Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/20/us-state-department-press-corp.html
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What, exactly, is the “proper context” in which it would be inoffensive to liken Secretary/Senator/First Lady/Presidential Nominee Clinton to a “sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”?
This guy is a f@king joke… But I am not laughing…
ETA: He manages to get in a dig at migrants and the poor at the very end: “people who are paying their taxes” (emphasis seems to be in the original)… Stay classy Boris…
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proper context
IIRC, it was in a newspaper column he wrote endorsing Hillary. He’s a supporter of hers and the sadistic nurse comment was just Boris being Boris.
Found it:
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It’s sad that “US reporter asks difficult question” is itself newsworthy. I like the few minutes of BBC I get every morning because even the newsreaders doing News Hour will not pull punches when speaking to people in power. When someone’s papering over some repressive atrocity against their own citizens, they do get called on it, brusquely.
That’s what “journalism” is. There are obviously arguments to be made about the BBC’s objectivity or whatever spin they might attach, but hard questions do get asked pretty fairly.
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If the Beeb is going to make the Wrong People sad, it tends just not to be reported at all rather than them thrown softballs.
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More like this please, news.
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I seriously don’t know a bit of this gentleman, Boris Johnson, but seeing this video strikes me as a very unprofessional, nervous, stuttering and definitely a rude person.
I always think Boris is a horrible parody of a charlatan as played by Peter Ustinov.
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Think of him as a much less angry version of Trump and you wouldn’t be that far off the mark.
In some ways he’s a lot more sinister though, for he hides behind a mask of buffoonery/clownishness which can fool people not paying too much attention.
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Those reporters have no mercy.
Thanks for finding it, it is a bit more nuanced than the questioner made it out to be.
It’s surreal. The Bush administration had me so used to seeing embarrassing gits looking like toddlers wearing their parent’s suits next to more mature British delegations. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it just seems incredibly odd.
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Mr. Johnson seems to adore his own superiority and self-cuntiness…
“Just Boris being Boris” is just a way of waving off the cavalier, ignorant boorishness that makes him so inappropriate for his new job.
Thanks for the link, but nothing in that rambling bit of pub talk constitutes “context” that makes the characterization of Clinton anything other than the sexist idiocy that it is.
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That article was…interesting. It felt like he was taking the back-handed compliment to new heights.
He manages to say she represents what he’s politically against as well as bring up some of the stock ammo that was used against her by Republicans in the 08 campaign like the whitewater scandal, Vince Foster’s death, the strained marriage after Bill’s affair. He praises the rest of the democratic slate (Obama, Guiliani, etc). He makes that ‘sadistic nurse’ comment as well as the Lady Macbeth comparison brought up in today’s press conference video. Granted, this was in 07 before her cabinet post experience for him to address. But ultimately the only real reason he gives for endorsing her is that he wants Bill Clinton to be back in the White House.
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I have a feeling you wouldn’t like my “Just Boris Things” tumblr.
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“It’s called diplomacy, Boris”, with that little inflected twist at the end to say, and as Foreign Secretary you should know this.
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Yes, well, but that is being Boris. I mean, sexist idiocy is “being Boris”, as “racist stupidity”, “classist assholery” or any of the many, many facets this human-shaped turd has displayed over the years.
The fact that he cant even deliver an endorsment without showing off his most vile and ridiculous side IS quintessential Boris-ness. The man just cant do anything without making a loud display of how much of a turd he is.
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Okay, but to say it’s just Boris being Boris usually means, “Oh well, that’s just Boris being Boris, you know how he is, no harm done!” But actually, yeah, harm is being done.
Anyway, the Clown Show that he is does serve as a distraction from the power- and money-grab going on in England now, dunnit? In that sense, he probably is the “right” man for the job.
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