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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Milbank to Pitney: You’re a dick

Milbank to Pitney: You’re a dick

by DougJ|  June 28, 20092:45 pm| 106 Comments

This post is in: Media, Assholes

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From Ana Marie Cox’s twitter:

Sources say that at the end of the Dana/Nico segment, Dana says, “You’re such a dick.” Wishful thinking? Can anyone confirm? (link)

@HowardKurtz Nico stands by the quote. Obviously, you both were there. (link)

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Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    Ash

    June 28, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Are these WATBs in high school fighting over who gets to screw the head cheerleader? GET THE HELL OVER YOURSELVES.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    June 28, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    @Ash:

    Are these WATBs in high school fighting over who gets to screw the head cheerleader? GET THE HELL OVER YOURSELVES.

    I was going to say junior high rather than high school, but yeah.

    -dms

  3. 3.

    Ash

    June 28, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    @dmsilev: Good point. A large portion of high schoolers are more mature than most of the douches in the WHPC could ever hope to be.

  4. 4.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 28, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    Millbank’s Dick Cheney on the Senate Floor moment.

    Maybe that’s where he got the word.

    It’s funny because that’s what’s going to be remembered from this, partly because everything about Millbank’s body language, patronizing touching, and smug demeanor made it seem that that was what he was basically saying anyway.

  5. 5.

    JGabriel

    June 28, 2009 at 3:08 pm

    I guess that makes Milbank an asshole?

    On second thought, I suppose genetics did that.

    .

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    June 28, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Ash:

    Are these WATBs in high school fighting over who gets to screw the head cheerleader?

    Dana needs to man up and face it; Amanda Carpenter will never sleep with him.

    .

  7. 7.

    Kathy

    June 28, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Just finished watching the segment. If Nico didn’t say “you’re a Dick” to Millbank, he should have.
    BTW, who gets your award for biggest Dick this week? I like Millbank’s smarmy know it all attytood and who doesn’t love Marco Stanford’s “Crying in Argentina but my vote goes to whoever decided the BBC should drop the Iran story in favor of wall to wall Michael Jackson coverage.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    June 28, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    How many times do these idiots have to be humiliated by a DFH before they learn that we don’t need their stinkin’ rules. Ol’ Howie and Dana just keep having to learn it over and over and over again. Isn’t that a form of insanity?

  9. 9.

    El Tiburon

    June 28, 2009 at 3:12 pm

    Am I the only one who thinks this is golden:

    From Ana Marie Cox’s twitter

  10. 10.

    MikeJ

    June 28, 2009 at 3:16 pm

    Am I the only one who thinks this is golden:

    She did get her current gig by nonstop talk about ass fucking.

  11. 11.

    KidA

    June 28, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    I bit off topic, but I noticed that prissie Howard K. did’t have tine to cover his own paper’s dismissal of Froomkin. What a dick – opps – What dicks! Howie and Dana.

  12. 12.

    linda

    June 28, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    so, is that ‘wishful thinking?’ ana’s inclination to take take milbank’s side now that she’s long past her ass-fucking blogger days? some of us do remember your earlier incarnation, ahhna.

  13. 13.

    Louise

    June 28, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    You could watch that exchange without sound and still know who the patronizing, arrogant asshole was. I had wondered, reading about this, whether DM was as pompous as he ‘sounded’ in print. No more. He’s worse.

  14. 14.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    June 28, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    @Ash:

    You think Dana Milbank ever got within hailing distance of the head cheerleader?

  15. 15.

    Comrade Jake

    June 28, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    What’s amazing to me about this whole thing is how members of the WH press corps continue to bitch and moan about this. I mean, there was a segment on MTP this morning on this incident, which given the big scheme of things, is completely insane. This incident really did upset the house of cards that is their ego-centered universe. Lost in all of it is the fact that Nico asked arguably the toughest question in the presser.

    Members of the WH press corps might as well be tattooing their foreheads with “WHINY DOUCHEBAG”, for all the good this is doing for them.

  16. 16.

    DonkeyKong

    June 28, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    Correction: He said “Nico!…you have a dick.”

    Makes more sense.

  17. 17.

    geg6

    June 28, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    DonkeyKong FTW.

  18. 18.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    June 28, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    You think Dana Milbank ever got within hailing distance of the head cheerleader?

    No, but I bet he had a pair of high-powered binoculars within hailing distance of a sock and a bottle of hand lotion.

  19. 19.

    Scutch

    June 28, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Milbank is Andy Bernard without the charm

  20. 20.

    Brian Griffin

    June 28, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    @Comrade Jake: Does this whole fooferaw remind anyone else of the auto industry?

    An industry in a publicized decline, denying that Americans are smart enough to demand quality or creativity, relying on exising market penetration and distribution for future success, and believing the idea that they aren’t allowed to do anything different from the competition? Add in the fact that their savviest customers have moved on, and are much happier with their new choices.

    I just don’t get why the large majority of papers & tv networks are competing to play the role of GM in this.

  21. 21.

    John Cole

    June 28, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    The funny thing is I kind of remember Milbank actually occasionally standing up to the Bush White House, and now he has pissed it all away by acting like an insecure punk.

  22. 22.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 28, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Dana Millbank, S.A.D.

    Quoth the raven, “forevermore”.

    Aside from just acting like patronizing creep, his argument fails. An Iranian got to ask a question, and unless he’s claiming that Nico or Obama made it up, then his charge is baseless.

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    June 28, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    linda:

    ana’s inclination to take take milbank’s side now that she’s long past her ass-fucking blogger days?

    I’m not sure where you’re getting that impression. I just took a look at Ana’s twitter feed, and it’s pretty clear that she’s on Nico’s side – as you’d expect from a former blogger:

    RT @pourmecoffee: More things Dana Milbank doesn’t think is fair: curfew, having to eat vegetables, girls who ignore him, and homework. about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck

    RT @dceiver: Meanwhile, Nico’s back watching Iran. Milbank’s probably liveblogging his mani-pedi. tr.im/q3Zaabout 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

    That hardly seems pro-Milbank.

    .

  24. 24.

    demkat620

    June 28, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    Okay, Milbank had an issue with Pitney but he was fine with Jeff Gannon?

    Did he attack Jeff Gannon the way he went after Nico?

  25. 25.

    geg6

    June 28, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    You’re right, John. But any substantive discussion of anything of substance by Dana Milbank died right about the time Olbermann kicked him off MSNBC. It’s like he couldn’t believe Olbermann called him on his shit and he has yet to get over it. Check out pretty much everything he’s written since. He a bitter old queen from the tone. He always was a sneering jackass, but a jackass who every once in a while was sneering at the right people and things. Now he has apparently decided that the sneering jackassery was the only important thing, not who or why.

  26. 26.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Milbank’s takedown of Nico Pitney combined DM’s mastery of language with a keen wit that Dorothy Parker would have envied to provide us all with a bravura affirmation of how much he deserves his place in the fucking clown car that is the Washington Post editorial page.

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    June 28, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Comrade Jake:

    Lost in all of it is the fact that Nico asked arguably the toughest question in the presser.

    To be fair, Howie mentioned that Nico asked a good question and repeated it for emphasis — to make clear that it wasn’t up for debate.

    .

  28. 28.

    Brian Griffin

    June 28, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    @demkat620: Gannonguckert was obvious, and not a threat. pitney’s part of a larger and much more threatening shift.

  29. 29.

    passerby

    June 28, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    @John Cole:

    Me too, I also used to like Dana Milbank. He often appeared on Countdown with KO and KO always banged the drum the loudest during the Bush reign and wouldn’t have had Dana on the show unless he was going to bang along–so to speak.

    Then, even KO dropped him as I just found out from a link JenJen put up. Wonder what’s got to him?

  30. 30.

    demkat620

    June 28, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    @Brian Griffin: On the threat we agree, can’t let just anybody ask questions you know.

  31. 31.

    PeopleAreNoDamnGood

    June 28, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    Are these WATBs in high school fighting over who gets to screw the head cheerleader?

    Yes, and here we are outside the gym, talking about it like a bunch of excited girls.

  32. 32.

    malraux

    June 28, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    @passerby: Milbank made up a quote to stick in Obama’s mouth. KO refused to invite him back on until he would admit to it, issue a correction, and apologize.

  33. 33.

    passerby

    June 28, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    @malraux:

    Milbank made up a quote to stick in Obama’s mouth. KO refused to invite him back on until he would admit to it, issue a correction, and apologize.

    Wonder why he didn’t admit his error. We can only conclude that it was his intent to mischaracterize Obama’s words.

    He’s a fool with no where to hide and if he doesn’t man-up and apologize or something he’s pissing away the last of any cred he still has.

  34. 34.

    Death By Mosquito Truck

    June 28, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    Wrong thread.

  35. 35.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 28, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    @Death By Mosquito Truck:

    Well now my comment won’t make any sense so I’ll delete it also.

  36. 36.

    Death By Mosquito Truck

    June 28, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    @PeopleAreNoDamnGood: heh

  37. 37.

    Brian Griffin

    June 28, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    @demkat620: It’s interesting how there seem to be two theories of expected consequences from career success, and this little episode shows them. I assume I’m not the only one that works with people demonstrating both types:

    1. Opportunity. You know that when you are promoted, your job must become much more difficult, as you will be much more qualified to handle more difficult assignments. your promotion gives you the opportunity to work even harder and to achieve much more.

    2. Reward. You know that you will be promoted as a reward for your hard work, education, and careful strategizing, and your promotion will allow you to delegate difficult things. You have passed the hazing and are entitled to a fairly secure position.

    I’ve been wondering lately if this explains the tight relationship between the gop and the villagers– both mostly appear to follow the “Reward” theory. If you want to discuss real issues and not just ideology, and actually get things done, it helps to subscribe to the “Opportunity” theory, because you already work hard at keeping current understanding the issues and events. Limiting discussion to ideology and the horseraces allow people to comfortably subscribe to the “Reward” theory, because they don’t have to change their prior conceptions of anything.

    It’s pretty clear (to me) that Obama subscribes to the “Opportunity” theory, and Bush treated the presidency as a “Reward”.

    The two groups don’t debate the same way because they are after different things, so it makes for unbalanced TV– therfore we get ideological discussions just so that the hosts can keep up. You can see this in action in the Thiessen/Ware “debate” on CNN, even better than in the Pitney/Milbank episode. youtube.com/watch?v=JAjcli8MjPM

  38. 38.

    linda

    June 28, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    @JGabriel:

    JGabriel:
    i read her ‘wishful thinking?’ as pitney deserving of milbank’s snotty retort.

    keep in mind, she is collecting a paycheck from the wapo. and isn’t above making her own asshole comment; during a wapo online chat a couple of months ago she remarked (that the wapo later deleted):

    Ana Marie Cox: John Kerry would likely take Chief Dog Catcher or Deputy Ball Licker if it was a cabinet level appointment.

  39. 39.

    JK

    June 28, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Ana Marie Cox still professes her admiration for John McCain despite the slimy, dishonest campaign he ran.

    Nice to see that she documented Milbank’s insult to Pitney, but I still regard her as a net negative in journalism.

    She and Maureen Dowd are class clowns who pretend to play journalists once in a blue moon.

  40. 40.

    JK

    June 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    OT

    Boehner Calls Climate Bill “A Pile Of Shit”. Boehner knows a thing or two about piles of shit given he’s the biggest one in the House of Reps.

    h/t huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/28/boehner-calls-climate-bil_n_221995.html

  41. 41.

    JGabriel

    June 28, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    @JK:

    Boehner Calls Climate Bill “A Pile Of Shit”.

    When the only tool you’ve got is a massive asshole, everything looks like a pile of shit.

    .

  42. 42.

    MikeJ

    June 28, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    Boehner Calls Climate Bill “A Pile Of Shit”.

    Still better than a watermelon.
    crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/beck-corporate-shill-proclaim-climat

  43. 43.

    passerby

    June 28, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    @passerby:

    Then, even KO dropped him as I just found out from a link JenJen put up.

    Oops, it was Rosalie’s link. Sorry.

  44. 44.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    June 28, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    Someone put up a topic hashtag: #dickwhisperer over on Twitter and some of it’s pretty goddamned funny. Dave Waldman (AKA KagroX) is among those piling on poor wittul Dana. Take a look.

  45. 45.

    sus

    June 28, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    I love that the hashtag is #dickwhisperer . I do love a good media catfight.

  46. 46.

    The Other Steve

    June 28, 2009 at 5:36 pm

    TheOtherSteve to Milbank: WHO CARES!?

  47. 47.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    June 28, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    Entire world to Milbank: Takes one to know one.

  48. 48.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    @linda: ” ana’s inclination to take take milbank’s side”

    Where do you get *that*?

  49. 49.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    @linda: “i read her ‘wishful thinking?’ as pitney deserving of milbank’s snotty retort.”

    No, that’s probably in reference to the “sources” she’s attributing the report to.

  50. 50.

    Kryptik

    June 28, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    Sounds like Dana’s in line for a promotion!

  51. 51.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    @Kryptik:
    Milbank’s nuts are probably bouncing off of Fred Hiatt’s chin as we write.

  52. 52.

    bayville

    June 28, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    I saw Nico Pitney ask a question at Obama’s press conference last week. But I am not aware of this Dino Milbanks person.
    Is he a game show host or a reality show actor? And was that his Vanna White wannabe sitting next to him?

  53. 53.

    eyeball

    June 28, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    @Brian Griffin

    I like your theory very much. You should work on it. I think it gets to the marrow of why old media (WashPost, Sunday TV) in the Beltway are especially churlish when confronted with a challenge like HuffPost or TMZ or even twitter. They felt their careers had entitled them to the same comfortable state of semi-retirement and grand panjandrum status as those who came a generation before. But that generation before was the aberration. Generally, pundits save a few major marvels (like Mencken) have a short shelf life, and it will get shorter and shorter. These lazy loads want star treatment — first class air fare to Iraq, limos to fetch them for their opinions, evian in the green room — not a chance to get better at what they do. In their youth they would have adored seeing the blimps ahead of them in the chow line get punctured by young turks. Now, they just want to be preserved like Mr. Burns’ head on “The Simpsons,” regardless of merit, so the turks can’t get at them. They burrow in nice and cozy with the political classes because it’s mutual assured survival. They could mimic the French aristocracy of 1780 no better.

    It’s why the great Orwell wrote again and again that he never wanted to consort with the high and mighty he wrote about. He didn’t want to make the mistake of becoming anything like them.

  54. 54.

    Rosali

    June 28, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    Here’s a 2008 video of Milbank slurring his words at a bar and being dismissive of blogs, including Wonkette. He says, “I will not read blogs, I’m sorry…If something is important enough, it will be brought to my attention.” He looks like a drunken ass.

    It shows his contempt for bloggers. Also, I would think that he got on Ana’s bad side after dissing Wonkette.

  55. 55.

    AhabTRuler

    June 28, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    Holy shit! First Ed McMahon, then Farrah, then Jacko, now this! Billy Mays is dead!

    This, after finding out about the ShamWow guy! I don’t know if I can hold on!

  56. 56.

    spot check billy

    June 28, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    “I will not read blogs, I’m sorry…If something is important enough, it will be brought to my attention.”

    Interesting. I thought his job was to dig around for stuff important enough to bring to our attention.

  57. 57.

    Anne Laurie

    June 28, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    Okay, Milbank had an issue with Pitney but he was fine with Jeff Gannon?

    Milbank and his ilk want to believe that everybody has a price. This was never a problem with Jeff Gannon, whose rental rates were clearly posted on his pr0n site.

  58. 58.

    geg6

    June 28, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    Nice catch, Rosali. WTF? He expects some imaginary minions to bring him the important news of the day? It’s too damn much trouble for this asswipe to even do the slightest bit of…you know…what is it you are supposed to do before writing definitively or knowlegeably about something? Oh, yeah. Research, that’s it. Not many other statements could tell us more clearly exactly what the problem is with our media. Jeebus.

  59. 59.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    @Rosali:
    It’s almost as though something only becomes important when he notices it.

  60. 60.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 28, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Well he’s certainly caught the imagination of the Inner tubes. Tbogg is already calling it DickGate.

    I fear this one is going to stick, Dana.

    Alas, poor You’re-a-dick, I knew him well.

  61. 61.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 28, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM

    No, I think Dana would be catching in that scenario.

  62. 62.

    jl

    June 28, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    It is unfair to make fun of Milbank because he waits for the really important stuff ‘to be brought to his attention’. This is the new intrepid investigative journalism. Did not Russert famously ‘wait by the phone’ for his investigative work in the Liddy-Plame affair? (Hope it is not ‘too soon’ for that).

    All the great journalists ‘wait by the phone’ and for things to be ‘brought to their attention’.

    What would Daniel DeFoe, Tom Paine, Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Stephen Crane, George Orwell, Murrow, Cronkite, Stone have ever gotten done if they hadn’t waited by the phone and had thing brought to their attention? I ask you!

    in edit: forgot Woodward and Bernstein. They waited by the phone and for attention to brought too, too.

  63. 63.

    AhabTRuler

    June 28, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    To be totally fair, I did think that Pitney was being a little bit of a dick. But he was a clitoris compared to Milbank, who just had to turn this into the crime of the century. It offers insight into Milbank’s priorities that this is an outrage, and that at long last, have we no sense of decency?

  64. 64.

    Brian Griffin

    June 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    @eyeball: and Rosali’s post at 53 certainly strengthens the “reward” theory.

  65. 65.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    June 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    @jl: All the best people have things brought to their attention. Now if you’ll excuse me I must go and inform Master Pilgrim that he has made a comment.

  66. 66.

    passerby

    June 28, 2009 at 7:17 pm

    A commenter over at HuffPo hits one out of the park:

    cwhig1848 said:

    Dana Milbank looked like Michael McKean playing Dana Milbank in a Christopher Guest mocumentary about the Sunday morning pundit shows.

    Ha! Nailed it.

  67. 67.

    Brick Oven Bill

    June 28, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    You can predict the politics of chatter-types by their background. Liberal chatters come from privileged backgrounds. This Milbank character is a Skull and Bones member, and the Pitney character is Tokyo-born so probably a rich kid. The level of arrogance on both of their parts is unhealthy.

    In contrast, the voice on the Conservative side typically comes from the working class. Consider talk show hosts by rating: Limbaugh (DJ), Hannity (construction), Beck (DJ), Savage (researcher).

    Beck, in particular, seems to be a very humble person outside of the TV show. I have talked with the cubicle-level ladies at the radio station who have interacted with him personally, as up to recently he did his own leg-work, and they have nothing but great things to say about his character.

    You are slow AhabTRuler. We have already discussed Billy Mays. It has been determined that Obama most likely put a hit out on him.

  68. 68.

    Laura W

    June 28, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    I hate to take the focus off of Dana here, yet again, but while CNN is hoping beloved partriarch Joe Jackson will come over and chat up Don Lemon on the BET Awards red carpet, MSNBC is busy being interesting. They just ran a new Headliners and Legends hour which was very damn good, IMO. Great footage of the whole history of the family and MJ’s career. A lot jammed into an hour, and for me, a nice refresher on all of the pedophilia investigation/trial stuff in the 90s and 2005.

    And now they are running the Martin Bashir docu.
    Did Martin Bashir kill MJ?
    Gotta be blamin’ someone.

  69. 69.

    AhabTRuler

    June 28, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    @passerby: Nah. If it were a Christopher Guest project everyone would have been more awkward.
    Milbank’s performance was 100% Old Skool reality television, what with the Big Important Man having the hissy-fit on the teevee!

  70. 70.

    AhabTRuler

    June 28, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    @Laura W: MJ has now become the zombie media property. Even if you chop him into little pieces, he will still produce entertainment events and generate revenue for the industry! ! !

  71. 71.

    asiangrrlMN

    June 28, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Dana reminds me of the aging quarterback (cough, cough, Favre) who constantly puts down the new young rising star because he (Dana) knows that his days are numbered. Or should be. Nico was a dick because he had to be in order to talk over Dana’s incessant spluttering.

    Laura W., oh, how I wish I hadn’t click on your link. The crazy, it burns.

  72. 72.

    PeopleAreNoDamnGood

    June 28, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Here’s a 2008 video of Milbank slurring his words at a bar

    A video of a guy slurring his words at a bar?

    When can I see it?

    ( rolls eyes )

  73. 73.

    jl

    June 28, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    The reward theory might be correct. It might even be consistent with my useless-corporate-tool theory. Which is: news media has been comglomerated into a corporate oligopoly which is obsessed with short run profit measures that are quantified by ratings, page views, visibility, TV appearances, etc. That is all that matters to their corporate masters -their contribution to profits as quantified by these measures that are BS wrt the issue of whether what they produce has any relationship to the truth.

    These worthless big-money rich-ass parasites, excuse me, that might be considered a loaded term… these eminent respectable journalist rise to the top by mastering, or gaming, these essentially PR gimmicks. It is all they know.

    And scrambling to the top of the corporate sh*tpile in pursuit of these things is all they understand.

    IMHO, Nico Pitney has done more real journalism since the Iranian election than most of the WH reporters have done in their whole careers. But they have no clue WTF he is doing.

    Take for example Chip Reid’s idiotic reverse gotcha to Gibbs yesterday. After leading the WH press corps in egging on Obama to be ‘strong’ in his response to the Iranian crackdown, after one whole day of no videos of people being clubbed to death on the streets of Iran, Chip pronounced the Iran dissidents “all but crushed”. It is not at all clear that this was true. IMHO, it was ignorant BS that should have gotten Reid’s competence as a reporter questioned.

    But Reid had a crack at a quick high profile ‘take-down’ of the President. That it was based on a very dubious premise, and completely contradicted his whole position for the last week made no difference at all. If it got him some PR visibility, and a few corporate brownie points towards the next move up the corporate crony sh*tpile, it was “journalism”

    Milbank, Reid… they are rancid clowns.

  74. 74.

    Laura W

    June 28, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    @AhabTRuler: Yeah, but I’ll give this much to MSNBC, they are not romanticizing him.
    I just spit out my salad during the Bashir piece when MJ recounts the birth of his first two kids. He grabbed the baby girl as soon as he cut the cord, wrapped her in a blanket, and raced her out of the hospital with PLACENTA ALL OVER HER FACE, cleaning her off at home himself. ‘Cuz the doctor and the nurse and the birther, “wife” Debbie, all said it was totally OK with them!

    Seriously. Before we all get too over the moon and starry eyed, it’s good to view the whole body of work in context.
    Gotta run…he’s about to bottle feed 3rd child Blanket while apparently having seizures in both legs after dangling baby Blanket over a balcony rail.

  75. 75.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    @Laura W: ” MSNBC is busy being interesting”

    Sorry, but rerunning old tape is just MSNBC being as lame as they usually are on the weekends.

    They have a cable news network. They should use it for more important things.

  76. 76.

    GregB

    June 28, 2009 at 7:41 pm

    Savage a researcher? He has a PHD and a masters.

    B.O.B. lies to cover up inconvenient truths.

    Limbaugh’s family is quite well heeled and is full of lawyers and judges and whatnot.

    Ann Coulter, just your run of the mill Connecticut blue-blooded lawyer.

    Simple folk, right B.O.B.?

    -G

  77. 77.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    In the clip of the CNN segment with Kurtz, I can’t get over the woman complaining that, essentially, it wasn’t “fair” for Pitney to get a good seat and to get called on.

    So, basically, what’s “fair” is rigidly following the petrified DC pecking order, leading to the same vapid questions from the same vapid people. What’s not “fair” is shaking things up so a new guy can contribute something relevant to important current events.

  78. 78.

    Laura W

    June 28, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    @Jon H: Hey! If it weren’t this it would be Lockup: Indiana or The Killing On Poplar River.
    Interesting is in the eye of the beholder.
    (To wit: I could’ve spent my entire Sunday and three threads making the same two points about Dana v. Nico and quoting people’s tweets. Now THAT’S some interesting shit right there!)

  79. 79.

    GregB

    June 28, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    By the way, Pitney’s “seat” was in the back of the room and he was standing.

    -G

  80. 80.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    @Jon H:
    I guess you’ve never seen Cokie Roberts when she’s “on.”
    That woman is dynamite I tells ya.

  81. 81.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    @Laura W: “Yeah, but I’ll give this much to MSNBC, they are not romanticizing him.”

    Still, they should decide whether they want to do real journalism or be ‘E’. It’s like the whole network goes on autopilot over the weekends, rerunning profiles of celebrities last relevant in 1987, inside-the-prison shows, and “To Catch A Paedo”. It’s just lazy.

    Maybe they could run Headliners and Legends -class stuff on a new station, “NBCelebs”, or “MSNBC Reruns” on your digital cable box at, say, channel 632.

    Honestly, I think MSNBC would do better public service on weekends if they showed a static picture with audio from the World Service.

  82. 82.

    Jon H

    June 28, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM: “That woman is dynamite I tells ya.”

    If Cokie Roberts had bright red hair she’d be Beaker from the muppets.

  83. 83.

    Laura W

    June 28, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    @Jon H: You’ll get no quibble from me at all on your points. They’ve stopped taking my emails along those very lines, sadly.

    My point was, at 6pm I had 3 choices:
    1) Don Lemon singing off key over on CNN with Chaka Khan on the BET red carpet wetting his pants upon news that Joe Jackson had arrived. Pant pant pant.
    2) Refreshing BJ for something fresh and interesting not related to Nico/Dana
    3) A new Headliners & Legends thrown together hastily, surely, with old tape, but also very inclusive, thorough and a good retrospective for a one hour show.

    I’m happy with my choice tonight. I was speaking only for my MSNBC experience tonight, 6/28/09, 6-8pm EST.

    Party on BET! All Michael, All night.

  84. 84.

    Brick Oven Bill

    June 28, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Ann Coulter is not a reporter, she is just having fun with you guys and making a lot of money doing it. Savage, admittedly by his own account so who knows, struggled to find work and had to move back into a small rental.

    Beck is the real deal.

    I’m not sure about Rush. My analysis puts Rush as getting his money from the oil companies, now that he’s made it big. There is no way he can earn $50 million/year from hustling windshield repair services.

    But these two yahoos on CNN are a couple of snot-nosed rich kids.

  85. 85.

    jl

    June 28, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    Here is a question that might put Pitney-Milbank-gate in a different perspective. Could even one of the super big time eminently respectable news celebrities (Milbank, Todd, etc. whatever) asked even a remotely comparable and credible question from the Iranian perspective? Did one of them have the knowledge or sources to do so?

    See my comment on Chip Reid’s ignorant gotcha question on Friday above, to get my humble opinion on that.

    But, I guess the eminently respectable way to cover the Iranian unrest is to wait by the phone or have something be brought to one’s attention.

    But that angle seems to have totally escaped the worthless coporate media’s attention so far.

  86. 86.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 8:12 pm

    @jl:
    Correct me if I’m wrong but, didn’t news organizations used to have something called “bureaus” at various overseas locations? And didn’t these “bureaus” actually employ people called “reporters” and “correspondents” who would spend enough time in the region to already have a sense of how the people there felt about things?

  87. 87.

    Cat Lady

    June 28, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    @Laura W:

    Refreshing BJ for something fresh and interesting not related to Nico/Dana

    Sanford and wife is always a hit in these parts, especially if John Cole changes his mind again about which one of those two deserves what they got the most.

  88. 88.

    Laura W

    June 28, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    @Cat Lady: I would KILL for a fresh Sanford thread right now!

  89. 89.

    tofubo

    June 28, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    no real disrespect to nico and dana, but this whole thing reminds me of

    ordtolax.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/kittens.jpg

    but could we have, say, noam and roubini talk about things instead ??

  90. 90.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    OT: BBC is reporting that Honduran Congress leader Roberto Micheletti has been sworn in as interim president. Micheletti will step down as president next January 27th following Hondura’s elections this November.

  91. 91.

    PeopleAreNoDamnGood

    June 28, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    Honduras is full of dicks.

  92. 92.

    Mike in NC

    June 28, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    BBC is reporting that Honduran Congress leader Roberto Micheletti has been sworn in as interim president.

    This has to be a disappointment for Mark Sanford, who was looking for one of those vacant president jobs, and Honduras is closer to Argentina than the USofA.

  93. 93.

    Dennis-SGMM

    June 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm

    Mark Sanford is a dick.

  94. 94.

    jl

    June 28, 2009 at 8:41 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM: foreign bureaus were low class because they did not wait by the phone, or for the right kind of people to bring things to their attention, and low Q-scores and few TV appearances on late night shows, and were therefor eliminated.

  95. 95.

    arguingwithsignposts

    June 28, 2009 at 8:46 pm

    I would be willing to bet that the White House media staff are laughing their collective asses off about this entire tempest in a teapot. Obama has been calling on “non-traditional” media since he started having press conferences. I expect to see even more in the coming weeks and months. Perhaps a question from Daily Kos or the Washington Monthly or something. That would cause MSM WHPC heads to explode!

  96. 96.

    JK

    June 28, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    @jl:
    Great list to which I’d add George Seldes, Donald Barlett and James Steele, Seymour Hersh, Murray Waas, and Amy Goodman

    @jl:
    Look up douchebag in a dictionary and the entry will read see Chip Reid.

    @Jon H:
    Lock Up or Lock Down, or whatever that fucking show is called, has no business being on the programming schedule of a supposed all-news channel. Fox News Channel is the most intellectually dishonest news organization in America and its programming is a super-sized, putrid, steaming pile of excrement, but MSNBC virtually undercuts its claim as a serious alternative when they piss away hours of airtime to show these idiotic, worthless crime documentaries.

    @Jon H:
    The woman is Amanda Carpenter. She’s a bargain basement version of Laura Ingraham.

    @Laura W:
    Mark Sanford justifying his decision not to resign: Resigning would be the easy thing to do.

  97. 97.

    Jim-Bob

    June 28, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    @jl

    Tom Paine would have had to wait for 102 years even to have a phone to be near. But I get your drift…

  98. 98.

    Jim-Bob

    June 28, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    @Brickoven

    Are you really that fucking stupid? Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III, a humble working-class stiff?

    Son and grandson of lawyers; his dad’s brother and his first cousin both are Circuit Court justices–presidential appointees, to you. His grampa, Rush Limbaugh, Sr., was a Missouri prosecutor, judge, special commissioner and served on Missouri’s state House of Representatives from 1930 to 1932.

    Glenn Beck was admitted to Yale, just like Dana Milbank. But unlike Dana, who’s an Elihu Smails-league tremendous slouch, Glenn still couldn’t cut the mustard. He wears a friggin’ Great Britain Polo Team jersey to book signings. So, yeah, he’s the wood-smoked, truffle-infused hand-gathered sea-salt of the earth. Or as you call it, BOB, “the real deal.”

  99. 99.

    Phoebe

    June 28, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    I just saw that clip. My takeaway: Dana = tension-filled closet case, Nico = cute. The end.

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    June 28, 2009 at 10:20 pm

    I gotta say — whoever’s writing the BoB spoof tonight just isn’t bringing troll’s best to the table. Too blatant!

  101. 101.

    Yutsano

    June 28, 2009 at 10:41 pm

    Glenn Beck was admitted to Yale, just like Dana Milbank. But unlike Dana, who’s an Elihu Smails-league tremendous slouch, Glenn still couldn’t cut the mustard. He wears a friggin’ Great Britain Polo Team jersey to book signings. So, yeah, he’s the wood-smoked, truffle-infused hand-gathered sea-salt of the earth. Or as you call it, BOB, “the real deal.”

    What boggles my brain is why he’s acceptable as a Mormon convert when Mittens, who was born into the faith, is somehow a religious pariah amongst the fReepers.

  102. 102.

    Whispers

    June 29, 2009 at 1:09 am

    If Cokie Roberts had bright red hair she’d be Beaker from the muppets.

    I knew Beaker. Beaker was a friend of mine.

    Cokie Roberts, you’re no Beaker.

  103. 103.

    handy

    June 29, 2009 at 1:50 am

    But these two yahoos on CNN are a couple of snot-nosed rich kids.

    This brings to mind that phrase about the broken clock.

  104. 104.

    numbskull

    June 29, 2009 at 7:45 am

    Being born in Japan means you’re rich?

    Who knew?

    —

    Just a reminder that exactly 50% of B.O.B.’s “analysis” is based on that very supposition. You don’t get out much, do you B.O.B.?

    —
    And remember! O’Really is from a poor working class background! Just ask ‘im! Why, he’s from Levittown. Except he’s not, according to his own mother.

  105. 105.

    Gabo

    June 29, 2009 at 8:00 am

    It would be a strange setup since he dodged the question.

    Good point by Nico.

    The question he didn’t ask: “Do you really have nothing better to do? I do your job better than you, and I just ate your lunch. Cry me a fucking river.”

  106. 106.

    passerby

    June 29, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    @Jon H:

    If Cokie Roberts had bright red hair she’d be Beaker from the muppets.

    Thats hilarious. IIRC, Spy magazine put out a couple of small paperbacks titled “Separated at Birth”. This would have made the cut.

    Also, someone here compared the red-eyeglasses-wearing Tom Daschle with the Mrs. Beezley doll. Too funny.

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