Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

He really is that stupid.

People are complicated. Love is not.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Everybody saw this coming.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / I Smell a Pulitzer

I Smell a Pulitzer

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Here is an example of the sort of nonsense you get every day from the newest member of the Pulitzer board:

pultizerworthy

You gotta love it for what it is. Advancing the right-wing premise from last week that the Generals are in charge, all while ignoring the fact that constitutionally it is clear who is in charge, all wrapped up with a nice, tidy Cavuto mark (Hey- don’t blame us, we’re just asking!).

Journamalism.

I didn’t read the article, but hopefully there will be an update on Obama’s smoking, Michelle’s arms, and what that unemployed idjit quitter from Alaska thinks about all this.

And then you have this…

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  2. 2.

    DCPlod

    Since concern trolling appears to be where it’s at, this could be the year Richard Cohen’s dream of getting a Pulitzer comes true.

  3. 3.

    Jim

    Jesus, that link from Kos is incredible. Unfortunately, they’ll have no trouble finding PUMAs who want to pretend Hillary was really Dennis Kucinich, and “Why can’t Obama be just like BUsh and ignore the Senate?” liberals who want to pretend Obama claimed to be DK.

    We could do a pool on which bloggers/pundits/Lanny Davises will get named checked.

  4. 4.

    slippy

    “We have all these opinions but we’re just the press. We don’t really know!”

    Reason # 1,234,234,562,263,632,643,87,6,7,76,,79!!one1!,… why I don’t read newspapers, watch TV, or subscribe to mainstream press outlets anymore.

    On a scale of 1-10 I give the mainstream press of the USA a 2 in terms of competence.

    Given a letter grading system, I would rate the mainstream media of the US an F- at performing their primary task, which is keeping the citizenry informed of things that we need to know.

    If I were given the reins of any mainstream media organizatio today, my first task would be to fire every single one of the reporters and decision-makers in the organization. All of them, bar none. I’d then hire a bunch of people from different walks of life who had experience with the real world. Nobody with a prior salary that exceeded $70k would qualify for my news organization, and nobody would make much more than the median wage in the US. All of these millionaire news anchors clearly are not getting us the most talented folks in America. We’re just getting the most palatable opinions for the wealthy.

  5. 5.

    Cris

    I love the Catch-22 implicit in that “Who’s in charge?” question. Because if the answer is “the Generals,” then Obama is a weak executive who has no military experience and has to let the JCOS call the shots. If the answer is “Obama,” then he’s a headstrong know-nothing who isn’t taking expert advice.

  6. 6.

    valdivia

    @Jim:

    this. I can also bet you Arianna Huffington will be in that list. Her site is now the destination to go for drudge headlines.

  7. 7.

    Why oh why

    The notion that Obama has surrendered to the military industrial complex (or Wall Street) is hardly limited to the “right-wing”. See this:

    A Symbolic Surrender of Civilian Authority
    …
    You may not think so, but on Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in his first prime-time presidential address to the nation, Barack Obama surrendered. It may not have looked like that: there were no surrender documents; he wasn’t on the deck of the USS Missouri; he never bowed his head. Still, from today on, think of him not as the commander-in-chief, but as the commanded-in-chief.

  8. 8.

    r€nato

    I know quite a few Democrats. Of those who are displeased with Obama to some degree or another with his inability to deliver on the dozens of ponies they expected within the first year of his first term, I can think of exactly none who think Hillary would have delivered more of said ponies than Obama.

  9. 9.

    kay

    Chuck Todd takes a lot of grief, but today he deserves credit.

    This morning, he pushed back hard against this very theme, and bluntly announced the media were inventing it.

    He was effective, too. He wouldn’t back down.

    So, it can be done.

  10. 10.

    MattF

    We’re not birthers, or racists, or econo-cranks, or paranoids… we’re just, y’know… journalists.

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    say, JC, wasn’t it you who predicted last week that the right would become a bunch of peaceniks just in time for 2010?

  13. 13.

    El Cid

    Also, who’s in charge of the House of Representatives? Is it Nancy Pelosi? Or the owners of Starbucks? How would we know? We’re just asking!

  15. 15.

    Jim

    @r€nato:

    I can think of exactly none who think Hillary would have delivered more of said ponies than Obama.

    I don’t read any hardcore PUMA sites, but I have noticed that, with a few exceptions, the angriest people at one prominent site are not Deaniacs or even DKers, but Clintonites. YMMV. There’s a lot Obama has done that I don’t like, some of it strategic and some of it substantive, but I get tired of being accused of being a sell-out or an O-bot because I acknowledge the political realities of our system (not saying you’re doing that, but that’s why I’ve pretty much given up on the blogosphere of late).

  16. 16.

    srv

    They should do a whole series – one with Geithner and the latest Wall Street screwup on each side. Here’s something for your PUMA stocking stuffers.

  17. 17.

    Leelee for Obama

    I’m just riding on the Zen of the reverse Oreo-cookie picture array. At least they all look stern and resolved, right?

    I spent yesterday determined to ignore the talking heads, to the point that I missed Zacharia and Amanpour, who were really not among my targets. But, I haven’t felt at all deprived of information. Ignore, and tell them why. May not do a bit of good, but it’s worth a shot. Pulitzer for Van De Hei? Why, cause he can spell his name?

    FYI-Watched the Senate, both weekend and today, and it’s much better if you mute the republicans. I have to go squash Sessions right now.

  18. 18.

    batgirl

    @Cris: this. I swear the village meme before Obama’s Afghanistan speech was “will Obama listen to his generals and do what is required?” while after the speech the village has done a 180 — what does he think he is doing and is Afghanistan worth it? It is just the sense I get because, to be honest, I avoid the village at almost all costs.

    I think we can depend on the village, just like the Republicans, to take the opposite position of Obama. Hey, maybe if we start denying climate change, they’ll actually start to take it seriously.

  19. 19.

    Max

    @Jim: See Talk Left. They took a portion of the KOS quote in order to fire up their PUMA-centric readers.

    That site is the epitome of bitter, Hillary supporters that are no worse than Red State when it comes to ODS.

  20. 20.

    Leelee for Obama

    @batgirl: Just like a Mom who completely embraces the awful boyfriend/girlfriend? It might just work. They are just that shallow and un-bright.

  22. 22.

    mcc

    After searching long and hard to find something, anything that is actually worse than the decrepit, corrupt status quo of the “mainstream media”, the pulitzer board finally located Politico. Ladies and gentlemen, the future of journalism.

  23. 23.

    dadanarchist

    I emailed Ben Smith this weekend and tried to convince him somebody at Politico is missing a good story re: the ties between the Christianist right and the politicians in Uganda who are drafting a law to make homosexuality punishable by life in prison, and being a homosexual with HIV/AIDS punishable by death. The two leaders of this in Uganda are both members of The Family.

    I suggested somebody should ask Family-associated politicians what they think about this law, and he could ask Obama too since Rick Warren is tied up in it as well.

    He wrote me back asking for links. Let’s see if anything happens. I’m doubtful.

  27. 27.

    Aunt Moe

    I think CNN yesterday outdid Politico in the ‘headline graphic’ department. Gearing up for the Copenhagen summit, they introduced their story logo or whateverthehell you call those thingees that always seem to appear somewhere on the screen at the appropriate time. Here it is (cover your eyes if you faint easily):

    Global Warming: TRICK OR TRUTH

    Honest. (Adorable how TRICK is first.)

  28. 28.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Of those who are displeased with Obama to some degree or another with his inability to deliver on the dozens of ponies they expected within the first year of his first term

    Yeah, Democrats are upset with Obama because he hasn’t yet fixed every single problem. Not because he handed billions of dollars to Goldman Sachs with no strings attached or decided he should continue Bush’s policies on detainee rights or cut backroom deals with pharmaceutical companies to neuter health care reform.

    Jesus Christ.

  29. 29.

    mk3872

    Vandahei and Mike Allen were the 2 idiots that wrote Cheney’s op-ed for him in Politico last week to lambast Obama BEFORE his speech on Afghanastan.

    Gotta love the way the press protects each other.

  30. 30.

    SIA aka ScreaminginAtlanta

    @kay: I saw that too. Had to back up and watch again to make sure I was hearing properly! Good for him.

  31. 31.

    CalD

    I can’t believe I’m doing this, but in Politico’s defense — with full cognizance of how little they’ve ever done to deserve defending — there there actually were a lot of people on the left who had themselves convinced that there was some kind of fundamental difference between Barack Obama’s politics and Hilary Clinton’s. Kos may have never bought into the hype and I never did myself, but I’ve certainly found myself defending the man several times in the last year to several of the very same people who called me really nasty names for favoring Clinton in the primaries. The first time was all of a week after his inauguration as I recall.

  32. 32.

    Joe Beese

    You don’t have to fish for buyer’s remorse at Daily Kos. Just stay still and the fish will jump into the boat.

  34. 34.

    Martian Buddy

    Just to tie all of today’s stupidity neatly together, here’s an article from Politico on the “War on Giftmas Christmas” at the climate change summit.

  35. 35.

    jl

    @Aunt Moe: Very discouraging to see how the bogus climate research scandal has taken hold.

    Krugman on This Week as far too soft on the real tricksters when he said there was no ‘smoking gun’. Actually there was absolutely nothing to it at all. The people peddling it are either incompetent or dishonest.

    There was scientific misconduct at that particular research institute when they deleted some of their data. But there are so many independent sources of data from different governemnt agencies, that does nothing to damage the scientific consensus.

    A coupe of scientists having a tantrum about peer review for two articles? Well, both got published and critiqued. One turned out to be so bad the editor that published it had to resign.

    Using standard jargon for mathematical procedures and statistical adjustment like ‘trick’ and ‘delete’ to allege misconduct? That is either sheer ignorance or intellectual fraud on the part of the climate skeptics.

    What is worse, on the Krugman was on a panel with George Will, who has his own little climate scandal, in that Will misrepresented published research and statistics and was unwilling to publish corrections. Krugman should have gone after Will, but that would probably have risked Krugman’s future appearances on those miserable little frauds we call public affairs media.

    As for the generals and Obama, it is so silly, hard to know what to say. First promote idiot GOPers criticizing Obama for not ceding to the generals his responsibility as commander in chief. Then criticize him for ceding authority to the generals.

    Would be better if there was some real problem or information to analyze. But the stories are more tired he said she said quotes from our political overlords and paid hacks.

  37. 37.

    Libby

    Years from now, when the historians look back, they will say the appointment of Politico to the Pulitzer Board is the day journalism as we once knew it choked out its last gasping breath.

    We can now look forward to having our world ruled by the zombie gatekeepers.

  38. 38.

    Brian J

    @Notorious P.A.T.:

    Now there’s an example of true piece of shit opinion piece. Do they pay Steele and others for that crap? If so, what is it? If it’s anything decent, I’ll just refashion the same tired, nonsensical talking points into something new every few weeks at half the price.

  40. 40.

    JAK

    OK, something is going on out there in Gumper land. I was asked the same thing by a twitter #tcot person, who genuinely believed that liberals were having “buyer’s remorse” about supporting Obama. Kept after me to admit it. Was asked the same thing by an old friend in an email, saying that everyone knows that libs are now regretting their choice for Pres, and he wanted to know exact reasons why I regret voting for Obama. Nephew asked me the same thing when I “went home” for Thanksgiving. So, it’s a meme that’s going around, and the Gumpers believe it strongly, so it’s being strongly presented in their parallel universe, by someone. Since I don’t generally visit RW websites, twitter hashtags or RW people, don’t know how that idea is spreading, but it is. Has anyone else heard it, other than the Kos piece re Politico trying to advance the same meme?

  41. 41.

    mk3872

    Maybe this means that Breitbart will finally win a Pulitzer for his hidden video of ACORN and fake prostitutes?

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