After Madonna dropped a couple of F-bombs while being covered live on CNN and MSNBC, NBC analyst Mike Murphy tweeted this about the Women's March protests.
https://twitter.com/murphymike/status/822848901027799040
Brian Williams brought up Murphy's tweet to MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell and asked about the effect these speeches actually have.
Williams said, "..and then came a choice swear word and we also saw and heard some real hyperbole from the other speakers. Mike made the point that as he put it, the far left speakers at events at this always end up hurting the cause. it does happen. It's a dynamic. It's a thing, Lawrence, and how much do you think it's a thing today?"
OMG Madonna used the eff word look at those foul-mouthed feminists omg omg omg the death of society!
And then Brian Williams suggests such language "hurts the cause"? What cause is that? The cause of tax cuts for millionaires like Williams? Not hurt one bit under Trump, believe me.
Lawrence O'Donnell then gave Brian Williams a lesson in politics and political dissent:
"There's actually no historical back-up for that. Of you look at the protest movements of the past, the Civil rights movement, on this scale, the Vietnam protest, they actually achieved the goals."
"They achieved the governing outcomes they were looking for, voting rights act, Civil right act. The Vietnam war ended because it was protested to an end in the United states. This democracy could not sustain that war because enough people turned against it and the protest movement, the records show every day of the Vietnam protest movement only turned more people against the Vietnam war."
I'm wondering when Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council is going to come out and say that Madonna's two f-bombs traumatized their children?
O'Donnell explained how Conservatives always mock left wing protests and said while they were on sitting their sofas, that they would turn off Americans, but they didn't.
He addressed the complaints about Madonna's profanity by making the case that curse words are heard on almost every cable, pay per view and streaming network on a daily basis.
He said, "As long as those people behave in a way that is just, you know, is somehow across the line of network broadcast standards, then no one's going to listen to them and people will think they're crazy."
Lawrence continued, " ...and so, you know, Madonna used words today we all used, we're not accustomed to hear them on certain TV channels. Now you can hear them on most television channels, in fact. You just can't hear them on news channels and the general broadcast channels, and so, that's always been one -- that calculation of the people who have never marched and never protest anything always think that marches and protests have a negative effect."
And so endeth the lesson.
It wasn't until protests ramped up against George Bush and the Iraq war, led by Cindy Sheehan, during the summer of 2005, when America really turned against Bush and the war.
And Cindy was mocked and attacked by the press and the right wing media incessantly by using her son Casey, who died in the war against her.
The Rude One has his opinion about Cindy: "So often symbols of protest are created by the power of the opposition. Right now, Bush is making Cindy Sheehan into a more powerful figure than he could ever imagine."
My colleague Frances Langum makes a great point:
The important thing about Madonna's speech wasn't that she said a swear word. It's that she punched back hard with the nastiest word possible against Women's March detractors. This march wasn't about being lady-like or living up to the broadcast standards of cable news and its millionaire anchors.
Madonna went ON OFFENSE and said eff you to those who would put the marchers down.
The marches today were about power, and who has more of it. Donald and those who would denigrate women found out that we do.
