The Politico attempts to defend their continued fluffing of Breitbart:
At best, it seems like comically awful timing. At worst, it seems symptomatic of an accountability-free Beltway media culture that rewards buzz-creation above all else.
Either way, Politico has given a coveted slot on its just-released “50 Politicos to Watch” package to none other than … Andrew Breitbart. Politico’s write-up glowingly described Breitbart’s wit and “edge,” with no mention of his rather widely-discussed Shirley Sherrod caper, which by any measure should have dealt his credibility a severe blow.
But Politico editor John Harris defended the decision in an email to me. He said the piece had been assigned and completed long before the Sherrod flap, though he conceded the timing was unfortunate.
“The Breitbart piece for the 50 Politicos feature was assigned and reported weeks ago,” Harris wrote. “It was for a special glossy magazine version of our print edition and had a long lead time so was not assigned, reported or written in the context of the Sherrod furor.”
I concur. It is so hard to stop the presses on their internet edition. Wait, what?
Emma
Well, John, in all fairness, they had already planned that glossy, print edition… you couldn’t possibly expect them to change things now (/snark)
Gregory
Yeah, and Breitbart never ever had any incidents questioning his credibility before Sherrod, so hoocoodanode?
Snarki, child of Loki
Oh, yes, Breitbart should certainly be watched very closely.
In much the way that a Klansman on parole for hate-crimes should be watched at an NAACP rally.
thomas
The ACORN caper apparently doesn’t count.
WTF they’re just a bunch of poor people anyway.
James K. Polk, Esq.
Shame? No, thanks.
As if the hit job on ACORN wasn’t widely known to be falsified by the time the “special glossy magazine version” went to presses.
El Tiburon
Shorter Politico: “Look, you all are talking about me and linking to me, so nah nah nah nah nah…”
matoko_chan
Politico is just like Sully and TNC….they swallow the “divided government” bullshytt….they live in pantswetting fear of a single-party america if the GOP goes down.
That why Sully links that stupid cow McArdle and TNC sticks up for that slimy pud Weigel and that misogynistic creeper Douthat— because that is the best the right has.
I say, let ’em burn.
A new party will evolve to take the place of the GOP.
eventually ;)
jeffreyw
This story has certain parallels with this one. Hate to push the analogy too far. I’m sure the shelter peeps would be aghast at the comparison with Politico. It flatters Breitbart, tho, so there is that.
Napoleon
John, you are defaming fluffers by comparing them to Politico. They have a useful position in the adult movie industry, unlike Politico’s position in the journalistic community.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
Politico is the equivalent of Entertainment Weekly, or Entertainment Tonight. Their only job is to support the political infrastructure they report on. How is “50 Politicos to watch” a story that adds a single sliver of anything to this small blue dot of a world?
MattF
Writing about Breitbart’s ‘edge’ has a sort of Freudian aroma to it. I’d say that Politico is repressing what it really means– that Breitbart is the public figure who came the closest to being a racist without actually crossing the line.
But now that he’s crossed the line, will they still love him? Or will he graduate to the “Now let’s have the racist point of view” slot presently occupied by ol’ Pat Buchanan?
xochi
Your liberal media at work.
arguingwithsignposts
I have to admit I was surprised the first time I went to DC and found a printed version of Politico. It only makes sense, now. Beltway circle-jerk and all. And almost all the ads in their print version are from defense contractors and the like. We are not their audience.
Mike from Philly
John Harris should take a cue from their new boyfriend. When caught doing something reprehensible or mind bogglingly stupid, just claim the person who caught you is a plant.
How do we know the person reporting on this story even talked to John Harris? How do we know he wasn’t talking to a liberal plant?
See, that wasn’t so hard. Now nobody remembers what a completely soulless asshole you are.
Comrade Luke
I think you’re missing something.
Coveted? By whom? WTF, are people really that into themselves that they care about being in the Top 50 of a Politico list?
acallidryas
Ohhhh, it was planned and written before the Sherrod flap. Well, that’s alright then. After all, it’s not as if before this he’s ever used misleading clips to try to destroy people’s careers or engaged in, at best, questionable journalistic practices.
Brachiator
Meanwhile, the Sherrod incident continues to leave a stink, as Breitbart and his employers obviously intended.
On the way to work this morning, I was listening to a news radio recap which described Sherrod as “the USDA employee fired for racial remarks made to the NAACP.”
On a morning talk show on another radio station, the host glibly asked whether the white farmer coming to Sherrrod’s defense was being sincere?
And apparently Fox News is still keeping on with the claims that official Obama Administration policy is to screw over as many white people as possible.
Zifnab
@matoko_chan:
No one who thinks that follows American politics. The Democrats are about as united as a hand grenade. Totally lockstep until you try to do anything with them.
And no one seemed to give a crap about a “single party America” when the Republicans were sweeping the election in ’02.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Wit is not the word I would use to describe Lightfart, but it rhymes with the one I would use.
eemom
if this allBreitbartallthetime keeps up I may just go full metal Jack Nicholson with the ax.
BreitBART. BreitBART. BreitBAAAAART……..
me
@Comrade Luke: Exactly, it’s coveted by narcissistic assholes.
Bordo
I fucking hate Politico. All they care about is hits. Period. They’ll say or do anything to draw traffic including pimping for a well-known conservative ratfucker turned race baiter.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bordo:
Your suspicions are correct (via WaPo):
burnspbesq
@eemom:
“Honey, I’m home.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I heard that once upon a time Joe McCarthy was the life of the party – if you had an open bar, that is.
licensed to kill time
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Shit? Twit? Zit? Nit? Pit? Spit? Lit? {{{boom!}}}
stuckinred
Speaking of reporters, Dan Schorr died.
“Though by no means a fan of rock music, Schorr became friends with composer Frank Zappa after the latter contacted him, asking for help with a voter-registration drive. Schorr made an appearance with Zappa on February 10, 1988, where he sang “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “Summertime”. Schorr delivered the eulogy on NPR after Zappa’s death on December 4, 1993; he professed not to understand Zappa’s lengthy discourses on music theory, but he found a kindred spirit—a serious man with a commitment to free speech.”
neill
That Polecat “glossy”‘ll be a good resource when the guillotine is wheeled into the Village square…
Cassidy
Politico can’t afford to criticize him. The all mighty Rush has spoken.
Jules
AB is working for someone.
That someone gave him the edited tape and that someone wanted to smear Sherrod so they might be able to put a wrench in the finally funding the payout for the Pigford Farms case which is part of the war supplement bill that is/was supposed to be voted on this week.
That’s why King was discussing it the other day….
Fuck Politico.
Tony P.
The Reverend Spooner would have called Breitbart a shining wit.
–TP
kommrade reproductive vigor
@eemom: All Brietbart and no Tunch makes eemom a dull girl.
Or gives her a dull axe.
Somethin’.
Brachiator
@stuckinred:
Damn. Let’s compare him with the likes of Breitbart.
Journalism is when you take risks to report news in the public interest.
Too bad they don’t teach that anymore.
matoko_chan
@Zifnab: im talking about Sully and TNC and people like that……that give welfare epics and skillups to retards like Douthat and McArdle so that they can play.
Politico and media have a somewhat different interest…..they are fight promotors.
Can’t make money off an un-opposed match.
Gregory
@stuckinred:
Aw, crap.
Now there was a reporter, even — no, especially — when he couldn’t conceal his outrage at the Bush Administration’s wiretapping and outing of Valerie Plame, having been wiretapped himself by Nixon.
The blow-dried blowjob crowd today wouldn’t be fit to bus away Schorr’s martini glasses.
licensed to kill time
John Cole or any frontpager!
Cleanup on aisle 13 in The Dreams of Summer, someone dropped a Hyphen Bomb and screwed up the whole thread!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
arguingwithsignposts
Re: Dan Schorr – I was a little less than enthused by his more recent turn on NPR. He wasn’t reporting, he was punditing.
NonyNony
@stuckinred:
Fuck. I know he was in his 90s, but that’s still not something I was expecting. Damn.
I think I need a drink.
ETA: @arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah, but he was still the best pundit NPR had.
I’d take 3 minutes of Schorr punditry over a half hour of anyone else in NPR’s stable.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Brachiator:
You know what else is sad – if you go back and read the biographies of our leaders circa 50-100 years ago, a shockingly high percentage of them had early careers in journalism or were professional writers for a popular audience, before they went into politics. To take just one example Winston Churchill was a war correspondent before he went on to other things.
Can anyone imagine picking somebody from the current crop of what we euphemistically call “journalists” and promoting them to the position of governing the country? The press used to be not just where we got our information from, but a training ground for much of our leadership, because to be good at it you actually had to learn how to think and communicate. What is today’s press a training ground for?
The mind, it boggles.
arguingwithsignposts
@NonyNony:
Well, since Ira Glass isn’t in NPR’s stable (WBEZ Chicago), I’m inclined to agree with you.
arguingwithsignposts
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Was just reading a biography of WC, and he used family connections to get some of those reporting gigs, apparently. Still a giant, but just an interesting factoid.
Also, while Algore is fat, he was also a journalist and a military man.
Tom65
I might actually be concerned if Politico had a reputation worth defending.
Chad N Freude
The news of Dan Schorr’s death literally brought tears to my eyes. Even the tiny bits he did on NPR were valuable. This severs our last link with what journalism used to be.
Bella Q
@arguingwithsignposts: If anybody’s ever earned the right to go punditing at the end, it’s Daniel Schorr.
Chad N Freude
@arguingwithsignposts: You call it punditing, I call it analyzing and providing context.
stuckinred
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Reagan called baseball games on the radio, does that count?
Legalize
@Brachiator:
Seriously. Real reporters should be suspicious, at best, of the powers-that-be. Can anyone imagine David Gregory or Chuck Todd ever taking on the established power in any meaningful way? And Brietbart? He would be one of the guys arguing that Schorr should be tossed in Gitmo for hurting teh tr00pz or some nonsense. Schorr did eventually fly straight and become another peddler of Belt-Way-Wisdom with NPR though.
arguingwithsignposts
@Chad N Freude:
The difference being?
I honestly don’t care if a 90-year-old has earned the right. A number of times I heard him, he was rambling, slightly incoherent, and not really good radio. He had the same effect on me that Diane Rehm still has.
Which sort of brings up a larger issue here: Why are we relying on 90-year-olds to provide the highest quality analysis anyway? Where are the younger generations who can do that? Rachel Maddow obviously, but where are the others. I’d appreciate a list.
ETA: I’d add Terri Gross to that list.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Only if I wanted to destroy it.
Well, there’s Priest. And a lot of small papers serve as the last refuge of that endangered species Reportus Investigatus.
stuckinred
@arguingwithsignposts: If it’s such a bummer why not turn the dial?
Chad N Freude
@kommrade reproductive vigor: The Los Angeles Times is still doing good investigative journalism, although the Tribune Company seems to be hell-bent on putting a stop to it through forced attrition.
arguingwithsignposts
@stuckinred:
Turn it where?
I’m not saying I disagreed with what he was saying. But don’t call it reporting.
Even though we hate on NPR a lot around here, it’s still 10x better than any other local shite talk radio you can pick up on a long drive.
stuckinred
@arguingwithsignposts: Left or right I guess. Sounds like NPR is a lot like the prez huh?
TuiMel
RIP Daniel Schorr.
Brachiator
@arguingwithsignposts:
Churchill was British, son of Lord Randolph Churchill, and a descendant of the Dukes of Marlborough. He was expected to use his connections, which was the only realistic way of getting ahead. It’s just lucky for all involved that he wasn’t a useless ponce.
@Legalize:
After his long, productive career, Schorr could be permitted some time as a genial elder statesman.
Gross is an interviewer, not really a journalist. She does a damn good job. But still. Along the lines of great interviewers, I would add Larry Mantle, host of the KPCC public radio prgram Air Talk. Mantle gets good guests, not just the usual suspects from a media rolodex file, asks intelligent questions, and does good follow-up. You can’t ask much more than that. Well, you can, but you rarely get it.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is someone like Charlie Rose, who gets good guests, but often can’t get out of the way of his own ego and at his worst asks a guest a question and then answers it himself. He is also just oblivious to guests who deliberately charm and flatter him to evade anything even remotely probing (this is particularly true of actors and writers).
Chad N Freude
@Brachiator: I agree about Larry Mantle. I would add Patt Morrison. She asks questions that sound like she is actually familiar with whatever the topic is and interviews both single and multiple-opposing-position interviewees. Same for Warren Olney on KCRW.
Gregory
Correcting myself: I don’t know if Schorr was wiretapped (though it wouldn’t surprise me…), but he was on Nixon’s enemies list — and learned about that fact, famously, from reading the list on the air for his reporting.
Beauzeaux
So they think the worst possible interpretation of this matter is seeming “symptomatic of an accountability-free Beltway media culture that rewards buzz-creation above all else”? That’s their worst case scenario? Seriously?
I can think of at least twenty MUCH more sinister interpretations, most of which are likely far closer to the truth.
Tony P.
That Left Turn: “Can anyone imagine picking somebody from the current crop of what we euphemistically call “journalists” and promoting them to the position of governing the country? ”
I propose a Triumvirate: Al Franken, Rachel Maddow, and Jon Stewart.
Okay, Maddow is the only current “journalist” in there, if you define “journalist” narrowly. And Franken is currently a Senator. (So what? Churchill did his time as a mere MP.) And Stewart might seem unserious — to the casual observer. And Triumvirates generally degenerate into civil war, aside from being unconstitutional.
Still and all, the main problem is not that this Triumvirate of Journalists would govern badly. It’s that half this country would prefer a Limbaugh, Beck, Palin triumvirate instead.
–TP