What Is Roger Simon’s Problem?
Journalist Roger Simon wrote a scathing article about Fred Thompson today at The Politico. Thanks to CBS, we have some video from the same day. Compare the text from the story below describing the scene I’ve uploaded to You Tube.
Fair and balanced? Or hit piece? Here’s some background on the silly hat rule. And more here.
Instead, Thompson rode four blocks to the local fire station. Local fire stations always have captive audiences (unless there is a fire).
Inside, Thompson shook a few hands — there were only about 15 people there — and then Chief Dan McKenzie handed Thompson the chief’s fire hat so Thompson could put it on.
Thompson looked at it with a sour expression on his face.
“I’ve got a silly hat rule,” Thompson said.
In point of fact, the “silly” hat was the one Chief McKenzie wore to fires and I am guessing none of the firefighters in attendance considered it particularly silly, but Thompson was not going to put it on. He just stood there holding it and staring at it.
To save the moment, Jeri Thompson took the hat from her husband’s hands and put it on her head.
“You look cute,” Thompson said to her. She did.
Jeri took off the hat and McKenzie led the Thompsons over to a fire truck.
“..which I’m about to violate.”
Sheesh! Simon really clipped the quote on that one didn’t he. Maybe he didn’t want to make it seem like Thompson’s a nice guy or something. Nah, it wouldn’t be ethical for a journalist to do something like that.
Well, it’s obvious Roger Simon has an axe to grind and is in no way an objective journalist.
I’m going with mostly fair. His first expression when he was handed the helmet was perhaps sour, and certainly not smiling. He then made a joke about it (as opposed to standing there quietly), and his wife filled in (looking quite cute indeed). I heard some laughter, but plenty of fireman were quite uncomfortable, including the guy right behind Thompson, who seems to be doing the “are you kidding me?” head scratch of discomfort.
He was trying to avoid a Dukakis moment, pretty clear really.
“head scratch of discomfort.”
You’re kidding, right? That guy was half-laughing. Roger????? j/k
Think about Kerry in the clean suit at NASA and Dukakis in the tank. A smart politician knows the importance of image and when not to be a sport. Smart move … to make it out to be snobby is a mistake.
Oh, it’s still snobby…and the line about “Oh, it looks cute on you” is condescending, but would you expect any better from him?
Yes, “head scratch of discomfort.” Tell me you don’t recognize that gesture. In a social situation when I half laugh, hang my head down, and scratch it, it’s because something awkward is happening and I don’t know quite how to respond. That’s what it looks to me like this guy is doing. He’s not yelling “that hat is not silly”; that’s not what people do when confronted with a national presidential candidate in an awkward social situation.
Also: politically savvy not to put the hat on? Yes. Politically savvy to hold a fireman’s helmet and call it silly? No. Remember, it wasn’t the helmet Dukakis wore that was silly. It was him wearing the helmet.
Well, what happens in the video is maybe a little awkward, but really not bad. To me, the rest of Simon’s article is where the real problem is. (Conveniently, it wasn’t filmed, so there is no way of checking up.) But what was said in the actual video clip, in context with the rest of the Politico post (assuming it’s accurate) doesn’t exactly paint a beautiful picture of Thompson. I don’t think the clipping of Thompson’s quote made much difference in the context of the post. No matter how you look at it, Simon makes a pretty convincing argument.
~Will Conway
Regardingliberty.blogspot.com
You are kidding aren’t you Will? No one could seriously say that with a straight face.
She’s good.
Thanks for the link, Dan.
Is it just me, or did Fred say “I’ve got a silly hat rule, which I’m about to break”? There’s a big enough difference between what Simon claimed and what really happened just on the demeanor of the whole affair. Dowdifying the actual money quote is blatant bias if you ask me.
I must be missing something, the narrative you have bolded is fairly accurate. The rest of Simon’s article, of which we don’t have video, is much more ‘scathing’.
What is wrong with the part you have in bold? I can’t see the inaccuracy, but maybe I’m dim?
Simon just lost what little credibility he had with me. Never again.
Seems simple to me – “The Silly Hat Rule”, does not imply the HAT is “Silly” but that putting it on and wearing it would make him (or I would venture, any candidate) indeed look silly. I think it’s refreshing to see a candidate that doesn’t fall in lock-step with everyone else. I guess Simple Simon is still mad at Thompson because he didn’t play the “show of hands” game the other night.
Seems simple to me – “The Silly Hat Rule”, does not imply the HAT is “Silly” but that putting it on and wearing it would make him (or I would venture, any candidate) indeed look silly. I think it’s refreshing to see a candidate that doesn’t fall in lock-step with everyone else. I guess Simple Simon is still mad at Thompson because he didn’t play the “show of hands” game the other night.
Seems simple to me – “The Silly Hat Rule”, does not imply the HAT is “Silly” but that putting it on and wearing it would make him (or I would venture, any candidate) indeed look silly. I think it’s refreshing to see a candidate that doesn’t fall in lock-step with everyone else. I guess Simple Simon is still mad at Thompson because he didn’t play the “show of hands” game the other night.
Some one really has way to much time on their hands to try to make an issue out of this to start with.
Clearly, “silly” was a folksy referral to the rule, not the hat. With equal meaning, he could have said “I have a ‘little old’ hat rule.” Anyone wanting to hear the hat defamed as “little” or “old” would have heard insult in that too.
I’ve come to view reporters chiefly as projectors.
Good Lord, is this what it comes down to for Presidential nominees? I mean, c’mon, the man has laid out some awesome plans for this country and it’s future. If he doesn’t want to look like a dufas in a hat (fireman or no fireman) then SO WHAT? I don’t blame him. If he put it on, someone would complain he was pandering. You are between a rock and a hardplace in situations like that. He handled it with aplomb. Way to go Fred!
Like I said in my comment on Dan’s initial post about the Politico hack Roger Simon … Fred is above the “process”.
And Fred won’t pander to the moment, which is to be commended.
The moment might have started out a tad uncomfortably, but there certainly seemed to be a much better mood when it was done.
Fire hats worn by firefighters are not silly. Fire hats worn by non-firefighters are. They make you look like you’re five. Jeri made a savvy move–what’s silly-cute on her might be silly-unpresidential on Fred.
McCain supporter here. So I’m not carrying Thompson’s water by any means.
Roger Smith’s article was blatantly false. The only question is whether Roger knowingly lied or whether that was what he actually saw through his partisan ideologue eyes.
COme ON people! That was a fun little moment, lots of laughs and smiles, everyone having a good time… and there’s not a firefighter in that pic who didn’t understand that a photo like that could come back to haunt him later.. that’s why they were all laughing at the ‘silly hat rule’…
It was a fun moment that Simon has portrayed as a painful one… he’s just wrong, and since he edited the quote, he’s clearly doing it on purpose.
Ugly journalism, normal campaigning.
I don’t want my President who will be deciding the fate of our country every day doing stupid “pet” tricks for the media….You go Fred.
Nowhere is Fred’s “silly hat rule” defined, but my expectation is he would define it as “I won’t wear hats that are inappropriate for me to wear and will make ME look silly.”
Think Michael Dukakis wearing a military helmet while sitting in the turret of a tank.
This wasn’t insulting to firefighters, it was good common sense and political savvy.
I like Roger’s writing most of the time, but he missed on this one.
I don’t even know who Roger Simon is, but the man is a partisan mess. The full quote was “I have a silly hat rule that I am about to violate.” And when Thompson says “it looks cute on you,” he means “as opposed to making me look more unattractive.”
Thompson should have said “I have a Dukakis rule” or “I have a Kerry rule” in order to make it clearer to Simon what he meant. But even that wouldn’t have stopped Simon from deceptive quote truncation.
At least I know who not to trust.
And Jeri is a huge asset. Very deft move on her part.
I will have to check but I believe there are two Roger Simon’s being mixed here. I believe there is the known pundit and also a blogger under the same name who is not the same person.
Where was the sour look the reporter talked about? I thought it was pretty classic Fred. Genuine, warm and honest.
Yeah two Roger Simon people this one at Politico and another at Pajamas Media
Roger Simon – Politico
Roger “L” Simon – Pajamas Media
Is this the same Fred Thompson who is one point ahead of Ron Paul in the latest Iowa polls? Or is there another Fred Thompson with a trophy wife?
The hat is not silly. Fred never said it was. He said he has a silly RULE about wearing hats. Good god. Osama are you still watching? Please come and give this silly nation of obsessive navel gazers what we deserve.
Depends upon which polls ya mean.
Taking the RCP average, he is 2.3% ahead of Paul. Hopefully though, Tancredo and Hunter will fold up their camps into Fred’s to give him a few more points of a boost… and that some of the Huckabust fallout will fall into Fred’s camp.
Right now, the other thing to understand is that while Romney and Huckabee enjoy a large margin ahead of the other candidates for Iowa – most of them are not committed Mittnoids and Huckanuts. I’ll be willing to say that if Huckabee continues to deflate, Fred might be able to move into second or third place (depending on McCain’s performance)
It really is a crap shoot at this point, and anything could change in the next two weeks leading up to the caucus.
Huckabee deflating like in the most recent MI polls? The ones with dear Fred polling even at 4% with Paul?
I think it’s funny that you want him to pull support from the former supporters of two of the whackiest candidates you guys had…
Of course you’d use the flawed CNN polls. The libtards running that sideshow will distort the numbers as they please.
The more trustworthy Rasmussen Reports indicate that FDT is at 9% to RP’s 7%…
…not ideal, but things could easily change as Huckabee slides and Rudy begins to falter. Mitt has roots in MI thru his dad, so that might affect the final results come voting time.
Fred hasn’t seen a need to campaign in MI yet. But if Fred places strongly in IA and SC, he may yet scopp some of the 15% undecided voters as well as some of the fall-out the Huckabust and the Rudyflop as well as a few voters from Tancredo (despite his backing of Romney) and Hunter, if he folds.
Polls ain’t everything, Spartan – they are at best a bellwether. And with the biased, arch-liberal MSM steering many of the supposedly “important” polls, it puts an unrealistic skew on things that the observer on the ground might be convinced to draw wrong conclusions from.
Fred hasn’t seen the need to campaign much of anywhere yet…he’s a real dynamo. If he’s the guy that you folks are hanging your hat on I’m very cool with that.
Justadude, the number of comments here shows this statement of yours to be wrong. “Some one really has way to much time on their hands to try to make an issue out of this to start with.”
Spart says: “I think it’s funny that you want him to pull support from the former supporters of two of the whackiest (sic) candidates you guys had…” But Spart there is no one in politics wackier than Kucinich and he got 77% approval in a vote of rabid Progs just like you.
Check it out Spart: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2489/t/4823/content.jsp?content_KEY=3623
TheSpartan seems to just be parroting the drive-by media lies that all the other RINOs are spouting.
The truth is here, however (http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/NEWS0206/711250420). And here (http://www.blogsforfredthompson.com/tags/freds-schedule).
Do your research, people. Or else just stop talking.
Mrs. T is one smart lady.
Hey, Spartan, you think calling Jeri cute is “condescending”?
I think your eyes are broken.
the point should be – was this really worth writing an article about?