Comments on Um... Wow.

OK, I'll give you this one. That's mentally ill. Chris Matthews is a human toilet plunger.

That one on the right, at least, doesn't look much like a stripper, given her ankle-length gown.

I never really had any idea who Chris Matthews was until I saw him on Jon Stewart with a book he wrote saying that it's good to be an awful person.

I kinda like Chris Matthews. He's a bit too in love with the sound of his own voice (although not nearly as bad as Keith Olbermann), but I enjoy watching Hardball just about every day.

Matthews is a shithead. He shouts; that's his style, his technique. He's as dumb as Bill O'Reilly in his way. He reminds me of Billy May, that screamer who does those glue and orange cleaner infomercials.

hey leek, i think that's the point. the last image is supposed to look classy while the first two are different levels of trampitude, thus implying that ms. obama has gone from slutty stripper to a refined first lady look. it's pretty low.

I can see where you're coming from on this, but those don't really look like strippers to me. To be honest, even reading the Huffington Post thing about it first, I didn't really get what MSNBC was trying to go for.

It looks like a lazy and inappropriate clip-art used by their graphics dept.

But i hope that Matthews was directly involved in the creation of it.

They look like Charlie's Angels knock-offs with a little Sex and the City thown in.

ps by the way, those "stilettos" in the center look like they are barely 3", even I could run in those and the one of the far right is wearing an evening gown.

Asshole graphic used to promote asshole commentator?

@5 Good call! Chris Matthews and Billy Mays sound almost exactly alike.

uh, dudes, the segment is on michelle obama's changing look or whatever, and the three graphics come up is a sequence going from skimpy outfit, to..uh, equally skimpy outfit, to classy gown. the implication is pretty clear. it's lazy and probably not meant to be a huge swipe a obama or anything but it is still pretty childish

Ohhhhh... interesting. I didn't think of it that way--that the evening gown is the "new look" and the miniskirts were the old look. Ok, it's definitely more offensive viewed that way.

Hm, very reminiscent of the old James Bond movie title sequences created by the late, great Maurice Binder.

Maybe, they meant to infer that Obama, Barack Obama - is the new Bond, making Michelle Obama the new "Bond Girl".

Um, yeah. That's the ticket...

Also: what the hell is up with that font? Its odd protrusions disturb me.

TURN IT INTO A PASTE, AND MAKE IT TEN TIMES AS POWWWWERRRRRFULLL!!!!!!!

An all black sillohuette of three women? They MUST BE STRIPPERS!

Based on what evidence Erica? Those figures look fully clothed. Who is to say they aren't social workers, doctors or lawyers?

Who would say that? A raving misoginist that's who.

Nice work.

Yeah, how do we know they're strippers? All girls in short skirts are strippers? Nice going, Scribbles.

Kudos, though, for using "strippers" instead of "dancers."

isn't the international symbol for strippers the sillhouette of a woman wearing stilletos with no clothes? these women are wearing stilletos while fully clad, which just makes them your garden variety tramp. please make note of it.

I almost agree with Archie Bunker except the one on the left is obviously a man and the tattoo on his left thigh indicates he's saving himself for marriage. The one on the right is a silhouette of a Don Martin drawing from MAD #41. The one in the middle, huh, her glasses throw me.

@18 - stop saying mean things about Cindy McCain.

C'mon, people. Put aside whatever enimity you have towards ECB and admit that this is total fucking bullshit.

Yeah, bullshit that a womyn like Erica can't look at a sillouhette of another woman without seeing strippers.

So is the cat out of the bag? Can I just walk up to any woman in a skirt now and offer to pay her to take her clothes off?

Fair is fair, right?

Kudos to ECB for calling this one out. I think it is childish and lacks the decorum that Michelle Obama deserves; she's a very classy lady, and I'd hope that MSNBC would be seeking to reflect that.

That said, I don't think those are stilettos nor do I think the women are strippers.

Um... Wow...who the fuck cares.

well cato, clearly not you. and archy bunker, how many lawyers or doctors wear mini skirts? pull your head out of your ass. the point isn't the semantics of the occupation of the scantily clad silhouettes, the point is the insinuation the michelle obama has attempted to go from some sort of cheeky stereo type of low class to a politically charged image of respectability. the images on the right and center would to your average person indicate a "tramp" or some other negative view of women, making it sexist and thus inappropriate which is why they pulled it. you all need to learn to disassociate the person framing the argument from the argument itself, i know y'all don't like ecb but cognitive dissonance is a real nifty trick.

corrections: arch"ie" bunker not arch"y", sorry dude. and i meant the images on the left and center, not the right. i fucked up.

@5

Ok, admit it you have never watched Hardball or even know who Chris Matthews is. It is alway easy to make shit up on the internet isn't it, good for you!

As a hardcore MSNBC watcher I have to apologize to ECB and all women, especially Michelle Obama, whom I think will be the greatest First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. Chris Matthews and producers are ass clowns. i wish my hero, Keith Olbermann, would make Chris Matthews "The Worst Person In The World."

After many days and many nights, after tortuous -- umm -- slogs through dark forests and across burning deserts...there comes a post where ECB's righteous indignation makes sense.

So kudos to you for pointing this out, ECB.

This is code shit, besmirching MO and planting one more Orwellian thoughtspeak in our heads. Those images, they're perniciously wrong on so many levels. The amount of oversight that must occur on every aspect of those broadcasts -- including, hell, ESPECIALLY -- the graphics leads me to believe they knew this would cause a ruckus, and now they're basking in the ripple effect publicity.

And no matter how wrong these are, and how loud the condemnation, there is now a meme afoot that consists of "Michelle Obama" and "stripper." Mission accomplished, MSM.

You know the media is going to fuck with both candidates and doesn't care what kind of voodoo politics they create as a result...right? Get ready, folks.

the typeface is by far the most offensive aspect of this.

Russert dies, now this. They're cutting loose on MSNBC!

there are so many things wrong about this image. the length of the dress, the heels, the provocative body language; all are inappropriate and unwarranted implications for a potential first lady. it looks like the staff borrowed pictures of paris hilton and edited them into silhouettes for the commerical... those little crabs are a dead give away.

They don't look at all like strippers.

@9:
Strippers wear evening gowns, too. Just not past the first song of the set.

Things could be worse. They could have used the reclining-woman-with-skyward-titties mudflap silhouette. Note, that's how far they'd have to go to do worse.