Must watch: “Daily Show” destroys liberal columnist over “civility” hypocrisy
posted at 5:12 pm on January 13, 2012 by Allahpundit
An instant classic, possibly even superior to their interview with that imbecile in San Francisco who wants to ban Happy Meals. Let me tweak the headline, though, since it’s not quite accurate. Better version: “Liberal columnist destroys herself as ‘Daily Show’ cameras roll.” It’s Froma Harrop, whom you’ll remember from her column in August comparing tea partiers — unfavorably — to terrorists who want to blow up the power grid. How they managed to pull off this goof without her wising up, I simply can’t imagine. She must have wised up but, for reasons known only to her, decided to play along with the humiliation. (Being a “good sport,” maybe?) Either that or what we’re seeing here is actually a tour de force of editing that turned what was a routine interview into a surreal expose of oblivious hypocrisy. No one be this clueless for real. Can they?
Besides, people like Harrop and the DNC’s current talking-points robot typically don’t do what they do because they’re blind to their own demagoguery, I think. To believe that is to let them off the hook for the cynical choice they’ve consciously made to smear their opponents for political advantage. There’s plenty of paranoia involved, no doubt, but it’s all in service to an agenda. If Harrop was genuinely this myopic, you could almost forgive her for it. Almost.
Update: Had a video glitch there for a second but it should be working now.
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I don’t get it.
-Maureen Dowd
pat on January 13, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Why isn’t this woman a senior official in the Obama Admin?
Tim_CA on January 13, 2012 at 6:31 PM
I wonder if OWS popped that comedy cherry for The Daily Show? They went viral with that stuff vs their typical MSNBC impressions. Or does MSNBC impersonate them? It’s funny that given a choice between the two on where to get ‘hard news’ I’d choose the Daily Show.
MechanicalBill on January 13, 2012 at 6:31 PM
I was laughing so hard I think I popped a few veins.
Awesome.
The only thing better would be video of Ms. Harrop’s reaction to seeing this, and realizing she’s the laughingstock of the right and the eye-rolling shame of the left.
Splashman on January 13, 2012 at 6:35 PM
You’d think that she’d have to be in on the joke, but now I’m starting to lean more toward cluelessness. From Wikipedia:
“Harrop is the President of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. One project of the NCEW is the Civility Project, aimed at restoring civility to America’s public discourse. Her position was criticized by the Wall Street Journal, which noted the contrast between this role and her comparison of the Tea Party to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. In her response to the criticism, Harrop stated, “I see incivility as not letting other people speak their piece.” She subsequently deleted all the comments from the post and shut down the commenting feature of her blog.”
PerceptorII on January 13, 2012 at 6:37 PM
I think she’s being clever by half if she wants to make the case she was in on it. She just played out what we see every day in our editorial pages.
DanMan on January 13, 2012 at 6:38 PM
I think we all feel sorry for her family.
squint on January 13, 2012 at 6:44 PM
Even her name is right out of central casting for a clueless twit: Harrop. You can hear the liberal version of Colonel Blimp clearing his (or her) throat prior to pronouncing anathema on the Tea Party.
No Truce With Kings on January 13, 2012 at 6:51 PM
I guess being in charge of the “Civility Project” she figured it was up to her to define civility…and to whom that definition should / should not apply.
dont taze me bro on January 13, 2012 at 6:56 PM
I suspect she’s the recess appointment Civility Czar, and the One just hasn’t gotten around to announcing it yet.
Marcola on January 13, 2012 at 6:57 PM
Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO get the irony of my post, although some evidently do not. I’d tend not to use the sarc tac when the meaning of my posts is patently obvious.
As far as I know, since I do not watch the show, these are the only examples not just in the last months, but ever, for has long as his show existed. However long that may be.
Yeah I never watch him either, but a friend had told me about it a while back
Speaking of friends, say hello to Ford next time you see him.
Lily on January 13, 2012 at 6:58 PM
I agree. Watch the edits. They’re cutting around her. She’s acting, but not so well that they can afford to keep the camera on her for more than a couple of seconds. I give her credit for gamely going along as the ostensible (but in ways unknown to her, actual) butt of a Daily Show skit. The interviewer (John Oliver) is the one who gives it away, in his first response to Harrop: “Right, people need to tone it the *bleep* down.” Her reaction… well, as I said, she can’t act, but she’s game.
de rigueur on January 13, 2012 at 6:58 PM
I have read her columns and think Harrop is smarter than the average editorial writer. I believe her humiliation was self-imposed out of guilt. We’ll see how she writes in the future.
thuja on January 13, 2012 at 6:59 PM
Its entirely possible I went to high school with her daughter…how many smug liberal Harrops could there possibly be living in Providence RI?
vegconservative on January 13, 2012 at 7:01 PM
When all else fails… lock them in an elevator (code for re-education camp).
-
RalphyBoy on January 13, 2012 at 7:05 PM
Why does this remind me of “who’s on first?” towards the end?
darkpixel on January 13, 2012 at 7:11 PM
the power fueling denial is proportional to the fear of exposure.
the more the truth would hurt, the more powerful the displacement.
the 2 things that libs and leftists are most afraid to admit is (A) that their social program is a horrific failure – as proved by the successes of reagan and thatcher and russia and china and the current wave of downgrades in europe; and (B) that we are in a global religious war.
their fear fuels the denial – and the attacks on the right.
reliapundit on January 13, 2012 at 7:13 PM
This is funny but I hope everyone realizes how much editing was done to make her look like a drooling moron with a complete lack of insight.
ZGMF_Freedom on January 13, 2012 at 7:14 PM
I believe they always screw around with the editing on stuff like that. The outrageous statements by the interviewer usually happen at the end of the realtime interview. After they get all the footage they need of deadpan responses, they’ll push as far as they can until they get kicked out. Then they just move the reactions up to the front of the aired version for comedic effect.
People trying to guess whether this freak was “in on the joke” are missing the whole point. Anyone can be made to look silly with the right editing. But this libtard has had MONTHS to try and put together some sort of remotely coherent rationalization for her statements – to give at least a vague hint that she might be capable of the slightest degree of objective thought. If that were possible, she’d have done it a very long time ago.
Even if this this entire interview were scripted and rehersed, that wouldn’t change anything. “Playing along” or not, this lady isn’t telling a joke — she is the joke.
logis on January 13, 2012 at 7:17 PM
It was absurd enough that even the otherwise humorless, seal-clapping leftist audience couldn’t help but laugh at it by the end.
Blacklake on January 13, 2012 at 7:17 PM
So when I attended a few TEA Parties and complained about out-of-control federal spending that will impoverish my children and my grandchildren, and she then referred to me as a “terrorist”, that was irony, but when I said, “Froma, you ignorant slut!”, that was incivility??
Have I got that right??
fred5678 on January 13, 2012 at 7:21 PM
First there was the JEWISH DNC Chair Rep Debbie Wassermannn-Shultz (D-FL) spewing and purveying her form of hatred against the group of people known as the Tea Party…she is a ‘government official’ purveying hatred !!
Now we have another prominent JEW in the media, Froma Harrop, spewing and purveying her hatred of the TEA PARTY !
The NAZI Party purveyed the same type hatred of the JEWS prior to the halocaust! Why have these prominent Jews not learned that lesson of history ??
BigSven on January 13, 2012 at 7:28 PM
I think the Daily Showgot it both ways with her. She thought she was in on something– quite possibly by “going along” to show that she didn’t take her own commentary “that seriously,” so it really wasn’t all that bad– but they had her in something else about which she was clueless. A little like Oscar Levant’s famous line about Hollywood: “Strip away the phony tinsel and you’ll find the real tinsel underneath.” You’re right, she is the joke. John Stewart polishing his “objectivity” creds?
de rigueur on January 13, 2012 at 7:38 PM
In the words of Vin Scully, “I don’t believe what I just saw. . .”
Chuckles3 on January 13, 2012 at 7:45 PM
I love the leftist trolls who start complaining about editing. These are the same people who have lived their lives living off of all things edited in favor of the Left
here’s an oldie just for you oldsters..but read the whole thing, becaues conservatives need to understand battles
Or the famous one wrt Eisenhower’s warning of the mil-industry complex…followed of course by this
Talk about prophetic. But no the leftist always prefers the edited one….I mean, what would we do without the Lysenkoism of AGW
r keller on January 13, 2012 at 7:46 PM
Yes as someone poster from her blog it appears she was in on this.
I don’t think she has changed much but I actually thought she had a couple good points here:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111229/OPINION03/112290337/1431/OPINION0351/Middle-class-helped-its-own-demise
CW on January 13, 2012 at 7:53 PM
Thank goodness, I was thinking everybody just thought I was stupid.
Cindy Munford on January 13, 2012 at 8:08 PM
Something seemed off here as though it was staged and she was playing the part just to play the part.
SouthernGent on January 13, 2012 at 8:23 PM
Aha – someone who knows who I am.
Trillian and Zaphod said hi back.
dentarthurdent on January 13, 2012 at 8:24 PM
Shirley you jest.
Someone picked a bad day to quit smoking/drinking/snorting…..
dentarthurdent on January 13, 2012 at 8:27 PM
LOL!
Cindy Munford on January 13, 2012 at 8:37 PM
I think she is…she totally looks completely different!
We just know her as Press Secretary Jay Carney.
KOOLAID2 on January 13, 2012 at 8:39 PM
She’s in on it. Maybe she thinks of it as penance.
On her website she says she’s interviewed by the daily show and the joke is on her.
Mr. Bingley on January 13, 2012 at 9:08 PM
I guess if I got saddled with a name like ‘Froma Harrop’ I’d be and obtuse, contrary bit$(h too….
More power too ya sister!!!!
BigWyo on January 13, 2012 at 9:49 PM
She’s too stupid to know that she’s this stupid. She actually thinks she’s “in on the joke” and that this is both funny and defensible from her lunatic-fringe-lefty point of view.
Jaibones on January 13, 2012 at 9:53 PM
She was in on a pay check….
BigWyo on January 13, 2012 at 9:53 PM
Excellent editing. I’m pretty sure the Daily Show guy said something to her like “let’s practice. We’ll go in an elevator, and I’ll try out that line you gave me. You can tell me if I did it right.” – something along those lines.
Either way, she WAS clueless. I doubt she still is. (at least, she knows what people think of her. )
Book on January 13, 2012 at 10:11 PM
So, let’s see. The original item is about a person who is seemingly unaware of the fact that she is part of the problem she is condemning.
BigSven responds by warning of the dangers of Nazi hatred against Jews in a comment which itself delves into antisemitism.
I don’t know if this is a parody or if BigSven is himself demonstrating a stunning lack of self-awareness, but either way it’s in bad taste and it’s not appropriate for this web site.
J.S.K. on January 13, 2012 at 10:19 PM
I don’t get it.
-Maureen Dowd
pat on January 13, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Not since Michael Douglas went all “head over heels” for that Welsh Witch.
The reason why Maureen has been all grouchy and tense for awhile. Menopause is probably hitting her, too. All those wasted years!
Horace on January 13, 2012 at 10:24 PM
I think she had long since rationalized all this to the point where she really couldn’t imagine a “friendly liberal” seeing any irony.
So yes, she was just that clueless.
And now, of course, she just thinks if only she could have explained it a little better, they would see she is right.
tom on January 13, 2012 at 10:29 PM
This. They are fully aware of the poison they spew.
nukemhill on January 13, 2012 at 10:40 PM
I’ll admit I was a bit jolted by the all caps “JEW” bit, but once you read to the end, Sven just seems to be trying to make the point that one would assume Jewish people would be particularly sensitive to the politics of demonization. Made sense to me, anyway. Kind of like the assumption that the Japanese would be especially wary of nuclear weapons.
Nom de Boom on January 13, 2012 at 11:02 PM
IMO, she isn’t deluded at all, that is her reality. She is likely surrounded by others that share her views in part so it became their group reality. Ideas outside the group reality are rejected. To acknowledge them would rip their reality apart.
roy_batty on January 13, 2012 at 11:04 PM
Bad publicity is still publicity.
TimBuk3 on January 13, 2012 at 11:19 PM
I honestly believe that there is a part of the human brain that detects and prevents hypocritical behavior. A genetic defect of some sort prevents this part of the brain from developing, thus producing a mutant form of life that we would recognize today as liberals.
Crusty on January 13, 2012 at 11:33 PM
Ah. The great Harry Potter interview of Severus Snape.
StubbleSpark on January 13, 2012 at 11:52 PM
Either way, that was brilliant.
Costa on January 14, 2012 at 12:04 AM
Yup. It was great. I haven’t laughed this much in hours.
unclesmrgol on January 14, 2012 at 12:06 AM
You can’t spelled FROMA HARROP without From A Pharro.
profitsbeard on January 14, 2012 at 12:24 AM
MSM Lies!!!!!!
lol great show… it deserves more coverage on HotAir. Especially the great interviews they do.
lexhamfox on January 14, 2012 at 12:58 AM
She is over qualified.
csdeven on January 14, 2012 at 1:07 AM
So if The Daily Show took some liberties with the editing (not a stretch), and Froma Harrop has this neat blog of hers, why doesn’t she just tell us her argument that ended up on the cutting-room floor? I mean, since it neatly explains why the Tea Party is uncivil but her calling the Tea Party terrorists isn’t, and all.
bmmg39 on January 14, 2012 at 1:10 AM
Hilarious
netster007x on January 14, 2012 at 1:20 AM
BigSven on January 13, 2012 at 7:28 PM
Are you serious? Either way, you should clarify.
Esthier on January 14, 2012 at 1:48 AM
She’s the genuine article, sure enough. Liberals who think they are intelligent based on …. nothing but what they think.
Sherman1864 on January 14, 2012 at 3:46 AM
This liberal tactic of of trying to ‘demonize the message’ does not work with BigSven. Trying to stifle a message in this fashion is abhorrent.
Again, we see that liberals hate to have actual facts of history used as examples of why prominent government officials, and prominent big media types should not engage in purveying unfounded hate and distortion about groups (Tea Party)they disagree with.
This is exactly how the path down the ‘slippery slope’ begins. Isolate, marginalize, demonize. Lies and distortion are the tools in this process. Again, you have a group of people, the Jews, who were persecuted in this very way by government officials (Goebels), and the MSM big media (Nazi press). That is a lesson of history we must not forget and don’t want repeated.
Just why do you think we have a Halocaust museum? Is it just a place to spend a few hours on the weekend? I think NOT. It is the responsibility of every citizen to point out the lies and distortion and demonetization against a group of people (Tea Party), especially from high government officials and the prominent media journalists, who happen to be Jewish, and should know their history.
BigSven on January 14, 2012 at 5:14 AM
She did post her argument on her blog when all this initially came up and it was the same argument she presented here. She argued that everyone should be civil but since she’s always right it’s OK for her to be uncivil to anyone who disagrees with her because they don’t deserve civility. That’s the mind of a lib.
tommyboy on January 14, 2012 at 6:40 AM
Yes. Froma is an ignorant slut.
BigAlSouth on January 14, 2012 at 6:40 AM
ROTFLMAO doesn’t even begin to describe how much this made me laugh. Coffee stains on my my keyboard and monitor.
LonelyMassRepublican on January 14, 2012 at 7:07 AM
This looks like a send up done with her tongue in cheek cooperation.
aloysiusmiller on January 14, 2012 at 8:23 AM
This can’t be for real. Can it?
flipflop on January 14, 2012 at 8:50 AM
I’m disturbed by how very smug she looks. I can imagine her hiring a servant for no other reason than to be a person who has servants.
caldfyr on January 14, 2012 at 8:53 AM
I keep hearing that the Daily Show is “funny”. I get sucked into watching the linked clips because I’m told they’re “funny”. Is this humor to the left?
hawkdriver on January 14, 2012 at 9:01 AM
I find it hard to believe she’s this obtuse but, then again, she looked so sincere.
LizardLips on January 14, 2012 at 9:06 AM
Okay, I watched the link to the Happy Meals. Whoever that guy is, he’s funny.
hawkdriver on January 14, 2012 at 9:08 AM
If you don’t think she can be that “clueless”, you have obviously never read her columns. James Taranto had a field day with that column when it was published
pgrossjr on January 14, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Big Sven refers to himself in the third person?
TugboatPhil on January 14, 2012 at 9:27 AM
He’s just that big, Phil.
Mr. D on January 14, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Simply look at the gatherings of Tea Parties and Occupiers and who needs the most clearing up afterward. Most important, just their names alone should show who has is the most civil.
MSGTAS on January 14, 2012 at 9:56 AM
There was an email published yesterday from the DNC or the Obama campaign (J Messina) that is not only inflammatory, it specifically uses the word “kill” relative to what Obama will do relative to the GOP candidates. Did anybody else see this or remember source. They absolutely used the word “kill.” Unbelievable.
matthew8787 on January 14, 2012 at 10:01 AM
I really do think that people like Froma have lived in a little bubble for 25 years. Those only people who ever challenge their comfortable assumptions are icky Tea Partiers and Rush Limbaugh.
The bubble wrap explains, in part, why liberals are so poor at defending their “ideas.”
Look at Paul Krugnuts. People who don’t agree with him are evil troglodytes who must be destroyed by any means necessary.
johnboy on January 14, 2012 at 10:06 AM
As I mentioned over at AoS HQ I can’t believe any adult could be this clueless and still manage to feed themselves much less hold a job. On the other hand why would she go along with something that makes her look so foolish? What is in it for her?
AndrewsDad on January 14, 2012 at 10:09 AM
This sounds incredibly familiar.
Like this sketch from A Bit of Fry and Laurie about firing the person in charge of firing people.
(you should skip to the 2 minute mark, it’s almost deja vu)
here.
DrAllecon on January 14, 2012 at 10:26 AM
The m.o. of liberalism: liberals make the rules and decide who the rules apply to.
JustTruth101 on January 14, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Exactly. For me, it was funny up to this point.
labrat on January 14, 2012 at 11:20 AM
So Harpo CAN speak!
BRunner on January 14, 2012 at 11:25 AM
Allow me to predict the future.
She will say that she was in on the joke.
johnboy on January 14, 2012 at 11:32 AM
I have no doubt she thought she was “in” on the joke, not realizing she was the joke.
WisRich on January 14, 2012 at 12:26 PM
We all know the dems call for civil discourse was code for shutting people up who disagree with their policies.
Wigglesworth on January 14, 2012 at 2:43 PM
The “demonetization” typo was a great Freudian slip!
With all due respect — and fully understanding your point — whether individuals are Jewish or not is really irrelevant (as every race has been victimized in some way, some more recent than others).
I exhort you to remember this simple quote by a Holocaust survivor:
“There are only two races, the decent and the indecent.”
– Viktor Frankl
ShainS on January 14, 2012 at 3:05 PM
For those who don’t watch the Colbert report, they did a great colab with Trevor Potter (former FEC chair) and Jon Stewart. Nutshell, they transferred over the Colbert Superpac in minutes to Stewart and showed how ridiculous the current PAC laws are.
Linky
mythicknight on January 14, 2012 at 3:11 PM
That was brutal…. but hilarious!
Yakko77 on January 14, 2012 at 3:28 PM
Eh, maybe. But all that really wouldn’t have been necessary. They could have just told her God’s honest truth: that they were out to expose hyporcrisy among political bloggers. It never would have occurred to her in a million years that they were referring to anything she said.
Then they could have done an interview about all those “evil murderous” conservatives out there, and just re-spliced it in editing.
Maybe after watching the finished product five or six times, and after hearing everybody make fun of her, she might have finally started to get an inkling of what they were talking about. But even if she did, it probably faded a few minutes later.
logis on January 14, 2012 at 4:51 PM
She had to have been playing along to a certain degree. No one, not even a radical leftist could be that stupid. I’m not so much saying that she’s feigning ignorance over her own hypocrisy (I can easily imagine that) but the guy was so clearly referring to her, she had to have been in on it to act clueless the whole time. Why she would do that, I have no idea, because it didn’t help how she looked.
Of course thats kind of a common theme with the Daily Show guests. They tend to try to play along (maybe hoping they’d come across as funny, or that the show would be nicer to them if they made life easier for them?) and the DS always turns that around to make them sound like idiots.
LukeinNE on January 14, 2012 at 5:25 PM
…and they are considered the intellectual elites.
thePunditz on January 14, 2012 at 7:03 PM
Well I am finding it hard to believe the Tea Party is racist or a terrorist organization. I have yet to be lynched after attending the events and not one of those crazy economic terrorists have tried to saw my head on video tape, go figure. I must have went to the wrong rallie/meetings!
Africanus on January 14, 2012 at 7:53 PM
RES IPSA LOQUITUR
If you need 100 comments to wonder if there was a deeper meaning, they didn’t get it.
So it stands as her looking foolish, period.
barnone on January 14, 2012 at 8:54 PM
One of Obowma’s “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”?
dthorny on January 14, 2012 at 10:10 PM
That was Brilliant. Harrop’s as dumb as a rock and it’s all on the record.
rcl on January 14, 2012 at 11:30 PM
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