Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shocking, but not surprising.

Consistently wrong since 2002

The revolution will be supervised.

We Survived Breitbartpocalypse!

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

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot

We still have time to mess this up!

Lighten up, Francis.

Just a few bad apples.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Han shot first.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Wetsuit optional.

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

Nevertheless, she persisted

I personally stopped the public option…

We can agree to disagree, but I’m right.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

This is how realignments happen…

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / So Much Fail, So Little Time

So Much Fail, So Little Time

by | 46 Comments

This post is in: ,

gong

No more videos for the #dickwhisperer:

The Washington Post has brought down the curtain on “Mouthpiece Theater.”

Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, which had prompted him to pull the latest episode from the paper’s Web site Friday night. The Post staffers who appeared in the videos, Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza, agreed with the decision and apologized in separate interviews.

“I don’t think the series worked as they intended,” Brauchli said. “It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format.”

Brauchli should win an award for understatement.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    Ash

    Wait, does “superb” mean something other than what I’ve thought it’s meant my entire life?

  4. 4.

    NonyNony

    As Scott Lemieux pointed out over at LGM, if “Mouthpiece Theater” was supposed to translate the “superb journalism” that Milbank and Cillizza “do in print and online to a new format” then I’d call it a success.

  6. 6.

    donovong

    The Gong Show was much funnier, more relevant and a better example of journalism than the bullshit Milbank and Cilizza put out. And The Gong Show SUCKED ASS.

  7. 7.

    GambitRF

    As Homer did on the Simpsons, Dana and Chris also got more gongs than the break dancing robot that caught on fire.

  8. 8.

    Zifnab

    Brauchli should win an award for understatement.

    Is there some kind of Pulitzer for noting the obvious?

  9. 9.

    Napoleon

    Too bad Milbank wasn’t gonged right out of the media.

    OT but Chuck Berris was on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me this weekend as the guest question answerer and did a pretty good job.

  11. 11.

    beltane

    So this was the video version of Dana Milbank’s “superb” journalism? Milbank has long been a hack; inviting people to watch-rather than just read-his lameitude does not do anything to improve it. At least it only took a single You-tube spoof to make them figure this out.

    May I suggest that the New York Times start it’s own Mouthpiece Theater starring Tom Friedman and Ross Douthat? I want to see the spoof.

  14. 14.

    Demo Woman

    This comment is from Cillizza’s blog “The Fix”

    Joking aside, I would like to personally apologize for the content in last Friday’s video as it was inconsistent not only with the Post brand but, more important and personal to me, the Fix brand which I have worked so hard to cultivate.
    I can only hope that those who have enjoyed reading the Fix, following me on Twitter and Facebook and watching my occasional television appearances can follow the age-old maxim: to err human, to forgive divine.

  15. 15.

    Zandar

    Which is amusing because:

    “It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format.”

    …is actually exactly what happened.

    It’s just that the journalism’s new format was the same old bullshit, only in smoking jackets.

  17. 17.

    Quaker in a Basement

    “I don’t think the series worked as they intended,”

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. You meant it wasn’t meant to be sophomoric, slapdash, and a total embarrassment to a once-great newspaper?

    ‘Cause it sure seemed like they were working pretty hard to make it all that and less.

  18. 18.

    James Hare

    Man I love seeing that #dickwhisperer tag. Without a doubt, one of the funniest moments in political journamalism ever.

  19. 19.

    Joshua Norton

    Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday

    Nobody “killed” it. It committed suicide.

    “It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format.”

    See The Fox 1/2 Hour News Hour for other hilarious examples of the comedic gold WaPo was trying mine.

    Posted! ! !

  21. 21.

    JDM

    Just a coupla Wild n’ KKKrazy Guys … too bad they’re still available (and paid) in print.

  22. 22.

    raff

    Brauchli said. “It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format.”

    Yeah, & I meant to become a millionaire by buying a lottery ticket. Alas none of those things, you know, actually happened.

  24. 24.

    SGEW

    They didn’t kill it because it was a steaming piece of unfunny shit. They killed it because (as Andy Cobb pointed out) it “inadvertently exposed the dark heart of [their] dying industry, two minutes at a time.”

    It was simply too revealing.

  26. 26.

    jibeaux

    Well, for straight superficial horse race coverage, which is really all he purports to do, I like The Fix, although I haven’t read it since the election. And Cilizza put up a fairly genuine sounding apology. Re: Milbank, I have no defense there.

  28. 28.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Wait, it gets better. The last paragraph of Howie Kurtz’ column:

    As if to signal that their standing at The Post remains unaffected, Brauchli praised both reporters. He called Cillizza “an enormous talent and someone who is closely followed and admired by a lot of journalists and people in politics. . . . Dana writes a terrific, very funny and usually very popular column on Page 2. He’s an equal-opportunity offender, and from time to time everyone’s mad at him.”

    Cillizza should have had the brains not to get involved. (question for brauchli – so he’s followd and admired by a lot of journos and people in politics, what about the rest of the country?)

    Milbanks should be kicked to the curb for the damage he’s done to the Post brand. Instead, he’ll keep getting his paycheck to be a douche.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Does anyone besides me think that Chuck Berris in that photo could be the twin of whateverhisnamewas that played Greg Brady?

  30. 30.

    MikeJ

    He called Cillizza “an enormous talent and someone who is closely followed and admired by a lot of journalists and people in politics.

    Who would you trust more, someone admired by politicians or someone on Nixon’s enemies list? The saying used to be, “if you want a friend in Washington get a dog.” Now it’s get a Cillizza.

  32. 32.

    slag

    @SGEW:

    @Ash: I think they meant “subpar.” It’s very easy to get the two mixed up, it seems.

    I totally read it as “subpar” initially. Do Freudian slips also pertain to reading?

  33. 33.

    jibeaux

    @MikeJ:

    Well, I’m not going to hang out here all day defending Cilliza, but his style is a niche. It’s not his intent to afflict the comfortable and rake the muck and get on enemies lists. He’s more of a tactics, polls, logistics, numbers, kind of guy, and I think there’s a place for that.

  34. 34.

    Chris

    I would never have guessed that WaPo was aware of that video’s existence before it was released. Are they trying to ruin what’s left of their goodwill?

    As guerilla theater it was amusing. But to find out those guys are on the payroll – just profoundly sad.

  35. 35.

    Anne Laurie

    They didn’t kill it because it was a steaming piece of unfunny shit. They killed it because (as Andy Cobb pointed out) it “inadvertently exposed the dark heart of [their] dying industry, two minutes at a time.”
    …
    It was simply too revealing.

    Can we carve this on Dana Milbank’s tombstone?

  36. 36.

    slag

    @jibeaux:

    He’s more of a tactics, polls, logistics, numbers, kind of guy, and I think there’s a place for that.

    Ummm…Isn’t the place for that currently like very goddamn media outlet in this country right now? I mean I can count the number of investigative journalists I can think of on one hand. The number of Chris Cillizas, however, seems infinite.

  37. 37.

    linda

    translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online

    hahahahahahahahaha…. now, that’s funny.

    chris cillizza is mr popular among the villagers, because he’s so eager to kiss their fucking asses. watch him lather up tweety sometime.

    and speaking of tweety — man, he’s juiced tonite — the big dog is back on the scene and tweety’s obsessing over all the angles. ‘does bill look like he’s gaining weight’…

  42. 42.

    gex

    @feebog: Just listen in to 13 year old boys on Xbox live. They are just as able to call women bitches as these fine journalists.

  43. 43.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    The Washington Post isn’t even pretending to “do journalism” anymore, is it?

    At least according to MSM mythology, during the Watergate scandal the WaPo took down a Republican President. They’ve been repenting of that act of lese-majeste and doing neocon penance (say a hundred Hail Reagan’s and take a cold shower in the morning, etc..) ever since – sort of like St. Augustine making up for his wild and mispent youth.

  46. 46.

    oh really

    “I don’t think the series worked as they intended,” Brauchli said. “It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format.”

    Brauchli should win an award for understatement.

    Hmmm.

    I don’t think the series worked as they intended. It was meant to be funny and insightful…”

    Huge UNDERstatement. (And much funnier than anything either Millbank or Cilizza said or did.)

    …the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online…

    Gigantic OVERstatement. (Again, I’m tempted to laugh, but the disgust I feel kills the humor.)

    Huge UNDERstatement + Gigantic OVERstatement = Total BS

    And the award goes to Brauchli for utter nonsense in a hopeless cause.

Comments are closed.