Saturday, April 17, 2004
The NY Times on Wonkette
The New York Times deigns to look down its nose at Washington D.C. blogosphere gadfly Wonkette--and delivers one unwitting laugh line after another in a precious example of accidental self-parody.
Here's the link.
Laugh line #1: When the notoriously unreliable Drudge Report blared the stunning headline in February that Senator John Kerry had had an affair with a woman on his staff, the gossip columns in Washington's newspapers did not print a word
Now, remember, this is the newspaper that gave us the serial fabrication of Jayson Blair. Indeed, the Times kept Blair on the payroll for months after his supervisor wrote "We have to stop Jayson Blair from writing for the Times. Right now."
Suppose a senior White House employee had hacked out a pre-9/11 email to the President: "We have to stop Mohammed Atta from taking flying lessons and allowing boxcutter knives on commercial planes. Right now."
Suppose further that the President took no action.
What would be the editorial position of the New York Times? That's right--they'd be screaming for heads to role for dereliction of duty. Why didn't the President follow up?
Which is why for the newspaper which made a star out of Jayson Blair to heave the unreliable label around about anybody else is, well, deliciously ironic.
I'm sorry. Did I say "ironic?" What I meant to say is "ain't that just like a rat calling a fox a "pointy-snouted varmint."
Laugh line #2: Her main competition in town, The Reliable Source, a regular feature in The Washington Post, has held a near monopoly since its debut in 1992. Richard Leiby, who took over from Lloyd Grove last fall, said on Friday that the newspaper's standards limit what he can write. "There really is not a gossip column at The Washington Post," he said. "We're really writing fairly rigorously sourced items of news interest, as opposed to who's sleeping with whom."
This from the guy who outed the romance between Daniel Pearl's widow, Mariane, and CNN's Eason Jordan.
Not to be outdone, The Reliable Source's former penman, Lloyd Grove, tries to stake out the moral high ground, by insisting he had the scoop that Newt Gingrich was being unfaithful to his wife, but didn't run it.
Says Grove: "I haven't lowered my reporting standards just because I'm in New York rather than Washington."
Zing!
Laugh line #3: Mr. Leiby described her as a "foulmouthed, inaccurate, opinionated little vixen."
What class.
The Columbia Journalism Review scolded Ms. Cox for covering the Kerry intern rumor as if it were true.
Hey, CJR--what about the UK Telegraph, which went with the story at almost the same time Drudge did?
And you're worried about a little blog?
Laugh Line #4: "I just don't think that readers in Washington are that eager to hear about sex lives."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Splash, out
Jason
Here's the link.
Laugh line #1: When the notoriously unreliable Drudge Report blared the stunning headline in February that Senator John Kerry had had an affair with a woman on his staff, the gossip columns in Washington's newspapers did not print a word
Now, remember, this is the newspaper that gave us the serial fabrication of Jayson Blair. Indeed, the Times kept Blair on the payroll for months after his supervisor wrote "We have to stop Jayson Blair from writing for the Times. Right now."
Suppose a senior White House employee had hacked out a pre-9/11 email to the President: "We have to stop Mohammed Atta from taking flying lessons and allowing boxcutter knives on commercial planes. Right now."
Suppose further that the President took no action.
What would be the editorial position of the New York Times? That's right--they'd be screaming for heads to role for dereliction of duty. Why didn't the President follow up?
Which is why for the newspaper which made a star out of Jayson Blair to heave the unreliable label around about anybody else is, well, deliciously ironic.
I'm sorry. Did I say "ironic?" What I meant to say is "ain't that just like a rat calling a fox a "pointy-snouted varmint."
Laugh line #2: Her main competition in town, The Reliable Source, a regular feature in The Washington Post, has held a near monopoly since its debut in 1992. Richard Leiby, who took over from Lloyd Grove last fall, said on Friday that the newspaper's standards limit what he can write. "There really is not a gossip column at The Washington Post," he said. "We're really writing fairly rigorously sourced items of news interest, as opposed to who's sleeping with whom."
This from the guy who outed the romance between Daniel Pearl's widow, Mariane, and CNN's Eason Jordan.
Not to be outdone, The Reliable Source's former penman, Lloyd Grove, tries to stake out the moral high ground, by insisting he had the scoop that Newt Gingrich was being unfaithful to his wife, but didn't run it.
Says Grove: "I haven't lowered my reporting standards just because I'm in New York rather than Washington."
Zing!
Laugh line #3: Mr. Leiby described her as a "foulmouthed, inaccurate, opinionated little vixen."
What class.
The Columbia Journalism Review scolded Ms. Cox for covering the Kerry intern rumor as if it were true.
Hey, CJR--what about the UK Telegraph, which went with the story at almost the same time Drudge did?
And you're worried about a little blog?
Laugh Line #4: "I just don't think that readers in Washington are that eager to hear about sex lives."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Splash, out
Jason
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