They can dish it out…

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer’s recent interview with L.A. radio host John Ziegler was as fine a display of passive-aggressive journalism as you’ll ever see. The segment started with a clip of David Letterman quipping about Sarah Palin’s “slutty” look; we begin a few moments into the interview:
Brewer: Let me ask you what Sarah Palin’s problem with Letterman was; what was it about the top ten list that hurt her feelings?
Ziegler: Well, I don’t know if her feelings were hurt — you’d have to ask her. Not only did he call her slutty, you left out the part where he also joked about her teenage daughter being knocked up by Alex Rodriguez in the middle of Yankee stadium while she was at the game. By the way, I also happened to ask her about Keith Olberman blatantly lying about her allegedly plagiarizing a speech which she didn’t do, I doubt that that will come up on this particular network….
Brewer: It’s certainly not going to come up other than your mention in this particular interview because I want to ask you about David Letterman and Sarah Palin. But again, if you’d like to talk about that, I’m willing to go forward with the conversation. (Long pause) Yes? (He heartily agrees) Perfect. Good. So in this case, it’s comedy, so talk about her real itinerary in New York — it’s kinda serious, not really funny — why did she take such offense — she called him pathetic, so she obviously took offense — why was she so offended by David Letterman?
Ziegler: Well, Contessa, since you’re a female, you might be a better expert on whether or not it’s appropriate to call public figures SLUTTY for no apparent reason, and to joke about her daughter being knocked up in the middle of Yankee Stadium while she’s at the game — how would YOU feel about that?
Brewer: John, that’s actually happened to me, and I’m fine, I’m still here, I’m, I’m, I’m…
Ziegler: Really. David Letterman joked about you being slutty?
Brewer: Not David Letterman, not David Letterman, but it happened-to-me-publicly, okay, and wuh…well, we’ll change topics….
(A bit later…)
Ziegler: I urge anyone who is interested in the real Sarah Palin to go to HowObamaGotElected.com, you can listen to all 16 minutes. One of the questions I asked her was whether she felt dissed by John McCain when he went on Jay Leno — also on NBC…
Brewer: WOW. Alright….
Ziegler: ….back when he was the host of the Tonight Show, and basically dissed her, and — surprise surprise — she gave an incredibly classy answer, showing far more class than — clearly — most people on this network have.
Brewer: I…don’t really know what to do with that. You know what, I was honestly, I’m here to to give you an opportunity, I consider myself a common-sense thinker, I haven’t attacked you, and for you to come on and use those sort of insults insults ME….thank you so much for your time, I do appreciate that.
Ziegler: Well, you guys are certainly deserving of all…
Brewer: CUT THE MIC PLEASE!!!