Hello Everyone:

Here is the CNN Reliable Sources transcript from Sunday, May 25 where Howard Kurtz opened this program with credible documentation about the media belittling Hillary, Hillary's sexist treatment by the press, and his excellent panel discussion about all of this with Carol Costello, who reports for "THE SITUATION ROOM" on CNN, radio talk show host Blanquita Cullum, and Marie Cocco, syndicated columnist for "The Washington Post Writers Group:"

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/25/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

Hillary Clinton Complains About Media's Treatment of Women; Interview With Laura Dern

Aired May 25, 2008 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST (voice over): The media and misogyny. Hillary Clinton complains about sexist treatment by the press, and plenty of women seem to agree...

KURTZ: As Hillary Clinton edged another step closer to losing the Democratic nomination this week, the media began to focus on the women out there who are angry. They are angry at seeming to lose the chance to see one of their own in the Oval Office. They are angry at a campaign that has sometimes seemed to focus on Hillary's clothing, cleavage and cackle. And they are angry at the media for belittling their champion.

You can see that in an online video put together by a feminist group and aired on ABC News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: She morphed into a scolding mother talking down to a child.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS: Men won't vote for Hillary Clinton because she reminds them of their nagging wives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear, "Take out the garbage."

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC NEWS: They said you're a guy going door to door trying to sell something. And she said, you'll have to wait for my husband to get home.

MIKE BARNICLE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: When she reacts the way she reacts to Obama, with just the look, the look toward him, looking like everyone's first wife standing outside of probate court...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Hillary herself used her strongest language to date in an interview with The Washington Post's Lois Romano.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's been deeply offensive to millions of women. The manifestation of some of the sexism that has gone on in this campaign is somehow more respectable, or at least more accepted. And I think there should be equal rejection of the sexism and the racism when and if it ever raises its ugly head. But it does seem as though the press, at least, is not as bothered by the incredible vitriol that has been engendered by the comments and the actions of people who are nothing by misogynists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to talk about this, in Baltimore, Carol Costello, who reports for "THE SITUATION ROOM" on CNN. And here in Washington, radio talk show host Blanquita Cullum. And Marie Cocco, syndicated columnist for "The Washington Post Writers Group."

Marie Cocco, what are some of the swipes and slams against Hillary that have bothered you most in the coverage of this campaign? Have we enabled this? Have we allowed this?

MARIE COCCO, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP": Sure. You know, sometimes you put on cable television and you feel like you're in the middle of a locker room.

One of the most memorable lines was last fall, actually, when Tucker Carlson, on MSNBC, was calling Senator Clinton scary and said, you know, "Every time she comes on TV, I instinctively cross my legs." Chris Matthews has said that the male politicians, prominent male politicians, governors, senators who were endorsing Senator Clinton last fall were "castrados in the eunuch chorus."

KURTZ: All right.

Blanquita Cullum, when Hillary Clinton complains about sexism and misogyny in the media, doesn't being a woman, as a candidate, also help her?

BLANQUITA CULLUM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Not really. I've got to say that it hurts her, because the rules are different.

The rules are a lot harder for her, and people -- I think there's almost more sexism than there is racism in this country. And frankly, as you know, she's not been my candidate, but I have to say that I have to really admire her ability to continue almost like a battering ram against her own party that has been the worst in trying to take her down and make her quit.

And a lot of people are watching that and they're saying -- you know, they're secretly behind the scenes saying, you go for it, because you have a right as a candidate to run. And it's not your sex.

KURTZ: You just touched on something that I want to toss to Carol Costello. And that is, do commentators say things about a female candidate, and do journalists quote people as saying things that you could never get away with if somebody were belittling a black candidate?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think that's absolutely true. I think it's OK to say sexist remarks about women in this country. And the best example of that is, remember when that woman stood up at a John McCain campaign rally and she saw that a camera was rolling, she was very well dressed, and she came out and said, "How can we beat the bitch?"

Everybody covered it from John McCain's perspective and how he responded to this woman, but nobody really covered it from this woman's perspective. I mean, what exactly made it OK for her to stand up in front of a rolling camera at a public event and call another woman this name?

CULLUM: And Carol, to that point, you have a situation where people belittled Bill Clinton for telling people, back off on my wife, but no one has said anything to Barack Obama, who made the same statement about his wife...

KURTZ: We'll get to that.

CUMMINGS: ... and told them to back off.

COSTELLO: That's chivalrous. I mean, a man can say that about his wife and that's fine, but Bill Clinton saying that about Hillary is like they want a co-presidency. It's never taken in the same context as what a man would say about his spouse.

KURTZ: But Marie Cocco, are the media being tarred with a pretty broad brush here because of the out-of-bounds comments of a certain number of loudmouths?

COCCO: Well, this is amplified on the Internet, which, you know, may not be the broadcast media, but it is part of the media of this campaign. And if you went to the Internet -- you know, we all know about the false Muslim e-mails that go around about Barack Obama. But if you ever saw the language, the vulgarity, the vitriol that is hauled at Hillary Clinton by liberal Democrats, by the liberal blogs, largely by, frankly, Obama supporters, you'd be appalled. I mean, you'd punish your children for this.

And what I keep coming back to -- and I'm really glad the event with Senator McCain was mentioned, because Senator McCain could have said at that moment, I will accept the premise of your question, which is how am I, the Republican...

KURTZ: But I don't want to talk about Senator McCain. I want to talk about the media. The media played that clip over and over and over again. And yes, it was all couched in terms of the political calculations of John McCain.

COCCO: Right.

KURTZ: Why is it -- is it just that we reflect the culture, that there is a media culture that says it's OK to throw these terms around...

COCCO: Well, you know what, Howard?

KURTZ: ... and talk about the first wives and all of that -- yes.

COCCO: Don Imus was the media culture too. And what happened to Don Imus when he made a sexist and racist comment about the Rutgers women's basketball team? The media pounced on him, the mainstream media pounced on him. The political class pounced on him.

I cannot count the number of politicians who went on television who went on television to denounce Don Imus. And he was basically driven out of his job.

KURTZ: OK.

COSTELLO: Yes, yes, but on the...

KURTZ: Go ahead, Carol.

COSTELLO: But Don Imus, I think it's because the women he maligned were African-American. If they weren't and they were white women, I really believe that nothing would have been said.

CULLUM: And the other part of this is, it's a very fine line, OK? First of all, when you're running for any high office, and especially as it becomes more apparent in a race for the presidency, you know right out front, right out front you've got to be ready for the maligns and the slurs. And as you're right, Maria, when it comes to the Internet, where it's absolutely bigoted, racist, horrible.

Now, I will tell you, I would rather see someone of a strength of character go out there and run and not limit the free speech, because at least you know where people lie and their biases.

KURTZ: All right.

Now Carol, is this -- let me ask you a two-part question. One is, is this allowed, does this flourish because we have a male- dominated media culture in which mostly male executives make these decisions about the tone of what's acceptable? And also, as a woman -- and you're a journalist, you don't take sides -- but when you see a candidate who happens to be a woman like Hillary Clinton getting slapped around like this, does it bother you personally?

COSTELLO: It does bother me personally. I mean, it deeply bothers me. And you know, I've done many stories on "THE SITUATION ROOM" on this.

Something I would like to say, you know, we sit around and we blame males for sexist comments, but women are guilty as well. I remember Jane Fonda came out and called Hillary Clinton, what, a "patriarch with a vagina"?

Laura Ingraham, the conservative radio talk show host, played the Wicked Witch of the West music every time she talked about Hillary Clinton. Randi Rhodes, a liberal woman talker, she called Hillary Clinton a term I cannot say on television, but at least she was fired about it.

But women play into this sexist culture as well because -- you know, explain to me, ladies, why women do this when they have been in the same place as Hillary Clinton, fighting to get to the top. They know what it's like and yet they play into this.

KURTZ: Right.

COSTELLO: And they get away with it because the media doesn't cover that part. It's OK if a woman says it about another woman.

KURTZ: That's an excellent point. And we shouldn't hang it all on men because you gave all the examples.

I need to move on now..."

I wish that CNN made a video of this dialogue because it was excellent in my opinion.

Howard Kurtz and his show CNN Reliable Sources in my opinion are like the Eliot Ness of the media. Kurtz is one good media cop who cannot be bought off and he will expose media corruption as he honestly sees it!

Please forward this important information on so that people know the truth about the hit job that the media is doing on Hillary right now which in my opinion is a huge reason why Obama is in the position that he is in right now!

Mitch Dworkin

http://www.securingamerica.com/

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/10756
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