Patterico's Pontifications

10/24/2013

CNBC Talking Head Asks for “Mexican Music” to Accompany Picture of Ted Cruz

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:10 am



Cruz is Cuban-American, not “Mexican,” but why let a detail like that get in the way?

The moron apologized, in a halfhearted “if I was insensitive” non-apology sort of way, and tried to explain that he was calling for Mexican music, not because Cruz is a Latino, but because he is from Texas, and hey. Mexican music, Texas? They go hand in hand, amirite?

A CNBC reporter who made off-color comments about Sen. Ted Cruz and “Mexican music” issued an apology Wednesday.

“Regarding my recent remark on Squawk Box regarding Senator Ted Cruz, I first want to deeply and sincerely apologize if my remarks were insensitive,” CNBC on-air reporter Steve Liesman said in a written statement. “Second, I want to explain that it was not intended to be offensive in any way.”

. . . .

“I thought of him only as an American senator from Texas, and in an attempt, on the fly, to choose music representing that state, I chose Mexican music,” Liesman said in his apology. “As a musician for many decades, I’ve played and listened to tons of Texas songs infused with Mexican themes. A better choice would have been Country/Western or Texas Roadhouse Blues — it was a bad reach all the way around.”

Given how leftists employ fake outrage any time they can stretch the truth to call a conservative a bigot, it’s tempting to discount any such statement and strike a pose of deep hurt feelings over the lefty racisms. But the fact is, I have no idea whether this guy is telling the truth or not, and if he is, it’s not fair to slam him as prejudiced because he didn’t think through the way that his comments could be interpreted as an ethnic slam.

Two points, though.

First, although it’s now a cliche to say you know a conservative would be treated worse if he did the same thing . . . you know a conservative would be treated worse if he did the same thing.

Second, it certainly would be nice, wouldn’t it, if any lefty who buys this dude’s explanation were to use the occasion to take a step back and reconsider the whole “let’s fly into a fake pose of outrage whenever it benefits our political side” kabuki that this country is so obsessed with.

I don’t expect that to happen, of course. Intellectual dishonesty, hypocrisy, and inconsistency in service of partisanship is too ingrained in the grooves of our mental processes these days.

So, if you’re on the left, excuse this. If you’re on the right, slam the guy. And get ready to flip the next time the same situation arises and the political tables are turned. It’s the American way!

44 Responses to “CNBC Talking Head Asks for “Mexican Music” to Accompany Picture of Ted Cruz”

  1. I have absolutely no problem with this “Mexican” music playing for Cruz. 😉 Safe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VeDYiIUCpo

    nk (dbc370)

  2. “. . . A bad reach all the way around.” Hmmm. Now, that’s insensitive.

    PPs43 (0112e8)

  3. I thought Ted was Cuban.

    AZ Bob (c99389)

  4. Hey, for atmosphere maybe the squawk box guy could suggest playing rap or bojangles type music when the president’s picture is on screen. Oh wait. He couldn’t. That’d be racist.

    elissa (93f70f)

  5. Cruz may be our pezzonovante* but he is still a pezzonovante. Fair game. No outrage. The suitable response to the CNBC non-entity is: “Get a state to send you to the Senate, ‘curly’.”

    *pezzo da novanta — big shot

    nk (dbc370)

  6. Is it racism if you actually believe Mexican music and Texas “go together”? I remember, when I was a child, being newly enrolled in a private elementary school (in TEXAS)where I was constantly asked (by adults and classmates)if I ate Mexican food, listened to Mexican music, spoke Spanish, etc. This, from Texans with genuine curiosity. Yes, this was a long time ago. But history has a way of informing one of the truth – like, Benghazi.

    I have always had my own criteria for my sensibilities to be offended. Foremost is the difference between ignorance and malice. I can easily overlook a “racist” action that is based on ignorance, but not one based on malice.

    Like any good Catholic, I know that a sin stems from using your free will to choose to do evil. By extension, I know that to meet my personal criteria of “racism” one needs to know what one is doing – to “offer” offense. Let us remember, also, that we are also “free” to take or refuse to take “offense”. It could be argued that the superior man refuses to take an offered offense.

    Was the talking head in question “offering” offense, or was he just ignorant? I’d say from the information in the video that he offered offense based on the Senator’s last name. That he was ignorant of Cruz’s ethnicity is merely a detail that took some of the bite out of the offense he was offering.

    felipe (6100bc)

  7. Cruz is a TeaPartier, therefore racist, therefore this is okay.

    JD (5aa30b)

  8. I sometimes watch CNBC’s morning business shows. Liesman loves to skewer conservatives and their ideology. This wasn’t a mistake.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  9. What is “Mexican music” exactly? Seems like a broad generalization.

    Is a Texan who listens to mariachi music really necessarily a Mexican? What if that person is an American listening to music written and played in America?

    Anyway, there’s a lot more to Texas than “Mexican music” slapped on our awesome Hispanic Senator.

    I am enjoying this ridiculous ‘it’s Cruz’s fault’ meme about the economy and Obamneycare failing. After years of conservatives telling Republicans and democrats this would happen, now the MSM is admitting that indeed it’s a complete disaster. The rush to point fingers does away with the debate over whether it is successful.

    Dustin (303dca)

  10. Filipe has good points, but when you are talking about people who bill themselves as knowledgeable enough about politics to offer opinions about same, ignorance about the ethnicity of a political figure, vs. the state represented, is not a valid excuse.

    That said, if Texas is the link they choose to use, then the music should be something along the line of Bob Wills, maybe Willie Nelson…. even Waylon Jennings. THAT’s TX music.

    gramps (46c9f9)

  11. Scratch a leftist, find a racist — every time.

    Icy (6cd3cf)

  12. Makes one all that more confident in Columbia’s journalism program, doesn’t it.

    narciso (3fec35)

  13. Bob Wills, maybe Willie Nelson…. even Waylon Jennings. THAT’s TX music.

    God help us, but to each his own I guess. Give me Tex Ritter. Better yet, give me Tanya Tucker. I mean, really, give me Tanya Tucker.

    nk (dbc370)

  14. Scratch a leftist, find a racist — every time.

    Comment by Icy (6cd3cf) — 10/24/2013

    They sure do go there an awful lot.

    Dustin (303dca)

  15. is anyone going to San Antone?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoVecjSnwCY

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  16. I’m as honky as the next honky (but that is, of course, a word that only me and “my people” can use in describing ourselves; from anyone else it’s racist), but I love “Mexican” music: mariachi, ranchera, corridos, Norteno, even some banda — and I especially love the Tex-Mex styles in Tejano and conjunto. I sort of agree with felipe that it isn’t necessarily racist to equate Texas with those musical styles — one thing that bothers me about California is that we have too much Mexican hip-hop and banda and not enough conjunto or even ranchera.

    JVW (709bc7)

  17. if so, would you please rise for their national anthem:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqnI-F_vfFU

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  18. Here is one of my favorite songs:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-8isA1Fww

    My apologies to those who think the Pedro Infante or Jorge Negrete version is definitive. I like the Negrete version too, but it doesn’t have a cool movie video like the Aguilar version does. I first encountered this song through Los Lobos’ awesome cover version of it. It’s a lovely lyric once you translate it.

    JVW (709bc7)

  19. Is it racism if you actually believe Mexican music and Texas “go together”?

    Of course not. It’s part of Texas’s great culture.

    But I’m tired of the media behaving this way while applying a completely different standard to conservatives.

    Had Ted Cruz said ‘let’s play some rap’ when he was mocking a black californian politician, he would be heavily criticized even though the same ‘it’s just part of that state’s music trend’ would be equally valid.

    Dustin (303dca)

  20. Better yet, give me Tanya Tucker. I mean, really, give me Tanya Tucker.

    nk, I’ll take either of the Selenas: Quintanilla or Gomez.

    JVW (709bc7)

  21. Well, I’m 57, JVW. Besides, when you break up with Selena Gomez, she goes on TV and tells people you have a small penis.

    And how come we didn’t think of this Texan first? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzDzt9lGwhM

    nk (dbc370)

  22. Pretty sure that Selena Gomez was to Justin Bieber exactly what Brooke Shields once was to Michael Jackson.

    And if we are talking about music/entertainment babes from Texas, let’s not overlook Amarillo’s own Cyd Charisse, whom I believe I heard was a staunch conservative in her political beliefs.

    JVW (709bc7)

  23. But, but, but, Cruz was born in Canada! How about a little RUSH, hoser.

    Loren (1e34f2)

  24. Its tired to say if a conservative did it… but here’s the equivalent.

    imagine a fox news host introducing a story about Obama and saying, “can we get some gangsta rap music for this?”

    Aaron "Worthing" Walker (23789b)

  25. Aaron, I am not quite making the same connection you are. Cruz is from Texas and has a Spanish surname, but he’s actually Cuban-American (via Canada). Playing Mexican music doesn’t really go with his heritage, but it does go towards where Cruz was raised and where he currently resides.

    So as I see it, an analogy with Obama would be if some host called for Hawaiian slack guitar, or maybe even some Indonesian Muslim chants. It would be evocative of a culture in which Obama has resided, though it wouldn’t really get to his actual race or ethnicity.

    JVW (709bc7)

  26. JVW, maybe a slight adjustment to that analogy could rely on Chicago Hip Hop.

    Dustin (303dca)

  27. I’m on a Mexican radio
    I’m on a Mexican whoa-oh radio

    Colonel Haiku (8cb0f3)

  28. I hear the talking of the DJ
    Can’t understand
    just what does he say?

    Colonel Haiku (8cb0f3)

  29. Wish I was in Tiajuana
    Eating barbecued iguana

    Colonel Haiku (8cb0f3)

  30. If a conservative talk show host did this, he’d be fired by now.

    SPQR (768505)

  31. This is what they should play when Obama is talked about on any TV show.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQCJ6PzRdA

    felipe (6100bc)

  32. The times piece about his wife, is really grasping for straws, since she’s not a lawyer, she is ‘analytical, whereas Cruz filibusters, doh.

    narciso (3fec35)

  33. It’s not like his father had an offensive rock on his ranch or anything. Let him slide.

    Dave (4afdd3)

  34. Raaaacist!

    Dirty Old Man (4bf1c0)

  35. That said, if Texas is the link they choose to use, then the music should be something along the line of Bob Wills, maybe Willie Nelson…. even Waylon Jennings. THAT’s TX music.

    Comment by gramps (46c9f9) — 10/24/2013 @ 11:07 am

    Well, “If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0iXzn67_U

    Yoda (ee1de0)

  36. If you’re on the right, slam the guy.

    I emailed CNBC asking if anyone believed the fake apology. They responded by pointing out that he had apologized, and gave me the same link I gave them.

    @25
    So as I see it, an analogy with Obama would be if some host called for Hawaiian slack guitar

    How about some Chi-town rap?

    malclave (1db6c5)

  37. I would ask the ignorant TV poser exactly what kind of “Mexican” music he was referring to.

    “La Cucucracha?”

    Or maybe native American music? Or maybe Norteño? Or maybe Mariachi? Banda perhaps?

    Racist isn’t the right word. What am I looking for?

    Ignorant. I think that’s it.

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  38. Here’s some music done by unos mexicanos al hueso.
    This should be the house band for fast and furious

    http://teamcoco.com/video/los-cuates-de-sinaloa-09-23-13

    steveg (794291)

  39. This band does good mexican ballad rock

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdklgncWggo

    steveg (794291)

  40. A Cuban lament (with some bonus nice old chevy’s)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzajUu6JYA8

    steveg (794291)

  41. it was a bad reach all the way around.”

    Too many words. I fixt it fer ‘im.

    Smock Puppet, Gadfy, Racist-Sexist Thug, and Bon Vivant All In One Package (fc9290)

  42. sometimes, you look around and say, “WTF am i doing here?”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb23Ai26eM0

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  43. and sometimes, salvation is just recognizing who is there to help

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJWnIFlYKjs

    redc1c4 (abd49e)


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