Congratulations to @Fahrenthold and the @washingtonpost! pic.twitter.com/kHp8bxcj52
— The Pulitzer Prizes (@PulitzerPrize) April 10, 2017
… Although the trophy probably doesn’t say “For Excellence in White-Hat Trolling.” May he continue to investigate the myriad weirdness of Donald Trump for as long as the President-Asterisk remains a blot on our national character.
Props also to Marty Baron, former Boston Globe standout, now Fahrenthold’s executive editor at the Washington Post.
Apart from that — and some seders — what’s on the agenda for the evening?
My year of covering @realDonaldTrump: how a rally in Iowa and a campaign mgr's falsehood set the stories in motion. https://t.co/RRrpLzvwW2
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) December 29, 2016
The real question is who gets the Tony for playing @Fahrenthold in "Fahrenthold! The Musical."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 10, 2017
.@Fahrenthold Well done. https://t.co/nCXX1nZD5z
— Father Guido SarDShK (@ZeddRebel) April 10, 2017
joel hanes
[what’s on the agenda]
sneering at the other Pulitzer Prize winner, Peggy Noonan
Baud
@joel hanes: That’s so amazing.
lamh36
Evening peeps…on the agenda…nothing much…my cell doesn’t get service in the deep bowels of the Micro lab…so I can’t check the internets until I leave the lab for morning break or lunch.
One of the few things I did catch up on…
Alright comic book movie nerds…THOR: RAGNORAK teaser trailer
Thoughts: 1…CATE BLANCHETT!!!!!!! 2…”Yes!!! …he’s a friend from work! LOL! 3…Goldblum/Tessa!!! Hells yeah 4…Hiddles in that curly wig…HAHAHAHA!
https://twitter.com/marvelstudios/status/851419840241782784
Brachiator
More Pulitzers
Letters and Drama
Fiction: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Drama: Sweat Lynn Nottage
History: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising in 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
Biography or Autobiography: The Return Hisham Matar
Poetry: Olio by Tyehimba Jess
General Non-Fiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Music: Angel’s Bone by Du Yun
Another tidbit on “Underground Railroad”
Taylor
Hoping that the so-called journalists who disgraced themselves last year will learn something from this…..
…..but expecting only jealousy and pettiness from the courtier press.
Congrats to Mr Fahrenthold!
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Fuck Eric Lichtblau, fuck Chris Cillizza, fuck Jeff Zucker and fuck everyone on CNN who isn’t Anderson Cooper into the sun.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
So there will be two ongoing TV shows about the Underground Railroad?
About fucking time, I say.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
And while we’re on the subject of journalism, here’s a hypothetical I posted from LGM last year:
Suppose that Donald’s Occupancy decides to establish the Trump Ministry of Bigly Truthiness, and that he has appointed you as its acting president. Your role is to oversee mandatory media purges, and you are given almost absolute free rein, albeit with the following preconditions:
a) The vast majority of the staff of each media outlet will not only be dismissed, but completely barred from any discussion of political matters for the duration of the empire. This operates with the understanding that any such discussion is grounds for immediate liquidation.
b) However, for each outlet there are three employees whose employment not only will not and cannot be terminated, but who are given completely free reign for the duration of the empire; this is not negotiable.
c) Additionally, for each outlet there will be two employees who are to be subjected to a simultaneously disproportionate yet hilarious punishment, in addition to termination (ranging anywhere from the Eike Batista treatment to launching into the sun). My question is, which pundits/journalists do you keep, and which ones will you launch into the sun? (All of these conditions are non-negotiable):
Here’s my list:
Fuck The Fucking New York Times – KEEP: Paul Krugman, Charles Blow, Nate Cohn
ELIMINATE: Ross Douthat, Dean Baquet*
WaPo – KEEP: Paul Waldman, Eugene Robinson, David Fahrenthold
ELIMINATE: Marc Thiessen, Fred Hiatt
CNN – KEEP: Van Jones, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper
ELIMINATE: Jeffs Zucker & Lord
NBC family – KEEP: Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Joy-Ann Reid
ELIMINATE: JoeScar, Mark Halperin
Fox News – KEEP: Shep Smith, Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier
ELIMINATE: Hannity, Eric Bolling
The Intercept – KEEP: Murtaza Hussein, Liliana Segura, Jon Schwarz
ELIMINATE: Glenn Greenwald**, Zaid Jilani
Politico – KEEP: Bill Scher, Michael Grunwald, Hadas Gold
ELIMINATE: Rich Lowry, Jack Shafer***
Gizmodo Media – KEEP: Ashley Feinberg, Drew Magary, Kara Brown
ELIMINATE: Patrick Redford, Tim Marchman
*Originally Liz Spayd
**Originally Lee Fang.
***Yeah, Scott at LGM nominated Cillizza as hack of the year, but Shafer’s columns were even worse, made less excusable by the fact that Shafer isn’t as stupid as Cillizza
****Originally Pareene, who’d been a total wanker for 2016, but he’s (unfortunately?) gotten his mojo back. Redford was both a wanker and completely inessential/interchangeable with the other purity ponies.
MattF
It’s important to emphasize that the story Fahrenthold covered is the simple, provable fact that Trump lies all the time about everything. Lying about giving to charity is an egregious thing to do– but lying about every single instance of purported donations to charity goes beyond that into the realm of psychopathology.
This is the real story that he uncovered, and it deserves the prize.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
The Pulitzer winning novel is a whole ‘nuther animal.
The novel also won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2016
debbie
@joel hanes:
Oh, FFS
They just have to ruin everything, don’t they?
Ryan
Good on him! Take note Mr. Halperin. No matter how many millions you make, you’ll never have the respect that someone like Mr. Fahrenthold has earned.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Whitehead will be at my local library in a couple weeks. I don’t think I can make it, though.
I know it’s the NYT, but this was interesting. Someone’s in the process of photographing all the stops on the Railroad.
lamh36
@NBCNightlyNews
Julia, a Muppet with autism, made her TV debut on “Sesame Street” today. @Jacobnbc will bring us her story tonight on @NBCNightlyNews.
SiubhanDuinne
I am very happy that David Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer — very well-deserved, in my opinion — but am less happy that Peggy “Magic Dolphins” Noonan picked up a gong for Commentary.
This seems to be an example:
I. Mean. WTF. Anyhow.
Brachiator
Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” has been described as THE FIRST THEATRICAL LANDMARK OF THE TRUMP ERA
From the Wiki —
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
She just makes me miss Russell Baker that much more.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@lamh36: Cate Blanchett looks so perfect as Hela.
eyelessgame
Peggy Noonan got a Pulitzer.
Makes sense. Donald Trump is the President. Is Adam Sandler up for an Oscar?
Comrade Scrutinizer
Attica! Attica! Attica!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mnemosyne: Did you see GRR Martin’s April Fool post this year?
Villago Delenda Est
@joel hanes: Just this. Of course, the commentary award can’t help but suck if they pick anyone at all beyond Krugman or Egan. I mean, look at some of the “luminaries” they’ve chose in the past, such as the human shitpile Krauthammer.
danielx
@Baud:
It’s true. Fucking amazing. Noonan gets it for commentary with nary a mention of Charles Pierce?
gene108
@lamh36:
Trailer looks good. They have done surprisingly well adapting Thor to the big screen.
Villago Delenda Est
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Fred Hiatt needs to be removed with extreme prejudice and sharp pointy votes.
Steeplejack
@joel hanes:
Goddamn, I thought maybe your joke was based on Noonan’s having won a Pulitzer in some long-forgotten heyday when she was at least plausibly semi-relevant. But that didn’t compute, so I checked on the Google. And, goddamn it, she won the Pulitzer for commentary this year?! For what?! I can’t bring myself to read the citation, lest I have a stroke. Ugh. This makes my bad mood today even worse.
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I did not. That’s hilarious. Did you see the “Hamilton” parody that they did on “The Detour”?
different-church-lady
I bear Mr. Fahrenthold no ill, but of all the things Trump has demonstrably lied about, this is the only thing anyone picked up that was Pulitzer-worthy?
lamh36
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Yessss…I saw a magazine cover with the Thor cast on it and I swear I barely recognized Cate!!! She’s VERY good a villains…she was one of the best things in that last, unnecessary Indiana Jones movie, and she was SOOO WICKED in the live action Cinderella…
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Whoops, forgot the link for “The Detour” parody.
Somebody needs to make me a GIF of “IT WON 12 TONYS! HOW MANY TONYS HAVE YOU WON?!?!”
lamh36
@gene108: I really liked the first one (exception…found Natalie Portman…really boring as Jane). The second one was meh to me (probably cause it involved more of Jane than I cared for). This trailer though…made me a bit excited to see how they finish the franchise…and Helmsworth…is hot short or long haired…of course…lol
Steeplejack
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
Keep Megyn Kelly?! You were thinking with your little brain there, amigo.
And not only did you commit the “free reign” atrocity, you did it after correctly using “free rein” two paragraphs above. Extra points off.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack: This is a tough room. Always has been, always will be.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Oh yes! Loved and miss Russell Baker!
I also very much liked Anna Quindlen as a columnist (I’m a fan of her novels, too, but it’s not the same as a twice-a-week fix).
Iowa Old Lady
@different-church-lady: What I liked about Farenthold’s reporting is that it was methodical and open. He posted images of his notebook as he contacted each charity and learned that none of they received donations from the Trump Foundation. It was such a good example of fact finding, and the way he did it was an example for his readers in the Age of Trump. IOW, I thought the process taught us as much as the findings did.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I think Natalie Portman is one of those actors who has a lot of trouble acting against a green screen. No knock against her — some people just can’t do it no matter how good they are.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Steeplejack: Forgot that Kelly was no longer at Fox. But it’s slim pickings either way; we have to keep three. (In their place, I’d suggest either Chris Wallace and/or Juan Williams; Shep stays).
lamh36
Opinion | Gay and terrified in Chechnya
http://wapo.st/2ofWyF0?tid=ss_tw
aimai
@lamh36: I will definitely sneak out to see that.
Turgidson
@MattF:
If only people had cared. One thing Trump wasn’t lying about was that he could commit murder in broad daylight without losing any supporters. While his pathetic poll numbers and popular vote loss show that he obviously wasn’t and isn’t made of teflon like St. Ronald of Reagan, it does seem that the only way to ensure the end of his political career would be to nuke him from orbit. But that is problematic for other reasons.
Steeplejack
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
You could have left her in the “not mentioned” pile. But choosing explicitly to keep her?! Did you ever actually listen to her at Fox while you were staring at her tits?
Mnemosyne
@Turgidson:
The ironic thing in my family is, the two guys who are still Reagan-worshippers (older cousin and older brother) both despise Trump and voted for Hillary.
The Trump voters are ones who would think Reagan was a cuck for raising taxes and not bombing Russia.
Turgidson
@Steeplejack:
Maybe they’re just glad she came to the belated realization that lawn signs can’t vote.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@lamh36: She’s just good, period. And I can’t believe they’re doing the headdress.
@Mnemosyne: That link seems to be missing that line?
lamh36
DAMN….
8-Year-Old Boy Dead After Shooting in Special Needs Classroom at San Bernardino Elementary School: Police via @ktla
@CBSLA
SAN BERNARDINO UPDATE: Photo of Karen Smith who was the victim in school shooting has been released by @SanBernardinoPD
RIP Ms Smith…and her young student…smh
Kathleen
@Taylor: Alas, their paychecks do not depend upon them learning or valuing anything of importance or relevance to real people.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Lived outside of Reading* for a few years during the late70s/early 80s and don’t have any recollection of it being particularly industrialized at the time.
Agriculture (including large scale mushroom farming), the various colleges in and around the area, the gigantic factory outlet complex plus its associated entities, Pennsy Dutch tourism, pretzel making and restaurants were the big kahunas for employment, IIRC.
*Sinking Spring, to be precise. Mention it due to fondness for the name.
lamh36
Author Margot Lee Shetterly to Uncover Even More Hidden Figures in History
https://www.themarysue.com/margot-lee-shetterly-hidden-figures-book-deal/ via @TheMarySue
Kathleen
@eyelessgame: Sandler will be Trump’s next SCOTUS nominee.
Turgidson
@Mnemosyne:
I know a few of those. They turned against the GOP because of W and vote Democratic, but are hardly thrilled about it.
I guess we can be grateful that Trump is such an awful public speaker. Reagan sold a shit sandwich dipped in dog vomit to a commanding majority of voters because he had discipline, good speechwriters, was a skilled liar, and had that endearing affect. Trump can’t string two sentences together without wandering off into a thicket of verbal diarrhea, can barely make it through a prepared speech at all, much less deliver it with any grace, and is about as appealing to listen to as a tornado siren.
Kathleen
@danielx: Anne, Betty and Cole write rings around Pierce IMHO.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Steeplejack: Yeah I know how much she sucked, but when I compiled the list (December) she was the only one I could think of at the moment to show editorial independence. (And I never watch FOX). And this is irrelevant anyway, because she now works at NBC.
And you still haven’t made any suggestions for the list.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Agreed. I was sorry when she left.
JustRuss
@debbie: Christ, I thought Hanes was joking. “President Trump” is bad enough, now we have to live with “Pulitzer Prize Winner Peggy Noonan”?!! I just can’t……
What’s next, Michael Bay gets the Oscar for Best Director?
Mnemosyne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
D’oh! I blame G — I assumed he had posted the same clip he showed me. That one just has the actual parody.
Basically, the surrounding story is that the couple is being interrogated by the USPIS and the woman interrogating them is one of the audience members sitting behind them and glaring at them. I’ll have to see if I can make my own GIF.
Brachiator
@lamh36:
Very cool. I always thought it a shame that there are not more books about black women who served during WW II. I wish that some teachers would encourage their students to use tablets, phones and similar devices to record living histories of these people, and their other family members.
This obviously applies to other people and groups as well. We have at hand the equipment to easily document mini biographies of people. The results could be illuminating.
sharl
@different-church-lady:
After reading some of the relevant articles, I really appreciated other awardees’ work quite a bit. Fahrenthold’s work was thorough, diligent, and spread out over many weeks, so didn’t offer to me* any one single article that really made an impact (*though one or more such articles may exist). That kind of steady grinding work Fahrenthold did – performed while maintaining professional discipline and attention to detail – seems like it would be no small thing.
FWIW, one of Fahrenthold’s colleagues noted the following:
I’m glad he got the award; we need more like him. Someone (like me) would have voted for those writing that one article (or short series) with a big ‘WOW’ factor.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: that could be true, I’m trying to remember if she’d ever done CGI before
Mnemosyne
@JustRuss:
Well, it is the Year Of Rewarding White Mediocrity, so …
Credenzal Jocularity
Did any Colorado Juicers hear Peak NPR break their cart process about 20 minutes ago?
They started with one sentence about Gorsuch surviving fierce political opposition and then there was dead air for about 15 seconds. Then it started playing random sentence fragments about grape juice, bank fraud and something about the SPLC being the REAL hate group, all with different voices.
A non sequitur fugue of reasonable intonations.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
She was in the “Star Wars” prequels and was really bad in them.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: Oooh…right…yeah…never saw those…but I do recall some tittering about her performance
eemom
Why anybody gives a shit about Pulitzer prizes — or any prizes — is beyond me.
Fucking MoDo won a pulitzer, y’all. Basically any emmessemmbot you’ve ever heard of has won one. So not surprising at all that waaaaay has-been Noonan got one now — they probably just looked at the list of over-80 hacks and realized, oh shit, we forgot about her.
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
I get protective amnesia about the Star Wars prequels, too.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
It wasn’t just her — everyone was really bad. But she definitely had trouble with all of the green screen acting and said so.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: Well, when you’re basically cast as a walking mannequin for utterly bizarre and impractical female attire, actually acting becomes unimportant.
Steeplejack
@eemom:
I ended up on Noonan’s Wikipedia page and was shocked to discover she’s only 66! She does sound like an 80-year-old fossil. Hell, she has always sounded like an 80-year-old fossil!
Mnemosyne
Also, in other arts news, G and I saw the touring production of Into the Woods last night. It was really good, but some people seemed a little confused about what a Sondheim fairy tale would be like and brought kids who were way too young to enjoy it.
The second act has structural problems but the cast was great and managed to pull it over the finish line. And it’s nice that, even in Trump’s America, live theater is still casting the best people for the job, not just white people.
mainmata
@SiubhanDuinne: Excuse me, Ms. Dumbass Noonan (who has an Irish surname) but people from Donegal do – and did – speak English albeit with a lovely accent.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Everybody was bad in them. People fixate on Jar Jar, but the greater problem was that George Lucas found a way to take a group of talented actors and get a bad performance out of all of them.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I think a huge part of it was the Lucas didn’t know or care much about directing actual human beings. He knows how to make an impressive spectacle, but engaging human interactions are beyond him.
sharl
The NYT’s C.J. Chivers won a Pulitzer for this – a long and often hard read, but very well told. At least it has an ending that leaves one hopeful:
This one might be more in Adam’s wheelhouse – well at least kinda-sorta – on how much diplomacy and relations with the rest of the world have changed after 9/11, Snowden, hacking, etc.: The Last Diplomat, an account of how old school Pakistani expert Robin Raphel got into trouble with our new signint-based and culturally ignorant security apparatus.
I’m not sure I’ve yet read this Pulitzer winner from the Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail – Drug firms poured 780M painkillers into WV amid rise of overdoses – but I’ve read enough other accounts of the flood of opiates into Appalachian and other communities to have some awareness of the size of the problem.
As far as Peggy Noonan…blech. I did like the idea from one wag who suggested that Maureen Dowd should have got an award for investigative journalism, for her fine work checking out pot brownies in Colorado. Far too late, I guess.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: “George, you can write this shit, but you can’t say it” — Harrison Ford
Jeffro
@Brachiator: Catherine Rampell’s a big fan of “Sweat”…probably a good reason to go see it. A lot of these writers for the WaPo tweet out pretty good theater recommendations…Fahrenthold was the one who said “As You Like It” was amazing (this was back in Feb) and my family & I had to agree!
Jeffro
Btw, I mentioned a day or two ago (speaking of Pulitzers): y’all have to read The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Just outstanding.
That’s what all these ‘best of’ and ‘year’s best’ lists are for, folks! Who has time to pick out a couple dozen great books in any given year? ;)
opiejeanne
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Am I the only one here who likes Lawrence O’Donnell?
Also, why the fuck would you keep Jake Tapper?
I’m disappointed that Kurt Eichenwald (Newsweek) didn’t get a Pulitzer as well as Fahrenthold. They were both very good.
sharl
@opiejeanne: Lots of people like Eichenwald, but journalism insiders probably remember his old problems with journalistic ethics, the details of which were particularly sordid. I suspect he’s still too radioactive to receive something like a Pulitzer.
opiejeanne
@sharl: I missed that story, somehow. I caught all of the other scandals mentioned in the article, but missed that one.