Prank call, prank transcript/pranked nation: Just for a moment, step back from your views on the Wisconsin fight and consider the way we now conduct business. How do we discuss serious issues like the ones at the heart of this fight?
Yesterday, we got one part of our answer; we now discuss these serious issues through the medium of prank phone calls. A prankster called Governor Walker’s office, pretending to be billionaire David Koch, a major source of Republican funding. Governor Walker took the call and spoke for about twenty minutes.
The tape of the call was released by the Buffalo Beast, which had conducted the call. The Beast also posted a transcript.
How much can we learn about Walker from that call? We’ll offer our view below. But how apt! After Walker fell for the Beast’s prank call, a whole string of journalists fell for the group’s prank transcript! One of the first to get himself pranked was Jonathan Chait, a very smart policy analyst whose post at the New Republic now runs beneath this self-critical headline:
CHAIT (2/23/11): Scott Walker Talks To "David Koch" [Updated With Correction]The liberal world has certainly been awash in self-correction! In this case, what did Chait feel forced to correct? Without listening to the actual tape, he had posted this chunk of transcript. Based on his link, he got this text from the Buffalo Beast:
WALKER: Oh yeah, but who watches that? I went on “Morning Joe” this morning. I like it because I just like being combative with those guys, but, uh.
You know they’re off the deep end.
“KOCH:” Joe—Joe’s a good guy. He’s one of us.
WALKER: Yeah, he’s all right. He was fair to me…
“KOCH:” Beautiful; beautiful. You gotta love that Mika Brzezinski; she’s a real piece of ass.
WALKER: Oh yeah.Good lord! Walker had affirmed Koch’s remark about Mika’s hot ass, engaging in the rough talk of real men! In his post, Chait had of course been appalled. But wouldn’t you know it? Chait had been pranked, much like Walker before him! At some later point, he crossed out the text we’ve posted in bold and offered this update/apology:
CHAIT: Update: This transcription of the call is totally misleading. Walker says "oh yeah" before the "piece of ass" comment, which is mumbled and Walker may not have heard. My apologies to Walker for accepting this transcription at face value. The conversation is interesting but that portion of it is not reliable.First Walker got pranked—then Chait did too! Nor was Chait alone in this posture. That “totally misleading” chunk of transcript had quickly been posted all over the web—even at the august National Journal, whose august web site isn’t responding at present. Most strikingly, Greta Van Susteren even fell for the prank; last night, on her Fox News program, she actually interviewed Walker (on tape), chiding him for what he had said concerning Mika’s keister. After the taped interview ran, she offered her own live retraction:
VAN SUSTEREN (2/23/11): Now, Governor Scott Walker just told you about that bizarre prank call. We went back and listened carefully to the prank call, especially the part regarding the TV host Mika Brzezinski. Now, after listening and wanting to be fair to the governor, we're not so sure the governor even heard the comment about the TV host. But here's the tape. You listen yourself and you decide.Duh! Chait’s update/apology plainly was right. Presumably, the Beast had hoped that Walker would follow its lead concerning Mika’s smokin’ hot ass. This would have produced some embarrassing tape. But alas! The attempt plainly failed.
We liberals have been self-correcting at a remarkable rate! In this case, even someone as smart as Chait was willing to post a transcript without checking the actual tape; it’s hard to believe, at this late date, that anyone is so trusting. (Posted transcripts are often wrong in various ways, even when there’s no motive.) Of course, in an increasingly tribalized world, tribal players leap to believe the very worst about The Other. In fact, Walker didn’t second that quip about Mika. But the world truly believed.
(Dylan: “Well, time passed and now it seems/Everybody’s havin’ them dreams.”)
What can we learn about Walker from that prank call? Not very much, we would say. Quick note: Except for old tapes on C-Span radio, none of us have ever heard Big Pols speak on the phone. We may not be especially skilled at interpreting such conversations. Just a quick guess: Major pols of both major parties will play along with the varied dumb comments offered by their biggest funders; we’ll guess that very few pols rush to confront their sponsors’ various flaws. We know, we know! Old Reagan/Bush-voters like Big Ed Schultz were urging you on last night; Big Ed is now paid to play the fool by saying dumb things on your side. But we heard very little on that tape beyond what Walker himself later said. In fact, we were surprised by what we heard. But we mainly heard that Walker believes in what he’s currently doing.
We also heard him repeatedly fail to second that prankster’s rough talk. Drat! Even though he thought he was speaking in private, he just kept refusing the bait.
For our money, Greg Sargent swallowed the outrage whole. In the “updates” to this post, he runs you through all the times Walker failed to challenge Koch’s bad manners. This is his first example:
SARGENT (2/23/11): Walker doesn't bat an eye when Koch describes the opposition as "Democrat bastards."That’s right. And major Democrats “don’t bat an eye” when their big supporters spout on the phone. Big office-holders aren’t the Church Lady—though very smart people who are somewhat young have been scolding The Other for that.
How do we discuss big issues? Yesterday, we all got a lesson. The pranking was general over the web as the Beast played several tricks.
First, a governor got himself pranked. After that, the deluge!
