Can You Say That on TV? (Part Two)

By Alex Weprin 

Way back in 2009, a guest on David Shuster’s MSNBC program referred to the investigation of former President Bill Clinton‘s affair with Monica Lewinsky thusly:

“And your idea is that after investigating Bill Clinton for a blowjob for like five years, we shouldn’t investigate the huge, grossly illegal things that were done under the past administration.”

This afternoon, it happened again, and it was an anchor that said it.

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Dylan Ratigan was comparing the costs of various federal investigations, and he noted that the most expensive one–at more than twice the cost of the 9/11 commission–was the Clinton/Lewinsky investigation, or as he called it:

“The Clinton/Lewinsky blowjob investigation.”

In 2009, Shuster apologized for his guest’s poor choice of words, it does not appear as though Ratigan did the same.

For the record, MSNBC is not a broadcast network, so the FCC cannot regulate the content it puts on the air. In other words, what Ratigan said was legal, but probably not appropriate for 4:45 PM on a weekday.

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