AP Gives McCain 'Cigarettes' Story A Ridiculous Headline

Yesterday, while enjoying a meal at a Pittsburgh sandwich shop, John McCain made a joke about how maybe he could kill Iranians with cigarettes, because that's how people with tremendous plane-crashing leadership roll. But rather than capture what happened with a headline that explained how a grown man running for President thinks the indiscriminate killing of a nation of people whose "affection for the United States" is described as "thriving these days" is funny, the Associated Press instead chose to use this headline:

"Political Play: Wife pokes McCain in the back"

That's right! The AP, in their infinite wisdom, wants your attention drawn to Cindy McCain "jabbing" McCain in the back. And it wasn't even a terrorist fist jab!

Cindy McCain's jab to her husband's back came a second too late Tuesday to keep him from making a wisecrack about the health impact of Iran's main import from the United States: cigarettes.

That's the lede, and even it is stupendously out of whack with what actually happened. McCain did not "make a wisecrack about the health impact" of cigarettes. He suggested that cigarettes might be used to murder Iranians, because that is hilarious.

Don't forget to LOL when cigarettes become a major component of John McCain's plan to overhaul Social Security.

UPDATE: Via ThinkProgress, How are reporters are treating McCain's remarks? Idiotically, if you must know!

NBC's Chuck Todd: That's what makes him real and that's what makes people who disagree with him say "ah, you know what? The guy seems like any guy you'd want to have around the dinner table or the bar stool."

CNN's Jessica Yellin: "People who love him think his a maverick and think he's a real guy who makes a joke off the cuff just like real people do [but] we're all waiting to see if something explodes, this kind of comment doesn't."

Now, I'm a Chuck Todd fan, but you really have to question his judgement. Jokes about genocide are not the sort of things I want around my dinner table or barstool, and I think it's safe to say that it's "jokes" like those that make people who disagree with McCain realize that their disagreements are well founded.

As for Jessica Yellin's comment, I think it's safe to say that if McCain is elected President, topping the list of people "waiting to see if something explodes" will be the Iranians.

Comments

[vschicago]

03:27 PM on 07/10/2008

The McCain remarks about Iranians is eerily similiar to the 'smallpox in the blankets' event that decimated the indigenous peoples of the now called American land. Don't let this guy get anywhere close the WH.


Vote Obama 2008

[vschicago]

03:08 PM on 07/10/2008

The McCain remarks about Iranians is eerily similiar to the 'smallpox in the blankets' event that decimated the indigenous peoples of the now called US land. Don't let this guy get anywhere close the WH.


Vote Obama 2008

[rabrophy]

01:43 PM on 07/10/2008

The cable news networks are Corporations.
The Republicans have been very, very good to Corporations.
Therefore, Cable News will be very, very forgiving of McCain's insane remarks and go crazy over "Terrorist Fist Jabs".
I'm waiting for the CNN "interview" when Wolf Blitzer goes down on McCain like he did with Cheney!

[ChetHolly]

12:52 PM on 07/10/2008

Cable news missing the over view again.
Consider how would a college educated Iranian, who is a moderate view this USA Presidential Candidate who follows up a song parody worded Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran with a Joke that the US is importing cigarettes to Kill Iranians? I guess the obvious answer is that they would not view McCain as a likely American Idol candidate. I guess Voice of America has changed it programing a bit, ya think?

[ChetHolly]

12:38 PM on 07/10/2008

Once again the Cable Networks miss the point because of their shallow overview.
Transport yourself to Iran. Your in a room across from a Women, who is at a computer, she tells you she is 25 years old, considers herself a moderate and is just finishing up her MBA in Historical studies. You ask her what is she looking at, she gestures for you to look for yourself, you see she is on Huffington Post looking at possibly the next President of the USA, who is joking that maybe we are exporting cigarettes to Kill Iranians. You are reminded that she probably saw the same Republican do musically parody worded Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!
It would not be a stretch to consider that this woman would have very different feelings then us about American Democracy and would consider a move to it a move away from her moderate views.

[zendem1]

11:23 AM on 07/10/2008

Was her finger loaded? Was she?

[Menocu]

11:20 AM on 07/10/2008

McCain seems like that guy that you try not to get stuck next to at the bar, because he scares all the women away by loudly invoking juvenile bravado and unfunny banter and laughing at his own "jokes", even as you try to politely ignore him. He would probably be an acquaintance's former childhood friend that still tags along with a group that barely tolerates him.

[sueno]

10:50 AM on 07/10/2008

Follow-up:
What's up with his wife always by his side?
At first I thought she was his personal nurse-

[sueno]

10:48 AM on 07/10/2008

For a "peaceful" man,
he often talks about killing people.
Can he make a joke that doesn't include
a crude, nasty remark followed by that sneering, ugly, smile?

[Researchguy66]

10:01 AM on 07/10/2008

Cigarettes aren't "killing", they're suicide. Your premise is wrong.

[inthecolour]

09:17 AM on 07/10/2008

The AP isn't even trying to hide their preference any more.

Why doesn't the Obama campaign make reporters "earn" the right to get access to Obama like John McCain's handlers do?

It seems to be working marvelously in insulating McCain.

[WKR]

01:00 PM on 07/10/2008

Because as soon as the Obama campaign does anything that appears to be "insensitive" to the press, they start to whinge & whine to the public. Hey come on guys...don't you see who the MSM is backing?

[lisak2008]

08:53 AM on 07/10/2008

Do you think it's just a coincidence that Iran started testing its missles right after McCain's alleged joke? I wonder what they'll do to us if he's elected, because he's made it clear what he plans to do to them, "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."

[johnnygoodwud]

08:21 AM on 07/10/2008

so cindy has now also become a handler,,,,,,,,,,what did liberman and graham have the day off

[Mij13]

07:09 AM on 07/10/2008

When you think of how almost all the news stories about the candidates in the last two elections came out of this propaganda machine, it isn't hard to understand how an idiot like Bush got elected twice. I'm just so glad they're becoming less relevant as more of us get the facts from other sources.

[debrouillard]

06:36 AM on 07/10/2008

CNN's Jessica Yellin: "People who love him think his a maverick and think he's a real guy who makes a joke off the cuff just like real people do [but] we're all waiting to see if something explodes, this kind of comment doesn't."
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Is America progressing or Regressing?
When Americans start to find funny Jokes about Genocide then you know somewhere something is getting beyond reparation state.

Wasnt the Iran president criticised by this very same MSM for mentioning the Holocaust? Now its a joke when McCain suggest a possible means to Kill Iranians.