How does Chris Hayes manage to escape the Snowden Distraction Ray?
by digby
Virtually everyone on MSNBC these days is shrilly denouncing the decision to allow Edward Snowden asylum — while simultaneously declaring that it is preventing them from discussing the policies and programs they, as devoted civil libertarians, so very much want to discuss but can’t because Snowden is distracting them. It’s very moving to watch them in their plight, held hostage by the Snowden story they profess to loathe even as they pick over it in minute detail hour after hour, squirming, unable to turn away. Poor things.
Still, I thought it was only fair to show that the network is capable of transcending the inexorable pull of the Snowden Distraction Ray for one hour a day. That would be the hour that Chris Hayes has the helm. He does something very unusual on this story. Instead of getting visibly angry and interrupting anyone who suggests ever so slightly that Snowden shouldn’t be burned for the heretic he so obviously is, he offers up a spirited debate between people with varying opinions on the issue. It’s rather startling to hear it, but once the novelty wears off you find that it’s quite informative.
But here’s what’s completely shocking. Before giving the Snowden story a fair hearing, he manages to accomplish what all those other hosts and commentators say is impossible to do in their hours and hours of airtime: he opens his show with a full segment about what Snowden has revealed and how the congress is responding to it.
Imagine that:
Some of the other hosts should ask how he managed to escape the powerful Snowden Distraction Ray long enough to discuss the information he revealed and what it means. Maybe they could try it some time.
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