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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Media Mudlarks Open Thread: Anklebiters Assemble!

Media Mudlarks Open Thread: Anklebiters Assemble!

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First time I noticed Linskey was when the Boston Globe assigned her to fangirl for Scott Brown by nipping at Elizabeth Warren’s ankles. Then the Washington Post, to their shame, recruited her (along with her coatholder, Matt Viser) to do the same job during Warren’s presidential campaign. Last ‘news’ I remember from her, she was gleefully assuming the Biden’s dog Major would be euthanized for nipping a WH staffer…

They chew ankles when that’s as high as they can reach. Just a klassy, klassy journamalist, that one.

She’s still got the loyalty of Politico comrade-in-calumny:

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    mvr

    That was some lot of stupidity she showed trying to be clever. Reporting should be about information that makes people smarter. But you can’t do that if you don’t know what you are talking about.

  3. 3.

    mvr

    @mvr: ​
    Once again missing the coveted #2 comment spot.
    (And having hit post on this one I see I missed it twice.)

  9. 9.

    Starfish

    Whether it’s Donald Trump pepper-spraying peaceful protesters for a church photo-op, or Joe Biden walking across a cemetery in front of Annie Linskey to visit the graves of his dead wife and child, both sides have tried to use religious symbols for political gain.
    — New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) October 4, 2021

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    She apparently thinks that Biden is just another pandering politician who doesn’t believe the things that he says about grief and family and so forth. Whatever her motivation, it shows that she doesn’t know enough about him to cover him. I agree that she should be reassigned.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    Wow, I didn’t know her by name, but I do recall some of the turds she stepped in.

    What a low-class piece of work she is.  They should make her ‘coffee boy’ at the Washington Post, perhaps she could perform more appropriately there.

    When did being a mean girl become an asset?

  18. 18.

    VOR

    As the author John Scalzi said, “the failure mode of clever is asshole”. She was trying to be clever but failed.

  20. 20.

    Poe Larity

    Her whole raison d’etre now is to find something even more outrageous that she doesn’t have to apologize for.

    I’m glad that she can delete as much as she wants, but any spawn she has will eventually find it. Can we  proactively start a gofundme for counselingfortoxicannielinkeyskids?

  22. 22.

    Benw

    I’ve worked in several departments that let decent people leave because management wouldn’t deal with the toxic person. In each case the toxic person was described by management as nice

  29. 29.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: I was going to say that half of twitter’s readers are of below-average intelligence. Then I decided there’s too much self-selection involved for a random sample, but I can’t decide which way that might tip the average.

  31. 31.

    boatboy_srq

    The stupidity and malice she displays is remarkable. It would be extreme except that we have seen the same – and worse – from the GQP these past few decades. The only distinction between her tweets and Gingrich’s speeches is that the lines have gotten short and the language less polite.

  32. 32.

    Mike E

    Frances Haugen was on 60 Minutes with receipts from her time working at Facebook showing their “attempts” to regulate hate speech and deliberate misinformation are deserving of our skepticism… she recently filed numerous complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine FB’s marketing behavior, brava and good luck to her

  33. 33.

    opiejeanne

    @Ken: And they’re still brighter than 50% of the people on Facebook. Honestly, I rarely go to FB these days, and only to see some people l care about. I’ve trimmed the list of people I  tolerate/follow on both Facebook and Twitter so much that I rarely see the dolts any more, but they do slip through once in a while.

  35. 35.

    boatboy_srq

    @Baud: What Linskey does is quite professional. In the way that driving a stiletto into a mark’s side is professional. It is not noble. It is not civilized. But it’s quite professional.

  41. 41.

    seefleur

    So as a lurker, I have to delurk to post this:

    What I sent to WaPo:

    I recently renewed my subscription to the Washington Post. But after seeing the vile and immature tweet (https://t.co/5kGJwDKs2c [t.co]  – since deleted) that was posted by Annie Linskey , I regret paying good money for a newspaper that hires people of this ilk. She has a history of posting items that show her to be less than professional and NOT one who should have a platform in a national newspaper. This reflects poorly on the Washington Post as a purveyor of news – and this paper has been sliding as a factual news leader over the past few years – the both-siderism leanings are really showing that true journalism is rapidly losing ground. Democracy can’t afford to have journalists who try to straddle both sides of an issue just for the sake of eyeballs. Truth is truth – and facts are facts. Remember that you are supposed to be reporters – not cheerleaders for one side or another.

    What I got in response –

    Thank you for writing to express your concern. Ms. Linskey, who is a fine journalist and reporter above reproach, acknowledged in deleting the tweet that it had unintentionally offended some people.

     

    I think all we can ask of ourselves and others is that we acknowledge and own when we have caused harm, regardless of intent. That is what Ms. Linskey did; I am singularly proud to have her as a colleague.

     

    Thank you again for reading, subscribing and for taking the time to write.

    Tracy Grant
    Managing Editor

    The Washington Post

    Sent from my iPhone

     

    My response:

    Ms. Linskey has done this before while she was working at other publications  – and it reflects poorly on you that you would even use the phrase that she “unintentionally offended some people” – this is a pathetic excuse of an apology, essentially blaming the “offended” for being offended and sidelining the offender.

     

    I won’t be renewing my sub to the WaPo – kind of a pity because their “Voracious” section has some good recipes…

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    Annie Linskey: “The Biden’s will not euthanize their dog Major [. . .].”

    Eek—the greengrocer’s apostrophe! That alone should get her sent down from the bigs, maybe to a small-market AAA penny shopper.

  45. 45.

    Starfish

    @opiejeanne: It is so hard. A few people I know who have cancer went back to Facebook for support and community, and I think about them all the time, but I can’t do Facebook.

  46. 46.

    BC in Illinois

    I am one of those who had never heard of Annie Linskey until today. And I read the Washington Post.

    I used to subscribe to the NYT, until they brought the climate change-denying columnist on board. That was in 2017, and I was already unhappy because of 2016.

    I have kept my subscription to the WaPo, in part for loyalty’s sake. Hell, I used to deliver the WaPo, during the Kennedy administration. A few years later, I read the Watergate coverage every morning, day by day. (Though I was mad at Carl Bernstein because he had given the Iron Butterfly a bad review.) And I have learned which columnists I avoid — G Will, K Parker, H Hewitt, etc. — and which I appreciate — E J Dionne, A Petri, E Robinson, etc.

    What today’s discussion about the tweet and the non-apology has done, is teach me the name of Annie Linskey. So that when it shows up (as a contributor) to today’s article “For Democrats and the Biden agenda, it’s becoming a matter of trust,”  I know not to trust it.

    That’s what the Washington Post has accomplished today. I know a name not to trust.

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Another Scott:  She comes across as a dimwit who took the “Theater of Politics” literally and doesn’t get no one can be “in character” 24/7.

  48. 48.

    piratedan

    @BC in Illinois: you can add her to the list with Peter Baker and Ken Vogel and damn near everyone from Politico.  We’re keeping reciepts and keeping a list. Its really time to start noting who plays fair and who are partisan assassins.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Seconded. Much as I liked him here, he is better there. Like the opposite of Michael Jordan going from basketball to baseball.

  52. 52.

    Lyrebird

    @seefleur: ​
     

    Really nicely done!

    On your part I mean.

    Really odious of the editor to hide behind “unintentional” blah blah blah…

  53. 53.

    zhena gogolia

    @seefleur: What a horrible response. “a reporter above reproach”? Really? Who says things like that?

    I guess I have to reconsider my own subscription. I never read it anyway.

  54. 54.

    jl

    There was a saying from a recent decaying empire that ended in exhausted collapse. On the tip of my tongue… senior moment… Oh yeah! There is no truth in news, there is no news in truth.

    The problem goes far beyond Linsky. Both the NYT and WaPo have been writing obviously false history in their news stories. For example, the NYT has been trying a sell a fabricated history where there was no deal to pass bipartisan and reconciliation bill in tandem, Biden hadn’t explicitly endorsed it, and that the battle has been between the majority of ‘moderates’ (whatever that is supposed to mean these days) and a few wild eyed impudent progressives. And the biggest lie is saved for last, that the progressives hectored Biden in SWITCHING TO A NEW POSITION in favor of passing them both in tandem. This is all completely false, and in fact the opposite of the historical record, most of which has been reported in these papers own stories.

    I am not even getting into the rank and servile editorializing in supposed news stories in favor of the very greedy and ruthless corporate sector.

    I think the true story is that the big corporate sector decided that they liked the all the freebies in the bipartisan bill, and had no qualms trying to muscle their soldiers (e.g., Gottheimer, Sinema, and Manchin) into reneging, or at least into very high risk political stunts to gut the reconciliation of anything the corporations don’t like.

    Not sure why NYT and WaPo feel they have to play along, though I can see why other news organizations which are subsidiaries of ginormous international corporations do.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @Starfish, @Baud:

    The ultimate for that is Three Year Letterman. Hilarious spoof account, and even after two or three years he still has people light into him for his youth football atrocities. At this point he has a Greek chorus that backs him up all the way.

  57. 57.

    jl

    @HumboldtBlue: Thanks for the clip. That is heartbreaking, almost physically sickening to me. I didn’t know it was that bad. I think the size of the spill has been vastly underestimated in the news stories I’ve heard.

    I think that area is an astonishingly beautiful coastline. Had relatives down there when I was a tyke. I loved to go visit every summer. Knew the nooks and crannies of the beaches down near my kin’s house almost by heart (probably not, but that is my memory of those times).

  60. 60.

    eddie blake

    what really, REALLY annoys me about this is that it was just like, two weeks ago that washington was complaining that biden talked about his dead kid too much…

    how could this…journalist NOT know that?

  64. 64.

    piratedan

    @eddie blake: the answer is likely that she does know…. but cheap partisan snark is cheap partisan snark.  She has an editor that covered her ass and states that she is above reproach and sufficiently covered her ass with the boilerplate insincerity.

  65. 65.

    Citizen Alan

    @opiejeanne: I’m in FB jail again (another 20 days to go). And it’s all because my best friend in the world can’t resist trolling RW sites which then show up in my feed and draw me into the madness.

  68. 68.

    Citizen Alan

    @piratedan: I can’t see the name Ken Vogel without wishing harm on the SOB. But for a heroic whistleblower, Ken Vogel would have gotten a fucking Pulitzer for blowing open “the Hunter Biden scandal” and Shitgibbon would have been reelected for another 4 years.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Citizen Alan:

    But for a heroic whistleblower, Ken Vogel would have gotten a fucking Pulitzer for blowing open “the Hunter Biden scandal” and Shitgibbon would have been reelected for another 4 years.

    Absolutely true. I still think it’s wild that the whistleblower intervened and stopped the…. journalist.

  73. 73.

    piratedan

    @Citizen Alan: its why we have to keep receipts and note who the bad actors are.  The other disturbing trend is that even when we call these people out… they keep failing upward and you can’t do that without support and sponsorship from on high… which tells you a LOT about how narratives are being shaped.

  75. 75.

    BC in Illinois

    @seefleur:

    As zhena gogolia has already said:

    What a horrible response. “a reporter above reproach”?

    Really? Who says things like that?

    The whole response by the WaPo Managing Editor is remarkably obtuse. It shows not the slightest glimmer of self-reflection. Now, they may perhaps want to do their self-reflecting in secret, where no glimmers emerge, but this “above reproach” language gives us no reason to hope. Her reporting has been “reproached” online, all day.

    I gave up the chance to read some good reporting when I cancelled the NYT. I would hate to give up the Post. But if they think they’re above reproach, then their days are numbered. (And not just to losing my paltry subscription.)

    And this would be a really bad time for them to go into a swift decline.

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    She’s Village vermin who deserves a tumbrel ride.  Fuck these people.  They are not journalists; they are stenographers and propagandists for a corrupt parasitical oligarchy.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    @seefleur:  @BC in Illinois:

    Seefleur:  I think you should email the whole exchange to WaPost ombudsman Margaret Sullivan.  Your incoming letter re Annie Linskey, and that incredible (as in ridiculous) response by their Managing Editor.

    The WaPost has an Annie Linskey problem, and they might have a Tracy Grant problem too.  Few journalists are “above reproach”, and particularly not this one, who has already had to delete a ridiculously juvenile email.  Today.

    The WaPost is a very good paper, but they have had some disaster hires (sadly, possibly their new Executive Editor; jury is still out there), and people promoted well beyond their competence.  Remember Liz Spayd, who had a long career at the WaPost, and then was such a disaster as ombudsman at the FTF NY Times that they abolished the position.  (That’s on the Times management, but Spayd was atrocious.)

    Please email to  [email protected]

  83. 83.

    James E Powell

    Whenever the Villagers circle their wagons to defend a member’s egregious conduct, they insist that person is a great reporter. See generally, the FTFNYT defenses of Baker, Haberman, etc. Thing is, they can’t cite a single example of great reporting. Access gossip mongers are not reporters. None of them write particularly well. They repeat what Courtiers tell them to repeat.

    This Linskey person is like all of them. Easily replaceable.

  84. 84.

    JustRuss

    I’m really torqued by Shear’s tweet:

    Nice weather for golf, if that’s what @POTUS has planned.

  86. 86.

    prostratedragon

    @eddie blake:  Or how could someone witnessing a person visiting a cemetery in his home town church not suspect that he might have family or dear friends there, and so decide to keep her offensive trap shut? (Guess maybe I answered myself there.)

  91. 91.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    If she had done this “mistake” to any republican she would have been fired.

  93. 93.

    JWR

    @jl: I didn’t know it was that bad.

    Tonight’s NBC news said it wasn’t clear whether or not the “leak” had even been stopped, just the Coast Guard saying it had been slowed, so whatever its size, expect it to get bigger soon.

    But remember: The erl! We needs all the erl!

  94. 94.

    opiejeanne

    @prostratedragon: One thing that has bugged me about this from the start is that she chose to use the term “graveyard” instead of cemetery.  Maybe I’m a bit sensitive about this usage, but it feels like she chose that word in order to be more offensive, since the word has more negative vibes.

    Maybe that’s just me, but Gettysburg wasn’t fought in a graveyard, it was fought in a cemetery.

  95. 95.

    JWR

    I hadn’t heard about this bit of good news. From 3 days ago:

    The MAGA community has raised more than $2 million for a Marine officer who went viral for criticizing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and saying he wanted to “bring the whole fucking system down,” despite the fact he is anti-Trump.

    Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a decorated battalion commander, is currently in military jail for violating military laws.

    Now MAGA world is calling him a Judas Goat.

  96. 96.

    Chetan Murthy

    @JWR:

    Now MAGA world is calling him a Judas Goat.

    AHAHAHAHAHA!  Glad I clicked-thru on that one!  Thank you!  Boy howdy, hope he gets to keep the $$, too!  Though, I’d be willing to bet a drink, that he’s just distancing himself from Trump in an attempt to, y’know, keep his rank and pension on the way out.  And maybe his liberty.  Don’t trust his ass, for sure.  But notwithstanding, it’s great to see ’em fight.

    Rootin’ for injuries!

  97. 97.

    eclare

    @opiejeanne:  That is interesting, I had not thought about that. But you are right, graveyard implies less dignity than a cemetery. What a hit piece.

  98. 98.

    Bart

    I don’t understand why the White House doesn’t just ban these ghouls from the pack. And if someone asks for a reason, just say “she knows what she did”.

    But I bet all her “colleagues” will defend her and demand her re-installment. After all, they also stood up for the rightwing propagandists of FauxNoise.

  100. 100.

    Shalimar

    @Elizabelle: Sullivan was the ombudsman for the New York Times.  She’s just a columnist for the Washington Post.  They don’t have an ombudsman.

  101. 101.

    JWR

    @James E Powell:

    This Linskey person is like all of them. Easily replaceable.

    Damn f*cking straight! That first tweet above is atrocious, really bottom of the barrel stuff. As a boss once said to me after being on the phone with some auto repair shop for far too long, “sometimes you wonder how people even have jobs.” Same goes for this Linskey “journalist”.

  104. 104.

    JWR

    @frosty:

    Can a ska punk band use a slide guitar?

    Sure! Do you really play slide? (And just to note, I’ve never been any good at all on bottleneck slide. Never cared for it, either.) But my dad had a lap steel while he was in the Air Force, and I’d always wanted one, so I finally plopped down $75 for one of those Rogue lap steels. The scale length is way to short, (extendable via an inexpensive after-market kit), but the sound! OMG! It reminds me of the sound of one of those old Silvertone rubber-neck solid bodies, (with an amp built into the case!) But the Danelectro cheese grater pickup sounded incredibly full and bright across the entire spectrum. Anyway, that’s what this Rogue sounds like.

    /end of OT, personal interest stuff.

  105. 105.

    JWR

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Now MAGA world is calling him a Judas Goat.

    Speaking of Biden’s “botched”, “chaotic”, “catastrophic!” withdrawal from Afghanistan, one of yesterday’s Sunday shows, I think it was ABC, relived those bygone glory days of journamalism by focusing on what the generals said, then on what Biden said, then back and forth, all to point out how he, Biden, plays “fast and loose with the facts, (or the truth.) I guess that’s just the price one pays to play the game these days.

    ~Sigh~. And it was all so easy while TFG was in the house.

  106. 106.

    prostratedragon

    @opiejeanne:  I hadn’t noticed that, but given the monstrous insensitivity of the whole statement, you’re guess could well be right. “Graveyard of empires” association and all that.

  107. 107.

    different-church-lady

    It is impossible to feed enough stupid into the Twitter maw. The Twitter maw must eat constantly. It’s like having a pet shark.

  108. 108.

    Soprano2

    I’m late to this thread, but as a person who now has to visit the cemetery to “see” my mother, my father, my sister, and most of my mother’s side of the family, that Linskey tweet is grotesque, and she deserves all the dragging and grief she got for it. It shows what kind of manners she learned that instead of a simple “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I did” she gave the weaselly “I’m sorry if you were offended”, which isn’t an apology at all and indicates that she thinks what she tweeted was perfectly OK.  It’s so ironic to me that they see the person who goes to church every Sunday as a terrible person they can take cheap shots at, while they were all-in on the person who never went to church and instead spent his weekends on the golf course and Tweeting. They miss TFG so much! I think the person who said they’re just mad they have to go to Wilmington and Biden stopped their war photo-ops is pretty on the nose.

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