At the American Prospect, Adam S. writes:
Huh, I wonder why Jake Tapper, press access warrior, has blocked me from following his Twitter feed.Touchy, touch.
Time for a blogger ethics panel?
UPDATE: Tapper has also blocked Talking Points Memo.
Bonus Tapper: His exchange with White House Press Secretary Joe Gibbs (sic) over “transparency that you and the president herald so much.” I think you’re supposed to believe in transparency too, Jake.
Tapper seems to be retaliating for getting mocked about obsessing about Obama’s Leno joke.<br><br>Update: Just to make sure no one misses anything important, I’ll be posting updates from Jake Tapper’s twitter feed throughout the day. Here’s the most recent one:
giggles overheard as kids hoe new WH organic garden. @yunjid doing story w/said garden for WN tonight
r€nato
Gee I thought these guys were supposed to have a thick skin.
I’m a bit averse to twitter for this very reason; it’s not always a good thing to share whatever random passing thought with the rest of the world.
evie
Joe Gibbs? Isn’t he a football coach.
I believe he’s referring to Bobby.
John Cole
Dougj- your formatting is so bad I can’t figure out who the hell said what.
The Moar You Know
I’ll just say what needs to be said.
What a fucking pussy.
DougJ
@John Cole
People said similar things about Ulysses and Pale Fire, at the time.
The Moar You Know
Well, that I’m in moderation this time is no shocker.
mistermix
Blocking a follower has got to be one of the most petty, meaningless actions possible on Twitter (and God knows that’s saying a lot).
Lev
Does Ron Silver really need three PJTV ads worth of rememberance? I mean, I liked him on The West Wing (and it was kinda cool how his character on the show mirrored his real life political transformation) but whatever happened to those anti-Hollywood conservatives?
Of course they never existed. Conservatives love to hate Hollywood, which is why they glorify every actor with right-wing sympathies. They usually don’t even get the good ones. Reagan, Thompson, not great actors.
Napoleon
@Lev:
That applies to singers also (Sonny Bono).
Max
Tapper is a horse’s ass, and as far as I can tell he always has been.
AhabTRuler
For some period of time prior to his rightward shift, Ron Silver was the head of Actor’s Equity, the theater union. Given that the union was actually begun to address serious issues of to and mistreatment of actors, its a pretty legitimate union.
Still, I had the vision of Ron Silver swinging in on a rope with pistol and saber to save the poor oppressed actors (fuckwits). Hey, at least it was good for a giggle.
KCinDC
Why am I reminded of the Redstate tradition of blocking links from critical blogs? It’s an easily circumvented annoyance that accomplishes little other than calling attention to their thin skin.
JenJen
Actually, I’m almost certain that Keith Olbermann was "first out of the gate" on the Special Olympics comment. During his show in the 8:00 hour last night, while talking with Craig Ferguson, Keith said that, being an NBC employee and also being in the same building where the program was taped, he had seen the President’s appearance on "The Tonight Show". He reported that he was funny, the audience loved him, but that he made somewhat of a gaffe, and he told his audience and Ferguson the "Special Olympics" quote. Keith scooped everyone on the President’s appearance.
I sent a text to a friend about it at 8:49 pm, immediately after KO told the story.
Judging from the timestamp on Jakey’s byline (8:56 pm), he heard the story while watching Keith Olbermann, and immediately "reported" it, with no attribution for Olbermann, of course.
Time for a Blogger Ethics Panel, right, Tapper?
nepat
Why we all have to pretend Jake Tapper is a journalist I’ll never know.
lilysmom
TBogg has also been blocked by Stalkin’ Malkin.
They are a sensitive bunch.
MikeJ
Only because Drudge pays attention to him and too many people in the real media pay attention to Drudge. He’s taken the place of the Weekly World News as the sewer from which Drudge pumps stories to the media.
hypusine
He’s now defending his decision to block on Twitter:
———-
@teribeau "censorship"? theres no first amendment right to make me read rude tweets.opinions welcome.name-calling not.about 1 hour ago from web
———-
@jaketapper, you do realize that the folks you recently blocked just have to log out to see what you are writing? Good luck controlling that
@drlabratory am not trying to control who reads my tweets- anyone can.Am trying (struggling) 2 use twitter to learn,converse,politely argue
———-
That’s stupid and not just for the reason cited by drlaboratory. 1) People following you are different than those you follow (I follow jaketapper but he gets no updates from me). 2) Blocking someone is an attempt to keep them from reading you.
Josb B.
From Tapper’s twitter feed:
Yeah, me too…I think mine would have been something along the lines of "yeah, along with EVERYTHING the fuck else about you, George."
YellowJournalism
The thing that cemented my aversion to twitter was when the news was reporting on how senators were twittering during the President’s speech. Do your damn job and pay attention, you jerks.
JenJen
@hypusine: This one’s rich:
enough bile out there that i dont need it here on twitter.dialogue, yes. insults no. blog comment board and bathroom walls still avail 4 all
about 2 hours ago from web
John Cole
If I can’t follow Tapper’s twitter, how on earth will I know if Obama has sneaked a smoke?
KCinDC
Yeah, hypusine, I’ve been trying to make sense of that explanation. I don’t know all the details of Twitter (I’ve signed up but find that Facebook provides sufficient opportunity for that sort of time sink at the moment), but it seems completely illogical to me.
Also, is he claiming that TPM was sending him rude tweets? That seems unlikely.
JenJen
@KCinDC:
I agree… the TPM guys are not that snarky, and I sincerely doubt they ever sent him anything rude. I’d like to tweet him, and ask why he never gave Keith Olbermann attribution for his "Special Olympics Scoop," personally.
Obviously, anyone blocked by Jakey can log out, put the URL back in, and read his updates. Thing is, if someone is blocked on Twitter, they can no longer "tweet" the person that blocked them.
So, in other words, Jake is being a WATB. He knows his critics can still read him; he just doesn’t want to hear from them.
hypusine
@JenJen
Rich indeed.
He doesn’t care who reads him unless he, you know, does.
guest
i swear, he must be getting a bonus under to table to be this much of an ahole.
hypusine
OK, credit where it’s due.
The vast strike forces of Greater Liberated Blogistan win again?
dr. bloor
Well, I knew that B.D. was based on Brian Dowling and Duke was a riff on Hunter Thompson, but I hadn’t realized that Roland Hedley had a real-world counterpart.
chuck
My god, it’s politics by the "IDK My BFF Jill?" girl.
How on earth is Twitter considered an advancement in anything at all?
KCinDC
Hypusine, your restatement doesn’t match what he said. If Tapper is blocking people who are sending him rude or annoying messages, I have no problem with that. That’s not about keeping people from reading him—it’s about keeping Twitter usable for him. I don’t understand what it has to do with blocking TPM though.
JL
@KCinDC: Maturity. Jake just like cheap wines has not matured.
Tonga
I’m sure that since Adam S is so angry about being blocked from someone’s Twitter account, he will also make all of his JounoList musings available to everyone…..right??
hypusine
@KCinDC
Tapper blocked Serwer from following his Twitter feed. That has nothing to do with usability to Tapper; who Twitter reports his updates to is invisible to him aside from them being listed as followers of his. Now, I may have misunderstood the sense in which TPM was blocked, but since since they lumped themselves in with Serwer I felt safe assuming they were blocked from following Tapper as well.
This just in. According to Benen and TPM looks like I understood the issue correctly. It was silly and now it’s over.
KCinDC
Hypusine, from JenJen’s explanation and my admittedly novice understanding of Twitter, blocking someone from tweeting you also blocks them from following you. There aren’t two separate block functions.
JenJen
Tapper has unblocked TPM. This has been quite the amusing afternoon!
@yellowduc tpm is unblocked. My bad.
about 1 hour ago from TwitterBerry
KCinDC
To clarify, I don’t imagine either Serwer or TPM was sending Tapper rude tweets, so I don’t know what that message about "conversation ruined by rudeness" would have to do with blocking them. But I’d also imagine that anyone well known with a public Twitter feed gets inundated with tweets from idiots, so I’d expect them all to have plenty of people blocked, and I have no problem with that.
hypusine
@KCinDC
Reading over the blocking description on their page; very likely my mistake. I’m also new to Twitter. Blocking from following and blocking from messaging aren’t separate. It’s just one block.
Still confused how someone follows me but I, not following them, would see anything from them saying "@hypusine," necessitating a block. But I’ll take that question to others off this thread. Thanks!
Peter J
Has Tapper ever blocked any right wing bloggers?
Nellcote
How rude can one really be in just 140 characters?
John Cole
Anyone remember Tapper’s reaction to Bush joking about WMD in 2004?
hypusine
@ John Cole:
Sure I do. Tapper blocked him.
rea
Well: FU
(Pretty damn rude, 2 characters)
JenJen
@John Cole: I also recall him being among the first of the Beltway journos to help McCain/Palin push the "lipstick on a pig" nontroversy.
Tapper (emphasis mine):
The crowd rose and applauded, some of them no doubt thinking he may have been alluding to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s ad lib during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, "What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."
Jake Tapper, Mindreader.
(He later removed the "no doubt" part, and had to cop to it later when busted by evil bloggers)
gil mann
Tapper’s a massive tool. I tried to leave a comment on his ABC blog once—not a laudatory one, but not terribly antagonistic, as I didn’t know about his massive tooldom at the time—and his staff deleted it. That’s when I noticed that every comment in that thread was full of praise for Tapper’s ballsy reporting. So I made mine as obsequious as possible while still taking issue with his post, and it got deleted again. Since I was home with the flu, I had nothing better to do than escalate.
I still feel kinda bad about what I put that poor intern through. I must’ve reposted variations on that comment 150, 200 times. I’ve since found more productive ways to spend sick days, but God help Tapper’s assistants the next time there’s no save space left on my PS2 memory card.
Zuzu's Petals
@Lev:
Robert Duvall being an exception. In my opinion, anyway.
Zuzu's Petals
@Josb B.:
It was a cringeworthy moment, but slightly more harmless than it’s being made out to be.
If you see the video, including Leno’s comments, it’s clear Obama is talking about the "everybody wins a prize" aspect of the SO.
YouTube
Still, glad he apologized right away.
Jake Tapper
To answer your question, John – when President Bush joked about WMD, I was sitting at the White House dinner right next to Rob Corddry and we were both absolutely horrified. I didn’t have a blog, though. Wish I had. Feel free to email me if you have questions in the future.
Cheers,
Jake
USpace
.
God bless Ron Silver, he was a ‘Liberal’ who came to his senses about Jihadis and brutal Dictators. He knew they would destroy America, and Hollywood if they could. He realized that if America goes down the tubes, then the whole planet is doomed.
You were great Ron! Time Cop, Arrival, Wiseguy, and The West Wing among many were particularly good. Thank you for everything, especially your courage, RIP.
.
here’s an absurd thought –
our God of the Universe
hates ALL Liberals
who admit their errors
and move Right on defense
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe hates
the principles of FREEDOM
fascism comes from the Right
that is a lie of the Left
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
YOU’RE RIGHT WING
because you hate dictators
and don’t blame America
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
:)
.