Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I was promised a recession.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

In my day, never was longer.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Not all heroes wear capes.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

You are here: Home / Because I’ve met you, and you are not cool

Because I’ve met you, and you are not cool

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As I’ve mentioned before, I always hated Peretz-era TNR. Even when I agreed with the positions, a huge amount of it had this weird, macho, trying-to-be-cool feeling to it. The TNR alums still always posting pictures of themselves from back in the day as if there was something cool and interesting about having worked there, like they’d been hanging out with Hemingway on the Left Bank instead of working for a dim-witted, right-wing adjunct professor in DC. This was my favorite thing in Michelle Cottle’s article about working with Wieseltier:

There, I spent an awkward hour or so with his name-dropping (at one point, he answered the phone, then shared with me that Tina Brown wanted him to come have drinks with her and David Bowie)…

It’s the same thing with Halperin, though his efforts were even more clumsy, all the stupid Springsteen references, describing political operatives at “the horses“, and so on.

The whole thing is, honestly, just pathetic. It feels like a bunch of guys who always wanted to be frat bros but couldn’t be because they were too studious getting to be well-known in some nerdy ridiculous field (I think it’s fair to describe political journalism that way) and just broing it up as hard as they could once they had some staus. Ok, Halperin is also just a straight-up pervert, apparently, but still.

The thing about political bro culture is that it always becomes about punching hippies and putting bros before hos. It’s no accident that a media system dominated by people like Halperin and Wieseltier destroyed Hillary over bullshit emails and gave us Trump.

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    The thing about political bro culture is that it always becomes about hitting punching and putting bros before hos. It’s no accident that a media system dominated by people like Halperin and Wieseltier destroyed Hillary over bullshit emails and gave us Trump.

    Uh huh

    and, it shows their lack of character and why they will never be forgiven.

  2. 2.

    germy

    letter to the editor (NY Magazine)

    Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary — and therefore know him well — I think he treats women with great respect, contrary to what Julie Baumgold implied in her article … I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women — all women love Donald Trump.”

    Carolin Gallego December 7, 1992

  4. 4.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Bottom line –

    Indeed, what I am regretting most is having thought only about how I could or could not handle Leon. I did not think in terms of how uncomfortable he may have been making the more junior women on staff. Listening to their stories now breaks my heart, especially as so many of them are feeling guilt-ridden and “complicit.” (How many times have I heard that word this week?) They blame themselves for having rolled their eyes instead of loudly saying “Stop”; for not having been stronger or braver; for not having stood up for themselves and demanding more respect because, well, with Leon it was … complicated.

    Stop beating yourself up, ladies. These things are always complicated. But they are not your fault. They never were.

  5. 5.

    Doug!

    @Shana:

    I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while. The irony of that scene, to me, is that PSH has ten times the charisma of Billy Crudup, so the whole idea that hanging out with Crudup’s character is more cool/interesting than hanging out with PSH’s seems ridiculous.

  6. 6.

    Xantar

    I just saw news that Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News is also taking a leave of absence due to sexual abuse allegations.

    This doesn’t make me think any less of him. Mostly because I already regard him as a zit on the face of entertainment media.

  8. 8.

    raven

    You know, when you use these acronyms it would be nice if ya’ll spelled the shit out the first time so the unwashed have a fucking clue.

  9. 9.

    catclub

    @germy:

    Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary — and therefore know him well

    IYKWIMAITYD

    Sock puppet indeed. icky sock.

  10. 10.

    lurker dean

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: from the weird sentence structure, seems to trump himself.

    taibbi is being called out for some harassment in russia. that he wrote about in a book with his co-author mark ames. he now claims it was fiction. pretty disgusting bro crap about openly harassing the young female russian staff every day. i like some of taibbi’s stuff but he’s got the kind of arrogance you can see leading to stuff like this.

  18. 18.

    sukabi

    @germy: oh look, another Donald Trump alter ego…I guess he would need a female one for those occasions when John Barron wouldn’t be believable.

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    and while we are at it with white douch bags – the NFL

    https://sports.yahoo.com/inmates-running-prison-owners-divided-protest-responses-153336778.html

    Bob McNair, Texans: “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
    McNair was speaking in response to the business concerns posed by the protests, and his characterization of the players as “inmates” reportedly shocked many in the room. McNair later told NFL executive Troy Vincent, who objected to the term, that he felt “horrible and that his words weren’t meant to be taken literally,” according to the article, but it’s not hard to see why that turn of phrase might not go over well

    Totally NOT racist and NOT classists of Mr. McNair refering to the players as “inmates” like they were gladiator slaves in ancient Rome.

    So much like Hippies, the Blacks got it right, yet again.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    taibbi is being called out for some harassment in russia. that he wrote about in a book with his co-author mark ames. he now claims it was fiction. pretty disgusting bro crap about openly harassing the young female russian staff every day. i like some of taibbi’s stuff but he’s got the kind of arrogance you can see leading to stuff like this.

    @lurker dean: Fiction my ass. He was proud of that shit until he wasn’t. He did it in Russia because if he’d done it in the US he’d be in jail.

  23. 23.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Hopefully not and that it will prevent him from appearing as a pundit on any show ever. Hahaha I crack myself up. Our media is a broken joke.

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    There is no Hell hot enough in this universe to adequately punish Halperin for his life, both professional and deranged sexual.

  27. 27.

    raven

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Nope, they’ve been on it.

    Mika Brzezinski addressed the mounting sexual harassment allegations against veteran journalist Mark Halperin during Friday’s episode of “Morning Joe,” and said she agreed with NBC’s decision to suspend the longtime contributor.

    “Our hearts break for Mark and his family, because he is our friend. But we fully support NBC’s decision here,” said Brzezinski, who co-hosts the MSNBC morning show with fiance Joe Scarborough.

  28. 28.

    jl

    ” too studious getting to be well-known in some nerdy ridiculous field ”

    DougJ does abstract algebra, right? I want a confessional post unpacking that line.

    Edit: I do sympathize with DougJ’s impression of the journal, though it’s messed up psyche may be changing now.

  31. 31.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @martian: Thing is, “Ames and Taibbi are straight-up serial rapists” has never really been a secret, but it’s never managed to meaningfully stick (possibly because it was in Russia and thus not enforceable, possibly because Ames did most of the worst stuff and is less famous).

  32. 32.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I suppose aspiring to be a frat boy is pathetic; after all, there sure are a ton of weapons-grade assholes in fraternities.

    And since when are geeky, nerdish interests necessarily something to be ridiculed?

  34. 34.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @martian: The kicker is that US publication of the book was held up for two years – by the duo’s OWN LAWYERS – just to get the most horrifying, self-incriminating material scrubbed from the book. I would be completely unsurprised to find out that Ames is literally a serial killer.

  35. 35.

    lurker dean

    @The Moar You Know: yeah, i don’t think many people are buying that. and at least early on (i haven’t read his more recent stuff), taibbi was very skeptical about russian involvement with trump. it was as if the russians have dirt on taibbi, too, which wouldn’t surprise me at all, esp after reading the blurb from his book.

  36. 36.

    sukabi

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: wow, known he was an assholes for a while. Can’t believe he’d actually write shit like that…even if it were fiction…and it’s probably not.

    Think it’s safe to assume taibbi’s been “turned”

  37. 37.

    martian

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I had NO idea. I actually admired some of Taibbi’s writing.

    They must think they’re Hunter S. Thompson or something that they play this off as just some kind of gonzo, rock ‘n’ roll journalism. Fucking exploitative monsters. What they did to their Russian employees is as bad or worse than what goes on in sweatshops, and I’m sure they’d have shit to talk about the companies running those.

  39. 39.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @lurker dean: Given that he (and to a lesser extent Ames) have been stridently anti-Putin until just last year, it’s most like just Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

    Also, too: Alex Hazanov over at LGM pointed out this summer that while Taibbi & Ames’ Exile may have disclosed a number of goings-on with Russian officials, because said officialsals were openly, proudly corrupt during the ’90s these exposés were never very effectual – the Exile was “beneath contempt,” as it were.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    Top of the NY Daily News just now: White House stands by Trump’s insistence that all his sexual assault accusers are liars

    The White House officially and emphatically called all women who have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct liars on Friday.

    More than a dozen women came forward last year during the presidential election with allegations of sexual assault or misconduct against Trump.

    “Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning and the President’s spoken on it,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday.

    The stand was made as a spiraling scandal surrounding Hollywood megaproducer Harvey Weinstein has emboldened women to speak more openly about sexual predators.

    Some reporter or lawyer is going to get some Trump-assaulted woman to break her Non Disclosure Agreement. She’s safer doing it now, while Trump is president, than when he’s a private citizen with time and lawyers at his disposal.

    You know there have got to be several Trump NDAs re sexual assault or misconduct out there. Someone will talk.

    They’ve already got some of the Harvey Weinstein accusers talking freely, despite NDAs and other legal agreements.

    Dam gonna break.

  43. 43.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @martian: That the crimes were committed in another country probably helps with the lack of legal consequences. (And it should be noted that Matt’s sexual harassment of a female colleague forced the dissolution of First Look Media before that even got off the ground. Though that still didn’t permanently damage his career, so the point holds).

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    The thing about political bro culture is that it always becomes about punching hippies and putting bros before hos. It’s no accident that a media system dominated by people like Halperin and Wieseltier destroyed Hillary over bullshit emails and gave us Trump.

    The New Yorker article makes clear that Halperin was part of the Washington Political Establishment (Halperin’s father was a member). This is more than a bro’ culture, and they weren’t just a bunch a’ dudes dumping on Hillary’s Little Girl Lost. And the Clintons, Bill and Hillary and the people they cultivated, were as much the members of a powerful political culture as anyone connected with the Beltway.

    Halperin is still a despicable piece of shit, but let’s put this in the proper context.

  45. 45.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    They’ve already got some of the Harvey Weinstein accusers talking freely, despite NDAs and other legal agreements.

    It’s almost like someone is taking out the press Douchbro shield wall arround Trump, isn’t it? For all the NDA’s not like the DouchBro’s antics have ever been a secreat.

  46. 46.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The whole thing is, honestly, just pathetic. It feels like a bunch of guys who always wanted to be frat bros but couldn’t be because they were too studious getting to be well-known in some nerdy ridiculous field

    Were ever do you get that idea Doug? Fraternities and their culture of drunken, sexists self indulgence were started by seminary students looking to become pastors. It don’t get more nerdy than that.

  47. 47.

    lurker dean

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): i guess CDS is possible. but with his ego, his knowledge of Russia, and hatred of Trump – it just seemed like there should have been more output from taibbi on the subject, even if he has CDS. just a personal feeling about it, i could be completely wrong. if i were a conspiracy theorist, i’d say putin would be just fine with taibbi putting on a public face of hating him, as long as taibbi didn’t actually do anything actually harmful like investigate an ongoing election interference program…

  48. 48.

    martian

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): No legal consequences, no social consequences, no career consequences, and this info has been sitting out in the open for nearly twenty years. Mark Halperin’s behavior, also an open secret. And on, and on, and on with so many others. This fucking misogynist culture, right and left.

  51. 51.

    cokane

    i kind of doubt there’s anything peculiar about media or TNR that abetted these guys though. the sad truth is that this stuff has been ubiquitous throughout human history and even our current day. these high profile industry scandals are only news because they’re high profile industries. but this shit is everywhere doug

  52. 52.

    cokane

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): i didn’t know until yesterday. relatively young so i was in high school when that memoir was published and only really knew taibbi via his wall street reporting circa 2008. So, it’s very disappointing to me. It’s undeniable though. Any “satire” defense is bullshit. There’s just too much in that book and the cruelty has such a personal direction, it’s impossible to believe it’s some kind of commentary on russia.

  54. 54.

    Cacti

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames have also been outed as being members in good standing of the douchebro club.

    Unlike Doug’s premise of nerds who became bros, Taibbi started as a bro and became an even bigger bro.

  55. 55.

    Mike J

    @Cacti: You just don’t like him because he curses, while we cool kids revel in it.

    This was seriously a defense his fanboys used all the fucking time back ’08.

  56. 56.

    Cacti

    @Mike J:

    You just don’t like him because he curses, while we cool kids revel in it.

    This was seriously a defense his fanboys used all the fucking time back ’08.

    I’ve always found his wannabe Hunter Thompson shtick a huge bore.

  61. 61.

    Chris T.

    @schrodingers_cat: These days the R stands for Return, not Release. (Animal rescue / control / whatever terminology shift because people heard “Trap Neuter Release” as “trap feral cats from 100 square miles, neuter them, release all of them in your back yard“. Now that it’s “Return” they hear it as “trap feral cats from 100 square miles, neuter them, return them to the place where they were trapped” and they’re much more comfortable with that.)

  62. 62.

    Miss Bianca

    @martian: The thing is, those writers that scumbag douchebros like Taibbi admire and aspire to being, like Hunter S. Thompson and Edward Abbey? REALLY WERE ASSHOLES IN REAL LIFE. *Nobody* with aspirations to being human, as opposed to being “white male jag-offs who think that their writerly chops and ‘rebellious he-mannishness’ should absolve them of responsbility for being an asshole’ *should* aspire to be like them.

  64. 64.

    martian

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Does that mean he’s a hot topic of conversation? Damn, I NEED to see that asshole dragged. This might actually make me sign up for twitter and I loathe and mistrust twitter. Too much is inaccessible to me from mere googling, it seems.

  65. 65.

    Mike J

    @schrodingers_cat: I seem to recall him saying that TARP cost twenty seven trillion doillars, which was basically assuming that every mortgage in the US would default, and nobody would get one dime for the sale of any of the homes that were mortgaged.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @martian:

    You don’t have to sign up for Twitter to read shit on Twitter. Just go to the Twitter website, go to the search window and type in whoever the fuck you’re looking for.

    Here’s a link to the hashtag #MattTaibbi.

    ETA: If you go to the Twitter home page and can’t get past a strong-arm prompt to log in or sign up, just go to an existing Twitter page and navigate from there.

    The Dotard’s page is always a good place to start.

  70. 70.

    No Drought No More

    And still Halperin looks like an amateur asshole compared to Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan, who spent his college years shooting the breeze about torpedoing the same safety net that he weaned on as a child and is currently succeeding beyond his wildest dreams..

  74. 74.

    JDM

    Just noticed how close the word “broing” is to “boring”. Food for thought, if such guys ever did any self-critical thought.

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