Even though I find them both relatively amusing, there’s something deeply sickening about the success of Ana Marie Cox and Tucker Carlson. Neither is a reporter. Neither knows anything about policy or about how government works. Yet they’re on tv in quasi-serious settings more or less constantly.
So this kind of cracked me up:
NYC: Matt Taibbi: yay or nay?
Tucker Carlson: What a phony.
Ana Marie Cox: Not a fan but I applaud his ability to make me look like a sober and judicious practitioner of journalism.
McGeorge Bundy
Both of them are frauds. Taibbi has more journalistic talent in his receding hairline than either of them.
r€nato
I would LOVE to see Taibbi vs. Tucker Carlson in a debate.
Or a fight, for that matter. Mr. Ex-Bowtie, after all, is the tough guy who bragged about assaulting a gay who made a pass at him.
(as if)
Zifnab
Hey look! They shoved a stick up Crossfire’s ass and paraded it around for a bit! Thank god we can forget about actual national news and crawl back under our “He said / She said” rock of political discourse.
He’s a 30-year-old washed up failure of a pundit. She’s a got a show on an under viewed not-so-national radio station. One wears a bow tie and the other wears jeans to church. /queue odd-couple music
BombIranForChrist
Yeah, this is unbelievably funny.
Ana Marie wrote a “humor” blog (see Friends sitcom for a similar level of “humor”) followed by an awful book, and she is now on TV all the time. It’s a very big reason I don’t watch any political television anymore.
I think everyone basically recognizes that Tucker is a lightweight. He’s the Screech of politics.
DougJ
(as if)
In fairness, he cut a more dashing figure ten years ago. The years have not been kind.
chiggins
@r€nato: …as well as threatening to “destroy” a video clerk that blogged about him.
He’s one tough bygawd customer.
JenJen
Ummm, “what a phony”?
And did Ana-Marie really, truly say that? She’s not writing buttsex jokes anymore, sure, but her new schtick isn’t that much different.
Grrrrr.
Zifnab
Shorter Tucker: CANADA SUX!
Shorter AMC: Canada does not suck that much.
Also, I agree with the questioner.
joe from Lowell
Ana Marie doesn’t pretend to be anything she isn’t.
Tucker acts like he’s Carl Bernstein.
Big difference.
SpotWeld
Isn’t Toronto the city that TV shows and films use as a stand-in for NYC (except Toronto is cleaner and they have to import trash to dress it up right?)
Joe Lisboa
He’s the Screech of politics.
Ha! Perfect. Unfortunately, this means we have a sex tape to, uh, “look forward to.” Ugh.
kth
That supercilious, uber-insiderish take from Cox is really painful, and I say that as an erstwhile fan. The gist of their consensus isn’t any issue with the merits of Taibbi’s reporting. They merely think his gonzo style is tiresome, even passe.
Cox really seems to be destined to be the Maureen Dowd of the next decade, though she will probably be better at it than Dowd herself. But wow, what a paltry aspiration.
Maus
“Ana Marie wrote a ‘humor’ blog”
Wonkette is pretty great, but I agree that Cox as a guest really doesn’t add anything to the picture.
OniHanzo
Christ… Queen Wonkette and the King of Bow-Tied Doucherockets (who once mocked a little girl’s intestines being sucked out as a “jacuzzi” accident) desperately trying to stay relevant.
Please, for the love of god, respect our make-believe rigor!
Get fucked, ye tapdancing clowns.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@JenJen:
Accusing someone of “phoniness” is Tucker Carlson’s go-to putdown.
alhutch
Their combined lack of actual seriousness leaves me depressed about my generation. Shorter me, they both suck. They couldn’t carry Taibbi’s jock and I’m sure, deep down, they both know it.
ellaesther
I don’t enjoy Taibbi. As I’ve said here before, he is too thoroughly in love with himself and his talent for me to want to take either seriously. My husband loves him, though, so we’re covered.
But as much as I don’t enjoy Taibbi — Ana Marie Cox? Oy! I’m actually grateful when she’s on Maddow, because it give me back 10 minutes of my day. I fast forward, making snide comments as I go, and then voila! I have my serious journalism back, plus a little extra evening! (Though I do have to tip my hat to her for the comment quoted here).
I do love me my Rachel, but the stomach she has for Uncle Pat and Ana Marie just throws me for a loop, every single time.
Jim
“Success”? I guess neither will have to worry about paying the rent (TC of course being one of the great Trust Fund Babies on a par with Paris or Megan), but these two are the political equivalent of Kathy Griffin or Flava Flave or whoever is on VH1 these days.
arguingwithsignposts
You’d think people who appear on TV as often as these two wouldn’t be jealous of a Rolling Stone reporter. Of course, his actual journalism has been mentioned all over the place over the past few months while they … do whatever it is they do.
WATB Brigade.
4tehlulz
>>Not a fan but I applaud his ability to make me look like a sober and judicious practitioner of journalism.
I must have missed Taibbi’s piece about taking it in the ass. Can anyone provide a link?
Econwatcher
I bet Carlson wouldn’t say it to Taibbi’s face. Not a chance. But I’d pay to see it if he would. Taibbi spent a bunch of years as more or less a street ruffian in Moscow.
Jim
I would LOVE to see Taibbi vs. Tucker Carlson in a debate.
Maher would give them a forum. There would be blood.
Mark S.
Man, when did Carlson become that big of a dick? I realize he’s kinda always been one, but he sounded like a Prot**n W*sd*m commenter there.
Captain Goto
4tehlulz @ #20:
Win.
r€nato
@Jim:
Tucker would never show up. He’d have an excuse.
linda
poor ahhhhna, she must miss her days when ‘ass-fucking’ was all she had to write about.
Captain Goto
And Mark S.:
Sorry, ’twas ever thus:
youtube.com/watch?v=vmj6JADOZ-8
Interrobang
Wonkette’s got a lot of fucking nerve criticising anyone on the grounds of journalistic know-how, considering that if she’s good at anything, it’s marketing. After all, she built her reputation on developing a cute online persona and blabbing about ass-fucking all the time. What a fucking tool (of the patriarchy). If it hadn’t been for her slavering horde of ass-obsessed fanboys, she’d still be a no-talent nobody.
r€nato
@Mark S.:
Fucker has always been a big dick and I particularly enjoy it whenever the name of someone who delivered a rhetorical beatdown on him is brought up to him. That’s when Fucker reveals the size of his inferiority complex.
For instance, I am pretty sure that Fucker never has anything good to say about Jon Stewart thoroughly humiliated him on that infamous Crossfire show. In fact, HuffPo has a clip where Fucker completely rips on Stewart, which only proves how completely Stewart destroyed Fucker.
A bigger man would have laughed it off. Clearly, Stewart deeply wounded Fucker and Fucker doesn’t realize how much he’s proving that every time he lashes out at him.
linda
ahhhhna on john kerry in an earlier wapo chat:
Ana Marie Cox: John Kerry would likely take Chief Dog Catcher or Deputy Ball Licker if it was a cabinet level appointment.
keepin’ it classy…. oh yeah, the wapo later deleted that comment.
drillfork
What’s with Ana Marie Cox’s dimples? They’re unnaturally huge and droopy.
And yes, I agree, what Maddow sees in her is a mystery. Buchanan I imagine is thrust upon her by her Betters at GE, and Maddow practically mocks the old xenophobe (“It’s Pat!”) anyway…
Crusty Dem
If a terrible picture makes your eyes bleed, and horrible, screeching sounds make you ears bleed, what does this disaster of a chat do? I’m thinking some sort of aneurysm, but I can’t be sure. Tucker is the most useless motherfucker on this earth. Cox used to be entertaining, when she was ripping people to shreds, now she’s “high Queen of the beltway morons”, nice and friendly to everyone (except occasionally to someone who makes fun of the beltway morons). What a waste of oxygen and electrons keeping these two hooked up… At least Cox tries to be entertaining, Tucker doesn’t even attempt to respond to any reasonable question other than throwing a few truly stupid anti-Canada remarks around. Truly, all those years of bowties left him with a melted mush of jello where a semi-functional organ once resided..
arguingwithsignposts
@Jim:
Yes, I believe there would be milkshake drinking as well.
wasabi gasp
A phony? What? Baloney?
Mmmm…sassage.
Joshua Norton
As I recall, Rachael Maddow got her start sparring with Tucker and Pat Buchanan. Maybe Ms. ex-Wonkette sees the same thing happening to her. The only problem is Rachael is gifted with genuine political insight and Ana Marie is beginning to act more like Dennis Miller.
IndieTarheel
Tucker not only can’t stand the fact that he got pwned by a comedian, he’s also butt-hurt that his snark-fu sucks. He wants to be funny, like the dude that beat him down, but he doesn’t understand that even in the land of conservative humor (where the one-laugh man would actually BE king), he’s got nothing.
ruemara
@SpotWeld:
pretty embarrassingly much
El Tiburon
Douchebag and douchebaggette.
Matt Taibbi would fucking destroy either of those lightweights in a debate (or the practice of journalism).
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@drillfork: <blockquote.And yes, I agree, what Maddow sees in her is a mystery.
Jeez, people, do I gotta draw you a picture?
Cat
@Mark S.:
When the establishment didn’t realize what a brilliant thinker and leader he was and grant him the adulation he so richly deserved.
The entitlement is strong in this one.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@drillfork:
Jeez, people, do I gotta draw you a picture?
/edit
Koz
Matt Taibbi has taken some good shots at fat targets and to that extent good for him. Otoh, in the world today there’s already too much empty nihilistic anger from stupid people so we shouldn’t be encouraging more of it.
Midnight Marauder
Even though I find them both relatively amusing
Out of curiosity, in what way do you find Tucker Carlson “relatively amusing?”
Mike in NC
Where exactly is that? Next to Atlantis?
scarshapedstar
Huh. Rachel Maddow has AMC on practically every week. I know that she’s excerpted from Taibbi’s work in the past. I think I’ll write and suggest she tell her flyweight friend Ana that she probably shouldn’t be mocking actual journslists.
Xanthippas
Having been prompted to read that exchange by this post my question now is, was I supposed to get something out of that? I feel more ignorant, not less.
ricky
I thought Cash for Clunkers ended last week.
ricky
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
I love those little drawings people create using their keyboards. Do try.
media browski
Hm. AMC vs.Taibbi. I’ll take the redhead with the potty mouth over the balding guy with the ego any day.
Will Danz
Ana Marie Cox got famous for writing obsessively and juvenilely about “butt sex.” She’s a raging narcissist who won’t stop Twittering and posting pictures of herself, her wardrobe, her hair, her pets.
She’s just a potty-mouthed Beltway Heather, a snotty adolescent at heart. And her criticism of Taibbi is pure, laughable projection.
anthony
Jesus. That was what the Washington Post chooses to run? There were a bunch of insightful interesting questions there. Neither Cox nor Carlson made the slightest attempt to answer them in any way.
And remember folks, the future of media is that this brilliance will be hidden behind a paywall. Go back. Re-read this. Would _you_ pay for this? I could get more useful responses from quizzing my cats.
Will Danz
@media browski:
SiubhanDuinne
Judging by the title of this thread, I thought we were going to be talking about Archibald Cox.
(Anyone else here old enough to remember Archibald Cox? Anyone? Bueller?)
Crickets.
John Q
Anna Marie Cox is a smart lady that deserves all the opportunities that come her way. She’s also pretty hot.
RSA
Tucker Carlson, in 2006:
Tucker Carlson, in 2009:
I think that’s all we need to know about you, Tucker.
Unterobengruppenfuhrer Michael Brown
Holy shit! EWWWWWWWWWWW! There are DOZENS of these airhead Kox/Karlson interview thingies on my WaPo intertrons! SHOO THEM AWAY!
Unterobengruppenfuhrer Michael Brown
@ starshapedscar:
Rachel only has Anna Marie Cox on all the time because RM deeply appreciates the tewtelly pervy spectacle of cute pouty-mouthed hyperfemmy straight girls cruising her right on her own program.
Sentient Puddle
Y’know, when we talk of douchebaggery from our pundits and politicians, there’s always the assumption that they’re on the topic of policy or politics. Dick Cheney lying about torture effectiveness is douchey. Glenn Beck whining about imminent oligarhy is douchey. But at least while they’re being douchebags, they at least have the veil of it being marginally related to politics.
After reading that transcript, I think I need to let go of that assumption. It was like Tucker woke up this morning and said “Fuck it, I’m not going to even bother obfuscating it. I’m going 100% douchebag today.” I mean seriously, nothing he said could even remotely be tied back to politics at all. It was all meaningless one-liners and swipes at Canada.
A work of art, really.
BruceFromOhio
I love Rachel Maddow, but every time Cox is on I want to bash my teevee with a hockey stick until my arms stop working. Instead, I just leave the room until she goes the hell away. How many appliances have been saved by those anger management classes is, Gaia help me, between me and Gaia.
Tucker Carlson got his turn in the take-down barrel courtesy of Jon Stewart, and NOT on The Daily Show.
‘Nuff said.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
[Reluctantly raising hand in back of the room.]
Tom E. Brown
And don’t forget that Cox was one of John McCain’s premier “tire-swingers.” Why Rachel Maddow continues to promote her is a mystery to me.
mparker
I just don’t have the time and It would never occur to me really, to criticize Ana Marie Cox for fluff reporting while Glen Beck is terrorizing my TV.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack 5:36 pm
Yeah. I know.
Next time there’s a slowish open thread around here we can play “Do you remember . . . ?”
Morbo
Oh, Doug, Bob Somerby called; he said you should be ashamed of this post title.
pseudonymous in nc
Ana Marie Cox: the fifth-best staff writer at Suck.com.
They hate Taibbi because Taibbi diagnosed the shitty state of political journalism years ago, and consciously decided to keep writing like a sportswriter or an eXile writer. He’s not playing their reindeer games, whereas Cox and Carlson (who was honestly not a bad writer for Talk) have signed over what talent they had to be part of the shitfest.
arguingwithsignposts
Of course, guess who’s on Maddow tonight, talking about how she spent a long time on the phone with McCain’s people.