The Last Word Addresses “The Stench” Satire…
After Politico’s Roger Simon penned a satire about Mitt Romney being called “The Stench” by Paul Ryan, a satire which some outlets thought was real, including MSNBC’s “The Last Word”, the Last Word staff took to the internet to pen an apology…
We tried to book Roger Simon yesterday to discuss his piece but he was unavailable. Had he been a guest on the show, it obviously would have been clear that his piece was not meant to be taken literally. We regret and apologize for presenting some of the quotes in Roger Simon’s piece the way we did.
Yes, I agree that it should have been an on air apology…the incident occurred on air so the apology should as well…
September 27, 2012 at 7:16 pm
It fooled a lot of people. I’m all for political satire, but perhaps it should have been labeled as such. After the precedent of Sarah Palin “going rogue”, and Mitt Romney having to talk a crowd a crowd into chanting his name as well as Ryan’s, the article had a high plausibility factor which threw people off. It’s widely held that picking Ryan is considered more damaging to Ryan than helpful to Mitt, so…
September 27, 2012 at 7:26 pm
It shouldn’t have fooled anyone who read far enough to see the bit about Microsoft and Internet Explorer…
September 27, 2012 at 7:28 pm
It fooled leftwing ideologues who jump at anything to attack Romney.
Just as rightwing ideolgoues fall for it too when it comes to Obama.
September 27, 2012 at 7:36 pm
I got the joke because I read the whole thing and know that Roger Simon has a dry sense of humor, but too many people picked up quotes of it from Twitter, and ran with #TheStench as if it was a real thing. Including the staff of The Last Word, apparently…
Eric, plenty of righties sucked it up, too. There was a large contingent of Ryan groupies on Twitter who sided with him against Romney.
September 27, 2012 at 7:43 pm
My understanding is that those on the right believed that Ryan was being sarcastic with the use of the word and didn’t literally mean it.
I don’t follow Twitter much so I’ll defer to you.
September 27, 2012 at 7:48 pm
Well this makes O’Donnell look like a real idiot. Oh well, it happens. He gets enough credit for calling out Trump for the fraud that he is that I’ll forgive a hilariously stupid whiff this was.
September 27, 2012 at 8:06 pm
I first saw the “stench” thing on HuffPo and before I knew whether it was real or not it struck me as hilarious.
An on-air apology would be the right thing to do and it’d give Lawrence O’Donnell the perfect opportunity to poke a good-natured fun at himself. It’s really hard to think someone a real idiot after they step-up and laugh at them self.
September 27, 2012 at 9:06 pm
What, if anything, has Larry ever done to suggest that he’s anything other than an Olbermann-esque ego clone?
Same old, same old.
September 27, 2012 at 9:09 pm
I seem to recall him making a prominent apology, early on in the show. It was a great contrast with his predecessor. I don’t watch, so that’s all I got.
September 27, 2012 at 9:15 pm
@ Joe
Apparently the story about Romney and the chanting is untrue. There was recently a story on HuffPo saying that’s not what happened… despite MSNBC reporting it that way.
In fact, some are charging that MSNBC may have intentionally mis-edited the story.
September 27, 2012 at 9:20 pm
I saw the segment live and, because it was so over the top, assumed it was a satire and that I had just missed the part where they say it’s a joke. Maybe LOD and his producers thought all their audience would know it was fake but that really isn’t an excuse for them not to inform the viewers.
The apology itself kind of sounds like that’s what they assumed would occur.
“Had he (Roger Simon) been a guest on the show, it obviously would have been clear that his piece was not meant to be taken literally”
That says, to me anyway, they would have discussed the reasons for writing the parody and the joke would be evident. Roger Simon didn’t show and the just dropped that part of the segment.
And it’s not like O’Donnell doesn’t do on air apologies; he has done some of the best ever written.
That being said whatever happened there should have been an on air apology and maybe there will still be one; if Roger Simon comes on the show.
September 27, 2012 at 10:01 pm
I’ve seen the “Romney/Ryan” chant a dozen times. Romney says “how ’bout that Ryan”, then they start chanting, “Ryan! Ryan!” Romney stops them and tries to get “Romney/Ryan” going, then cuts it off as if they had actually followed along. You hear one meek “Romney” right at the end. It’s a straight clip..there’s no jumpcut.
September 27, 2012 at 10:06 pm
some are charging that MSNBC may have intentionally mis-edited the story.
I realise they and others have been caught mis-editing before, but you have to admit that the premise of the satire is so freaking perfect for a telly show to exploit no matter who they are. It was also written to exploit the mindset of most readers regardless of their political POV – unless you’re a fine print/footnote snob you’d prolly miss that most important part.
September 28, 2012 at 4:46 am
Defending MSNBC is pretty much like defending “legitimate” rape.
September 28, 2012 at 4:55 am
The correct abbreviation for “stench” is M S N B C.
September 28, 2012 at 5:00 am
Maybe LOD and his producers thought all their audience would know it was fake
That’d make a heck of a slogan: MSNBC: Most of the Time, You Can Tell When We’re Doing Fake News
September 28, 2012 at 7:11 am
[...] at Inside Cable News argues that the show should have apologized on-air for the incident, because after all, how many people who watch the show in TV are really reading [...]