August 2, 2009
Michelle Malkin with the Sound Off
Before taking aim at ABC for actually inviting the far right-wing provocateur Michelle Malkin onto their Sunday talk show with Stephanopoulos, I have to say it was actually fascinating studying her behavior.
It’s instructive to watch it with the sound on to hear the kind of presumption she uses in speaking for the American people or assigning phrases to them that she has coined herself on her blog. It’s also interesting to listen to how, like a too-leading and tightly-wound prosecuting attorney, she ascribes an actively conspiratorial dimension to all things Democratic or Presidential at every turn. It’s even more interesting, though, to study Ms. Malkin with the sound off.
You might think the screen grab above is unfair, like a sliver or instant pulled out-of-context in which any of us might look ready to be committed. I could offer you any number of other stills from this program, however, that isolate Ms. Malkin’s disturbed affect, incendiary manner and inability, as she gets herself going, to make eye contact. If you watch her, she doesn’t suggest or propose so much as she starts to ignite. She doesn’t recognize or acknowledge so much as she she glares and stares, her eyes and her body, when it’s her turn to speak, constantly darting, punctuating, escalating, agitating.
In the tradition of Limbaugh or Coulter, Michelle Malkin’s anger is always looking to break through to the surface, and when it does, it’s often palpable to the point of paranoia. This image is not exceptional, it is characteristic.
31 Comments Leave a comment
DennisQ said:
Malkin’s animated facial expressions don’t overcome the triteness of her message. For example, her claim that unemployment benefits make people lazy was easily contradicted by the other panelists. If there are 20 openings at Starbuck’s, they noted, 600 people show up to apply.
As each issue was raised, Malkin continued to contribute the usual right wing talking points. Instead of interacting with the other panelists, Malkin just repeated her original statement. That’s not dialogue, that’s talking down to other people.
When Bush was president, refused to enter into the give-and-take of a genuine discussion. He’d say, Because I’m the decider, that’s why. Today, his supporters, now grown fat and lazy, are struggling for relevance.
Malkin asserts without evidence that people are “getting tired” of Obama. Where did she get that idea from? She made it up. No wonder she can’t hold her own in a discussion.
Serr8d said:
Oh. Sort of reminds me of this image…
FTFY.
Fearguth said:
Thanks, Michael, for the screen grab. You have captured Michelle’s soul.
Reece said:
That analysis doesn’t hold water because Michelle Obama is not a “journalist” for a “news organization.” She’s entitled to funny faces at public events since, well, she’s reacting to whatever is in front of her (just like McCain should be able to make faces when walking because he probably still has considerable pain from doing so.) Malkin was being interviewed and asked questions she should have been able to answer. Her “crazy eyes” weren’t necessary and happened frequently.
bystander said:
In all things Michelle Malkin I defer to TBogg.
Victor F said:
Michelle Malkin was a child at the grown-ups’ table. I felt bad for the other guests as they patiently used rational points to counter Michelle’s irrational incendiaries. Why she continues to get airtime and publicity for being a vacuum-headed rage machine boggles my mind. Your screen cap is spot-on Malkin. She can’t say more than five words without looking down and away. She was clearly out of her league.
donna said:
Isn’t her 15 minutes up already? Yawn.
Russ Nichols said:
Bubble headed right wing paranoia and ignorance aside, in my opinion she is a pretty woman. Which I suspect had something to do with getting herself elected to Congress. All those Republican men voters with fantasies about Sarah Palin, voting for her as well, on looks alone. Think she’d get elected to Congress if she looked like Helen Thomas? Yet who would obviously make the better Representative, a thoughtful, informed Thomas, or a pretty face fronting for an empty head?
g said:
What is the citation of your quote? Who said or wrote this, and in what context?
Paul_D said:
This unfair characterization of a 4th-tier psuedo-journalist makes me want to point out that the First Lady looks angry in a hand picked photo.
Also, there is too much light in this bunker, please turn it down.
g said:
Michelle Malkin is not a congressperson or elected official. I think you are confusing her with someone else.
DennisQ said:
It’s likely that she was given air time to promote her book as a professional courtesy among TV journalists. She is indeed a child at the grown-ups’ table, but that’s contemporary conservatism. I can imagine Ann Coulter doing exactly the same thing.
The problem for these people is that events have caught up to them. Bush the Decider governed from the gut, he boasted. The miserable outcome of his policies led to today’s more thoughtful approach.
Popular “conservatism” is really only intellectual laziness. This has been an issue since the earliest days of our country.
bystander said:
You are correct, of course. No one has elected Michelle Malkin to Congress … yet. In Russ Nichols’ defense, however, I’d argue that there isn’t a whole lot of difference between Michelle Malkin’s kind of crazy and Michele Bachmann’s.
vicki said:
Please post something else so she’s not there on the top. It is scaring the animals when that photo pops up on the screen.
vicki said:
Please post something else so she’s not there on the top. It is scaring the animals when that photo pops up on the screen.
gryphon said:
malkin and her friends are the bouncing ball you are supposed to follow instead of learning anything useful about your world. she doesn’t believe the shit she says and that’s why her face gives her away as well as the rest of the PAID TV LIARS.
REAL psychopaths are hard to spot and you cannot tell they are lying unless you are very good.. cheney and rove for example.
US media needs to stop inbreeding and talking about itself and get back to reporting on ‘things’ instead of ‘notions’. it is absolutely useless as it is for gathering any helpful information about the world. it is however a wonderful window into what corporations want on any given day.
they don’t want single payer, they don’t want weed decriminalized, they don’t want DADT overturned, they don’t want homos marrying and pretending to be families when we all know GOD disapproves. they don’t want hippie wind or solar energy. they don’t want scrutiny of our foreign friends who often behave badly like israel and saudi arabia.
US media is a rotten barge filled with salesman paddling furiously upstream away from the waterfall called INTERNET that spells their doom.
ABM said:
“US media is a rotten barge filled with salesman paddling furiously upstream away from the waterfall called INTERNET that spells their doom.”
Oooh. Nice turn of phrase there.
Johanna said:
Both Malkin and Cynthia Tucker looked disturbed. Tucker’s eyes darted from side to side at times, as though she were hearing strange noises. Malkin does not seem to be able to organize her thought into short enough segments to get an idea across. She was struggling to get too much into one sound bite, and you could see her frustration. On the other hand, to call her trite, amidst that company, is quite unfair. When you hear Cynthia Tucker say “people need jobs. They are worried they won’t find them” ….. come on, I could hear that from an oldster sitting next to me on the New York subway. She was utterly pedestrian. And Al Hunt is absurd in his declaration that ONLY the consumer can improve the economy, not business investment. Huh? How does he know that. It was an utterly unsupported assertion. The panel was lame as hell.
Michael Shaw (The BAG) said:
Duly noted. (Wish, though, I could train my animals to do the same thing.)
Michael Shaw (The BAG) said:
Not that I disagree with you at all about the panel (which speaks to why I generally don’t watch the Sunday shows), but I do think (in the clip) Malkin, specifically, got to Tucker.
NS said:
“I could offer you any number of other stills from this program”
wish you would!! always enjoy the posts featuring stills from video, and the more the merrier. makes it a bit more difficult to comment on the visual component of malkin’s nuttiness given only a single frame to analyze.
Tena said:
Actually, that’s one of the saner looks I’ve seen on Malkin’s face.
I wish I could understand why mainstream media gives Malkin the time of day, let alone a forum and a podium. WHat earthly use is Michelle Malkin? Honestly – what purpose does she serve? She’s particularlly repugnant because she’s always like some little yappy lap dog that will not calm down no matter what you do.
What use is Michelle Malkin? Why does anyone pay any attention to that Pekinese puppy in a wig?
Tena said:
Word.
They’re practically interchangeable.
mjfgates said:
I was going to say she looks like a piranha in that picture, but after looking at some photos of real ones, they just don’t have as much fang showing.
Philly Boy said:
Her facial expression looks like Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ expression in the Seinfeld episode in which a friend of Jerry’s she’s out on a date with exposes himself to her.
Russ Nichols said:
My bad. All those white Michelle women look alike. Right. I am properly embarrassed.
Jeff said:
*This image is not exceptional, it is characteristic*
To really prove this point, you should have posted a dozen, or two dozen, different stills from the show. Because you’re right: she does have a deeply disturbed affect. But I don’t think you can make the case convincingly to a skeptic with a single shot.
Molly said:
I wonder about the source of the darting eye. Can’t look anyone in the eye because she’s lying? Can’t hold still because she’s hopped up on some stimulant – which could very easily be hate. Nothing like rage for an adrenalin rush!!
OldMayfly said:
Serr9d, no offense, but I know you are a guy. Totally! Any woman would understand that this pic does not denote jealousy. No, this look of Michelle’s is a “I have your number, Sweetie! I know what you are about, and your values are certainly not mine.”
ckerst said:
The only thing Malkin is qualified to do is dance on a barroom table and pick up rolls of quarters without using her hands.
gronkalonka said:
I think a lot of her fans are watching with the sound off for completely different reasons…