Head Strong | No offense, but then again ...

By Michael Smerconish

October 21,2007

 

Time for the return of the Muzzle Meter.

You know it's time when the recent news includes reports that: Ann Coulter thinks Jews need to be "perfected"; Bill O'Reilly was surprised by the good behavior displayed in Harlem; Rush Limbaugh thinks soldiers who speak out are phony; and Barack Obama believes American flag pins aren't patriotic.

 

The Muzzle Meter (MM) is my measuring rod for evaluating speech with possible PC implications. It's all gut-based. No science here and no political litmus applied. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once wrote about pornography: "I know it when I see it . . . "

 

A high score indicates speech that really is offensive (think: Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic drinking binge - a "10" on the MM), while a low score means the outrage is unwarranted (as when Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. called Obama an "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" - a "0").

 

Donny Deutsch. The host of CNBC's The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch didn't say anything offensive, but he gave a platform to someone who did. Normally, enablers don't warrant an MM rating, but that changes when the person you are facilitating is Ann Coulter.

 

Coulter is the previous recipient of a "9" MM reading for saying the following at a conservative convention: "I would comment on John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word faggot."

 

Coulter's reappearance makes her an MM recidivist, a deliberate, serial offender who steps up her game to coincide with her book releases.

 

So I blame Deutsch for giving Coulter the microphone that allowed her to say what she said. Deutsch asked whether she wanted to be like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and wipe Israel off the face of the planet. She replied: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. . . . That's what Christianity is."

 

In so doing, Coulter gave Deutsch exactly what he needed for his fledgling CNBC show. She hiked up the skirt, let down the blond hair, and said something stupid. Deutsch was about as shocked as Claude Raines in Casablanca when he learned there was gambling in Rick's Cafˇ. Shame on you, Donny. MM reading: 10.

 

Bill O'Reilly. NPR's Juan Williams was O'Reilly's radio guest Sept. 19, and the subject was race relations. O'Reilly referenced a recent meal with Al Sharpton at Sylvia's, a legendary soul food restaurant in Harlem, when he said: "I mean it's exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronage. It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun."

 

Critics cried foul and wondered what O'Reilly expected in an African American restaurant. Coming to his defense was Williams (an African American), who explained in Time magazine that O'Reilly offered those comments while making a larger point: That the image of blacks that coalesces from rap songs and music videos is not representative of how most African Americans act.

 

Not convinced? Williams detailed that during the same radio conversation, O'Reilly criticized his own grandmother for her views, which emanated from the very images O'Reilly and Williams were condemning. MM reading: 1.

 

Rush Limbaugh. The "phony soldiers" controversy is indeed phony. Chronology is key.

 

On Tuesday, Sept. 25, Limbaugh's Morning Update - a prerecorded segment - was a discussion of Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth. He's a war critic who claimed his Ranger unit perpetrated war crimes in Iraq. He was later found to have failed basic training. Macbeth never made it to Iraq and never saw any of the U.S.-perpetrated abuses he has described.

 

During the following day's radio program, Limbaugh offered the now infamous "phony soldiers" description. And exactly two minutes and 12 seconds later, Limbaugh revisited the subject of Tuesday's Morning Update: "Army Ranger" Jesse Macbeth.

 

Those condemning Limbaugh in this case reference only his "phony soldiers" utterance without giving him the benefit of what he said one day prior or two minutes later. A fair airing of all of the above makes it clear that Limbaugh was talking about one man who is indeed a phony soldier. Muzzle Meter reading: 0.

 

Chris Matthews. "They will not silence me!" Matthews assured at a 10th-anniversary celebration for his MSNBC show Hardball. Matthews said the Bush administration - specifically the vice president's office - had tried unsuccessfully to influence the content of his program, and had "finally been caught in their criminality" (apparently a reference to Scooter Libby).

 

Some wondered if Matthews could still fairly moderate the GOP presidential debate coming up a few days later. He did, and no one complained about his treatment of the candidates. Why would they? His comment was about the current administration, not the GOP as a whole.

 

Moreover, Matthews is a pundit. He offers opinions for a living. How ridiculous to invite a pundit to moderate a debate and then question his fitness . . . because he engaged in punditry. Muzzle Meter reading: 0.

 

Barack Obama. Obama told a television reporter in Iowa he doesn't wear an American flag pin on his lapel, as many politicians do, because the pins "became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security."

 

He's right, of course. But of course, any mention of Old Glory causes some to thump their chests. Hence the controversy.

 

Wearing my Phillies hat didn't make me any more of a fan of the Fightin's than the next guy. Muzzle Meter Reading: 0.

 

Teri Hatcher. In the season premiere of ABC's Desperate Housewives, her character Susan was upset when a doctor suggested she might be going through menopause.

 

"OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas?" Susan responds. "Just to make sure they aren't, like, from some med school in the Philippines?"

 

The scene made international headlines and prompted a response from the Philippine government. ABC ultimately apologized. But give it to the gal from Wisteria Lane - who among us has not sat waiting in an examining room with a trained eye on the sheepskin, hoping for the Ivies?

 

Muzzle Meter reading: 1.

 

Michael Smerconish's column appears on Thursdays in the Daily News and on Sundays in Currents. He can be heard from 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays on "The Big Talker," WPHT-AM (1210). Contact him via the Web at http://www.mastalk.com.