{"id":137,"date":"2009-08-19T17:15:05","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T17:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html"},"modified":"2009-08-19T17:15:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-19T17:15:05","slug":"barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html","title":{"rendered":"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to admit, I got quite an ethically-challenged guffaw out of Barney Frank’s comments to the woman who compared President Obama’s healthcare plans to a ‘Nazi policy’. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/object> <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
I don’t mind that he called her thoughts ‘vile, contemptible nonsense,’ or that he wondered aloud what planet she was from. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
However, what I didn’t<\/i> love was that he said, “Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Basically, he said he wouldn’t engage the woman because she was too stupid to be worth talking to. (Or, too wooden or inflexible.)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
While this may potentially be the case, what is the point in coming to a ‘debate’ if you won’t engage in any discussion? I get that he’s fed up. She would appear to be as well. But it’s just unethical and lousy to let that aggravation make you lose your temper in that fashion. Worse still is to insult your constituents without even trying to intellectually engage them. He prejudged her, and in doing so, did all of us a disservice.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Barney, I may agree with your politics, but I don’t agree with your style. Not today, anyhow.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
How about you-all? Would you let this lady have it? Or do you think Barney was being a bully?<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
Subscribe to receive updates from Everyday Ethics or follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit, I got quite an ethically-challenged guffaw out of Barney Frank’s comments to the woman who compared President Obama’s healthcare plans to a ‘Nazi policy’. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:   I don’t mind that he called her thoughts ‘vile, contemptible nonsense,’ or that he wondered aloud…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,40,36,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-current-events","category-free-speech","category-news","category-political-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nBarney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have to admit, I got quite an ethically-challenged guffaw out of Barney Frank’s comments to the woman who compared President Obama’s healthcare plans to a ‘Nazi policy’. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:   I don’t mind that he called her thoughts ‘vile, contemptible nonsense,’ or that he wondered aloud…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-19T17:15:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hfields\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical? - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical? - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"I have to admit, I got quite an ethically-challenged guffaw out of Barney Frank’s comments to the woman who compared President Obama’s healthcare plans to a ‘Nazi policy’. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:   I don’t mind that he called her thoughts ‘vile, contemptible nonsense,’ or that he wondered aloud…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Ethics","article_published_time":"2009-08-19T17:15:05+00:00","author":"hfields","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html","name":"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical? - Everyday Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-19T17:15:05+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-19T17:15:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/barney-frank-town-hall-video-was-his-response-appropriate-or-unethical.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Barney Frank Town Hall Video: Was His Response Appropriate or Unethical?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/","name":"Everyday Ethics","description":"Moral Ethics Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f","name":"hfields","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","caption":"hfields"},"description":"Hillary Fields is a born-and-bred New Yorker, brought up on the not-so-mean streets of Manhattan's Upper East Side. She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}