Clinton letter to MSNBC

Whatever your feelings for Hillary Clinton, you have to respect her tough stance with MSNBC over the comments by David Shuster.

Mrs. Clinton said in her letter, to Steve Capus, the head of NBC, that she wanted to write personally to convey the “depth of my feeling” about Mr. Shuster’s comments.
“Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient,” she wrote.
She also said that Mr. Capus should look at “the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language.”

The reference was to comments last month by Chris Matthews, an MSNBC anchor, who had suggested Mrs. Clinton had succeeded politically because of sympathy toward her resulting from her husband’s infidelity.
Mr. Shuster apologized on air yesterday and he and network executives apologized to the Clinton family and the campaign.
But those apologies apparently did not assuage Mrs. Clinton, who rarely responds publicly to press coverage. She said in her letter that she understood she was a public figure and that her daughter was playing a public role. She also said she was accustomed to criticism, “certainly from MSNBC.”
“However,” she wrote, “I became Chelsea’s mother long before I ran for any office and I will always be a mom first and a public official second.” (emphasis mine)

The "pimping" comment isn't the worst thing that's been said on MSNBC or other networks, not even by a long shot. But the point Clinton and her campaign are making is an excellent one: Don't use debasing language about myself, my family, and women and expect to carry on business as usual. Inappropriate language will be addressed so that no one thinks that we think it's ok.

Good for Clinton. I'm not sure I'm ready to vote for her, but she's scored a lot of points with me on this, backing up what she has said all along, that she is the candidate best equipped to take on the GOP's smears.