7:48:26 PM3/25/21
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Nicolle Wallace was hired at The View to be the conservative counterpoint to Rosie O'Donnell, but the producers were not happy when they found out she hated Trump as much as Rosie did. 

PGage

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Mar 25, 2021, 9:15:03 PM3/25/21
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Just to be clear, I never had any interest in calling on her to resign from the show (I don’t care about her or the show enough to even consider that). 

I am interested in the phenomenon of Republicans who are trying to have it both ways (embracing Trumpism while pretending to reject his least defendable positions).  My money is on Nikki Haley taking the Republican Nom in 2024 riding this hypocritical and racist lane. I thought MM was maybe her stalking horse, but if she is just playing her assigned tune for her TV show, then I don’t really care.


Doug Eastick

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Mar 26, 2021, 7:43:42 AM3/26/21
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I only started to know Nicole Wallace the past 3 years as I started to tire of Wolf Blitzer in the 5pm timeslot.   I really started to like her.   As usual I went to Wikipedia to read up on people I like -- surprised to learn she was a Bush person.

Now I'm wondering , as Trump fades, will her conservative views start trickling into her aura on MSNBC?   Not sure.  I might not even notice, because my News consumption has decreased at least 75% since January.




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PGage

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Mar 26, 2021, 9:53:34 AM3/26/21
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I have followed her pretty closely since her days as Bush’s Communications Director in his re-election campaign, and second term. I hated her because she was so effective. She was unusual for the WH - competent, warm and funny. She also worked for McCain’s campaign.

She was clearly the TV journalist of the Trump era. Not only was her political coverage sharp and insightful, but her coverage of the pandemic was relentless, warm, and regularly heartbreaking. 

She is not a liberal Democrat, but she is also not a closet conservative, and I get the feeling she was always a standard deviation or more less conservative than the Bushies. She continues to have more respect. And affection for Bush than I think seemly,  but I do not expect to see her start referring sneeringly to identify politics anytime soon.

Mark Jeffries

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Mar 26, 2021, 11:42:09 AM3/26/21
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I don't really see a house conservative in the show's early years, unless it was [John Henson] Debbie Snuffleupagus [JH] or perhaps Star Jones.  Hasselbeck came on board in 2003, when Jones was still on the panel, and replaced Lisa Ling as (from the original opening) "a young woman just starting out."

Perhaps I have to include the opening as Barbara Walters did it:  "I've always wanted to do a show with women of diffwent genewations, backgwounds, and views: a working mother; a pwofessional in her 30s; a young woman just starting out; and then somebody who's done almost evewything and will say almost anything. And in a perfect world, I'd get to join the gwoup whenever I wanted."

And with the youngest panelist 34 these days (Abby Huntsman), is there anyone today that's the young woman just starting out?

Mark Jeffries
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Tom Wolper

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Mar 27, 2021, 9:52:04 AM3/27/21
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On Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 11:42 AM Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:
I don't really see a house conservative in the show's early years, unless it was [John Henson] Debbie Snuffleupagus [JH] or perhaps Star Jones.  Hasselbeck came on board in 2003, when Jones was still on the panel, and replaced Lisa Ling as (from the original opening) "a young woman just starting out."

Perhaps I have to include the opening as Barbara Walters did it:  "I've always wanted to do a show with women of diffwent genewations, backgwounds, and views: a working mother; a pwofessional in her 30s; a young woman just starting out; and then somebody who's done almost evewything and will say almost anything. And in a perfect world, I'd get to join the gwoup whenever I wanted."

And with the youngest panelist 34 these days (Abby Huntsman), is there anyone today that's the young woman just starting out?

Things have changed since the early years. Political polarization has turned into tribalism and the producers know that a significant portion of their target viewers won't tune in if they don't hear a conservative voice in the mix.

Having a woman "just starting out" might simply have been irrelevant to attracting and keeping viewers. And it becomes a paradox that bringing on a young woman like that onto the panel immediately raises her public profile and soon takes her out of the category. Panel talk shows succeed because viewers feel close to the women on the show and the need to have a woman just starting out means replacing that participant frequently, meaning viewers don't get a chance to bond with her.

PGage

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Mar 27, 2021, 1:29:07 PM3/27/21
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So, was Sharon O the conservative performer on her show?

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Kevin M.

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Mar 27, 2021, 1:35:29 PM3/27/21
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The selection of hosts (and reasoning behind the choices) changed significantly as Walters relinquished creative control over the series. As referenced earlier, Walters wanted a representative sampling of generations of women, not based in politics or even race. Now, the choices are made based on what the daytime audiences want to see. Specifically, they want to see a catfight. They don’t want to see woken if different eras getting along and learning from each other; they want to see blood. Walters wanted to prove that women weren’t catty; the network decided there were better ratings in proving the opposite. 

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Mark Jeffries

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Mar 28, 2021, 10:11:36 AM3/28/21
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Sara Gilbert's original premise for the show was that the common bond for the panel was that they were "moms."  The show pretty much stayed away from politics originally, especially because Chenbot may've still been a CBS News employee at the start.  It didn't take long for the original premise to go out the door--Aisha Tyler was married when she joined the show in the second year, but I don't see anything that she's ever had kids.  Carrie Ann Inaba's the current moderator and she has no kids outside of her pets.  Since Osbourne's talk show had bombed the year before "The Talk" started, Osbourne's always been the one who seems to have the most to prove.

As for the conservative seat on the current panel, despite her argument with Osbourne Sheryl Underwood supposedly leans to the right but voted for Obama, Hillary Clinton and I assume Biden--and I've never seen Marie Osmond as a flaming liberal, even though she seems to keep her politics to herself.

Mark Jeffries
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