Nepotism, Not Merit In The ‘News’ Entertainment Business

I normally would not waste my time on “news” entertainment personalities but this past week two of these personalities who only have their job because of nepotism and having the same last name as someone in the business have really outdone themselves trying to convince us that they are “very serious people” with something important to say (they are not).

Here is a brilliant set up from the “fake news,” The Daily Show.

Let’s start with the real “fake news,” not the comedy show, Fox News. Jason Easley explains, Fox News Enters Day 3 Of Their Embarrassing Peter Doocy Martyrdom:

Ever since Dominion Voting Systems sued them for $1.6 billion, Fox News has, on a nearly hourly basis, been trying to martyr Peter Doocy [the son of Steve Doocy, one of the three dolts on the divan on Fox & Friends].

Andrew Feinberg tweeted that we have entered day three of The Passion Of The Doocy:

Fox is on day three of trying to make the 33-year-old who went straight from college to a coveted reporter gig at the national cable network where his dad happened to be a morning show host into a victim.

If I were in his shoes, I'd have probably asked them to stop by now. pic.twitter.com/lCeVtXKxtM

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 27, 2021

Peter Doocy claimed that there is some mysterious list that Fox News isn’t on that is causing Joe Biden to exclude him from questions. I fail to understand how a “news” entertainment network that Fox’s own lawyers admitted to a judge in federal court is “fake news”, You Literally Can’t Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox’s Lawyers (The Tucker Carlson Defense: the “‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary'”), even has credentials to be in the White House press corps. This privileged white rich kid should not be heard to complain, he should never even been given credentials to be in the White House press corps.

However, White House Jen Psaki knocked his conspiracy theory down and forced Doocy to admit that both the White House takes his questions and President Biden has been generous to Fox News with his time. Jen Psaki Made Fox News’s $1.6 Billion Bad Day Much Worse:

Doocy asked, “We noted, starting at the end of the campaign and into the transition and at the white house, anytime the president has an event where he is given a list that he has reporters to call on but is the only member of the five network TV pool that has never been on the list in front of the president, and I am curious if that is official administration policy?”

Psaki wasn’t having any of it.

She said, “We’re here having a conversation, aren’t we?”

Doocy stammered, “Yes, but.”

Psaki continued, “And do I take questions from you every time you come to the briefing room?”

Doocy again, “Yes, but”

Psaki pressed on, “Has the president taken questions from you since he came into office, yes or no?”

Doocy feebly said, “Unfortunately, only when I’ve shouted after he goes through his whole list, and the president has been very generous with his time with Fox. I’m just curious about this list that he’s given.”

The Press Secretary ended the exchange with, “I would just say that the president has taken your questions, and I’m looking forward to doing Fox News Sunday for the third time in the last few months.”

I would recommend that Psaki not lend any credibility to this “fake news” entertainment network. Ignore it. Take away its press credentials.

This reality hasn’t stopped Fox from trying to turn Doocy into a conservative martyr who is being persecuted for his conservatism. [Conservative are heavy into the persecution complex, pretending that they are martyr’s for their fascist views, falsely comparing this to martyrs for Christ.]

Fox is trying to create a diversion because they don’t want their viewers to know that they lied to them about the election being stolen from Donald Trump.

Almost every hour of Fox News’s programming for days has contained a mention of Peter Doocy. It is embarrassing and reveals how far Fox is willing to go to create outrage and distraction.

Then there is the most glaring example of nepotism, Meghan McCain, on ABC’s The View. I concede that I do not watch vapid daytime TV, and I have only seen occasional clips of something said on this show. But I see the almost daily media reports on something Princess Meghan has said on the show, as if she is Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi.

She is the privileged white rich kid of a beer heiress and a famous father, Sen. John McCain. But for her last name and her connection to her daddy, she has never done anything in her privileged life which suggests she has had any of her several “news” media entertainment jobs based upon merit or hard work.

And yet, lacking any self-awareness, Princess Meghan felt compelled to “whitesplain” merit this week. You can almost hear irony die screaming.

It was not well received. Jeremy Helliger writes, Meghan McCain’s White Privilege Is Showing Once Again (excerpt):

I’ve yet to watch an entire episode of the morning talk show. Unfortunately, though, there’s no escaping Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain, the late Republican senator from Arizona who unsuccessfully ran for president against Barack Obama in 2008. She’s been with the program since 2017, and every day, there seems to be another article dedicated to her latest gaffe.

McCain claims liberals don’t like her just because she’s a Republican, but that isn’t true. I can’t speak for all liberals, but my biggest problem with her is that she isn’t as intelligent as she thinks she is. She talks about “identity politics” as if it’s the devil inside, but practically every word she utters is informed by her status as the only “conservative” on the panel. She never lets us forget that she’s first and foremost a Republican — and the daughter of John McCain.

Every time I watch her in action, I have school flashbacks to the sort of classmates I always hated, the ones who didn’t just raise their hand in class but threw it up and waved it wildly to let everyone know they knew all the answers. She’s like Election’s Tracy Flick, only the Reese Witherspoon movie character wouldn’t have been caught dead reading her back-up statistics off note cards.

McCain needs as many props as she can get, though, because as soon as she goes off script and speaks from the heart, she betrays her lack of real intelligence and depth. I won’t go into all the foolish things she’s said over the course of her three and a half years on the show, or her “apology” for maybe encouraging anti-Asian violence by previously supporting Donald Trump’s right to refer to COVID-19 as the “Chinese/Wuhan virus.”

A smarter lady would refrain from commenting on anything having to do with Asian Americans for now, but not our indomitable McCain. According to a Vulture article I read today, on the March 24 edition of The View,McCain offered this gem of an observation when discussing Asian American representation:

“The View is 25 years old next year. We’ve only had one Asian American host co-host on this show [Lisa Ling, who was on from the third to fifth seasons, beginning in 1999]. So does that mean that one of us should be leaving at some point because there’s not enough representation? We’re talking about, is identity politics more important than qualifications of a job, and I think that’s a question, going forward, that the progressive left is going to have to reconcile.”

Meghan McCain: "We’ve only had one Asian American host co-host host this show. Does that mean one of us should be leaving because there’s not enough representation? We're talking about — is identity politics more important than the qualifications for the job?" pic.twitter.com/0nN1ilB9Nn

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 24, 2021

I’ve never devoted an entire article to McCain because social media does such an excellent job of calling her out, but at a moment when so many Americans are already using the pandemic as an excuse to revel in anti-Asian racism, I felt compelled to comment on the thinly veiled White supremacy in her comments.

Entitled White people like McCain need to get over this idea that diversity hiring means hiring minorities who aren’t qualified to do the job. Sure, that happens sometimes … but it’s not something that works only in favor of minorities. For centuries, White people have been landing jobs they aren’t qualified for because they are White — or because they are the daughter of a legendary senator.

McCain acts like she assumed her position on the panel of The View based on her own accomplishments and not based on her DNA. And besides that, what exactly qualifies her — or anyone — to spend an hour sharing their opinions? Don’t we all have opinions? Unless I missed something, being a host on The View doesn’t require one to pass a bar exam, go to medical school, or complete an edit test. You don’t even have to realize that the world is round, not flat.

The goal of diversity is not to give handouts to people who don’t deserve them — at least it shouldn’t be. Representation and inclusion on The View should be about presenting points of view by women who don’t just tick the liberal, conservative, Black, and White boxes. The show has done a good enough job of maintaining a White/Black balance, and there’s always a conservative like McCain to rile up the liberals at the table, but it’s preposterous that there hasn’t been an Asian American co-host since 2002.

It shouldn’t take an outbreak of anti-Asian American violence in the US for the panel to start discussing why Asian American representation is so lacking. For McCain to even suggest that adding an AAPI panelist now would mean taking a job away from a more qualified White (or Black) panelist, is the kind of s**t racists have been saying to me my entire life.

I wouldn’t want anyone to lose a job they already have, and diversity doesn’t have to require that. It should begin at the hiring process, not the firing process. If companies and shows like The View made concerted efforts to recruit AAPI talent when looking to fill positions and not just after AAPI discrimination becomes a trending topic, White people like McCain wouldn’t have to get territorial about their status. Perhaps if members of the AAPI community were more visible on TV and in movies outside of stereotypical roles, people wouldn’t be so easily swayed by Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric.

There are plenty of Asian American women who are qualified to do what McCain does. In fact, they can do anything, from hosting a daytime talk show to winning a Best Actress Oscar to being elected vice president of the United States, if given a chance. Recognizing them wouldn’t have to be about eliminating a White woman if tastemakers and the people in charge of recruitment valued them and sought them out in the first place.

White privilege is never having to worry about diversity until you feel your job might be threatened because of it. It’s being able to assume (incorrectly) that when a White person gets a job, it’s based on merit, and for everyone else, it’s a handout. Meghan McCain, your White privilege is showing yet again, and as usual, it’s not a flattering look.

MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross schooled The View‘s Meghan McCain on merit. ‘How Dare You?’ MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross Tears Into ‘Princess’ Meghan McCain for ‘Clumsy and Ill-Informed Thoughts’ on Identity Politics:

“This morning, I’d like to have a conversation about identity politics, and a princess, called Meghan,” said Cross to open her commentary. A photo of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry appeared on screen, and Cross said, “Nope, not that Meghan.”

As a shot from The View appeared, Cross said, “ah, yes. This one. Meghan McCain.”

[Video at the link].

“McCain decided to chide Senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono, who expressed their frustration over the Biden administration’s shortage of senior Asian-Americans. They initially said they would no longer support many of president Biden’s nominees after receiving assurances from the Biden administration that it would elevate Asian-American voices,” said Cross, quickly summarizing the background to McCain’s remarks this week that sparked a controversy.

“In response, McCain, whose talent as far as I can tell is finding great Black hairstylists and benefitting from nepotism, had this to say,” said Cross to introduce the clip of McCain asking if one of The View‘s hosts should “be leaving” in order to make room for an Asian-American host.

“Yes. One of you should definitely lose your job,” said Cross pointedly. “I’ll give you two guesses, but you’ll only need one.”

The segment continued in this way, brutally ripping McCain over basically every aspect of her life.

“Not sure if you guys know this or not because she’s really shy about bringing it up,” Cross said, “but Meghan happens to be the daughter of the late Republican senator John McCain. But don’t tell anyone because obviously she’d never want to bring that up every five minutes in lieu of having actual intellectual exchange.”

That viciously cutting remark was followed by a supercut of McCain saying the words “my father” in various media venues.

“But yes, let’s talk identity politics,” Cross said after the montage. She then told her audience that the phrase “identity politics” was coined by a trio of feminists, including writer Barbara Smith, saying the intent was “articulating Black women’s struggle at the nexus of race, gender and class oppressions.”

“But just like with hairstyles, Meghan, we’ve watched you twist it, braid it, and lock it so it benefits the warped presentation of your clumsy and ill-informed thoughts,” Cross jabbed.

Cross then presented a fairly devastating argument that not only does everyone bring their identity to their political views, but that MAGA and white voters alike are just as driven by and characterized by their “identity” as any group, if not more so.

Cross said that McCain assumes “a person’s ethnic identity may afford them some advantage” due to “projection.”

“When one unconsciously ascribes traits that you don’t like about yourself and attribute them someone else,” she explained. “Like, I don’t know, if my only talent was who I was related to, I might assume that everyone else had some similar, unfair advantage, you know?”

“Everyone deserves to see themselves reflected in this space,” Cross said in her conclusion, “And as someone who grew up yearning to see my lived experience reflected back to me, and then had to crawl, claw, and fight at every turn to take up space in broadcast media, I simply ask: How dare you?”

“From now on, I hope you speak less and listen more, and take a little time to enjoy this view,” said Cross, ending the series of devastating insults with an appeal.

This is the best smackdown of the vapid Princess Meghan I have ever seen. I look forward to the day that I never have to see or hear the name of Meghan McCain ever again in news reports.