MSNBC's Hall Chastises Meghan McCain for Non-apology 15 Minutes After Shuster's Limbaugh Mea Culpa

October 16th, 2009 6:22 PM

Just minutes after her colleague David Shuster offered a tepid non-apology for the network running a fake Rush Limbaugh quote, MSNBC's Tamron Hall took Meghan McCain to task for posting a saucy picture of herself on Twitter and also for issuing to followers a non-apology apology for those offended by her doing so.

As my colleague Kyle Drennen noted earlier, at 3:40 p.m. EDT today, Shuster issued a non-apology "clarification" of sorts about his network's peddling of an unverified Rush Limbaugh quote:

MSNBC attributed that quote to a football player who was opposed to Limbaugh’s NFL bid. However, we have been unable to verify that quote independently. So, just to clarify.

Oblivious perhaps to the hypocrisy she was about to engage in, a mere fifteen minutes later colleague Tamron Hall, in her "Crossing the Line" segment, lectured Daily Beast columnist Meghan McCain for posting, and then issuing a non-apology apology for posting, a sultry picture of herself via Twitter (emphasis mine; MP3 audio available here):

TAMRON HALL: The daughter of Sen. John McCain has received some not-so-flattering comments since posting this revealing photo of herself on the site with the words "my spontaneous night in."

[...]

HALL, reading McCain's Twitter feed:  "When I am alone in my apartment, I wear tank tops and sweat pants, I had no idea this makes me a 'slut.' ... I do want to apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic."

HALL: But even with the apology, should Meghan have been more clear that it's not what people say, it's more how you handle yourself? 

HALL: Yes, some of the responses I read to her picture were absolutely awful. They were mean and disgusting and they crossed the line. But was the line crossed the day she put the picture up? And was one still crossed when she did not own up to that, only apologizing to those she, quote, "offended," rather than saying, "Hey, it was a mistake that I even put the picture up in the first place?" 

HALL: I don't know. Meghan is considered one of the new and bright voices of the Republican Party, a strong woman not living in her father's shadow. Crossing the line? You tell me.