Mark Ruffalo is known for two things, playing the Incredible Hulk in the “Avengers” movies and supporting a variety of far-left causes and candidates. A little of both were manifest when the actor tweeted to his followers a petition demanding that NBC and its sister cable news network MSNBC stop hiring “white conservatives.”
Since neither network is known to be a hotbed of right-wing thought, say like Fox News, the demand has some heads being scratched as to what the actor was talking about. Even so as of this writing the petition has almost gotten 200,000 signatures.
What the petition says
The petition, set up at Credo Action, claims that NBC and MSNBC are pushing out “black and brown” talent to make way for white conservatives. It suggests that NBC has “troubling ties” to President Donald Trump and that MSNBC is “tilting to the right.” The petition accuses the man in charge of MSNBC of wanting to make the cable news network “whiter.” It states that the two networks will face a backlash if they become platforms for “right-wing hate.”
Who are the white conservatives who are being hired?
The list of “white conservatives” that are being recruited to invade the network safe space is something that will, no doubt, shock the sensitive progressives. One would indeed wonder why any of them are allowed to be on the air.
Nicolle Wallace is described as a former spokesperson for both George W. Bush and the John McCain presidential campaign. The petition does not mention that Wallace is also abhorred by many of the right for allegedly slandering former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, blaming her for McCain’s defeat at the hands of Barack Obama.
The venerable George Will is described as a climate denier and a campus rape apologist, which translates as someone who has expressed mild skepticism on both issues. Will, an old school conservative, is also a fervent never-Trumper.
Hugh Hewitt is accused of defending the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, just as has most everyone else on both the left and the right.
He is also about as mild-mannered a man as one can ever encounter on the airwaves.
Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren are tainted because of their previous association with Fox News. Kelly famously tangled with then candidate Donald Trump during the campaign. Van Susteren, who started her media career as an on-air legal analyst during the OJ trial, was considered a moderate voice on FNC.
What is really going on
Many media critics have decried the “ghettoization” of the news media, where Fox caters to conservatives and CNN and MSNBC services the left. The phenomenon has always be exaggerated. FNC has always had liberal talent like Juan Williams and Geraldo Rivera. MSNBC seems to be taking a leaf from its rival and is trying to enhance the ideological diversity of its on-air talent. But the left, as least as personified by Mark Ruffalo, are having none of it. Just as conservatives are being chased off of college campuses, they propose to bar than from cable news.
