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THE RELUCTANT REPORTING OF FLUFF.
Last night Barack Obama said something he shouldn't have said last night during his appearance on Jay Leno's new show. He made a joke about his bowling score being like "the special olympics," which is pretty offensive.
The same reporters who were wringing their hands all week about whether the president was "doing too much," (two wars and an economic crisis and all that) are reluctantly hyping the president's comments. Jake Tapper writes on his Twitter feed:
Breaking- PrezObama on Leno jokes about being a bad bowler- says it's "like the Special Olympics or something"
Tapper got his Drudge Link, and several hours later he was still preoccupied with the joke:
Am trying to imagine the reaction if President Bush joked that his bowling skills recalled the Special Olympics. 3 am- we just landed in dc
This morning, Tapper was dreading the hypocrisy ahead:
Preparing for day of hypocrisy: conservs who would normally defend the SpecOlymp joke acting offended, liberals saying lighten up. Sigh
Funny, I was thinking the same thing about press who moments ago believed the president had "too much on his plate" now deciding that the country should spend a whole day talking about an offensive joke.
In any case, you should know that Tapper's really disappointed about his 9 PM blog post getting picked up by Drudge, possibly driving the day and leading to all this "hypocrisy" when we have two wars and an economic crisis to deal with. That's the last thing Tapper wanted when he hyped this "breaking" news last night.
-- A. Serwer
COMMENTS (17)
Not that it matters, but Tapper also got the joke sort of wrong - Obama was not comparing his athletic performance to the Special Olympics, he was comparing Leno's patronizing reaction to the the "everyone's a winner!" feel of the Special Olympics. Still stupid! Still offensive! But Tapper sexed up the gaffe, like he always does.
Posted by: Dave Weigel | March 20, 2009 9:37 AM
These Drudge-fellating "journalists" are dirt, as bad as the filth on Wall Street. The sooner their employers go out of business and they're reduced to asking "Do you want fries with that?", the better.
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | March 20, 2009 9:39 AM
Snore
Posted by: Noam Sane | March 20, 2009 9:44 AM
So let me see, that means that TAPPED is engaging in the reluctant reporting of the reluctant reporting of fluff, right? I love posts where the author can't feign interest in the story so he feigns interest in the story about the story. Boring.
Posted by: Rob | March 20, 2009 9:47 AM
Where is weboy when you need em?
Posted by: red | March 20, 2009 10:38 AM
My younger brother is mentally retarded and has participated in Special Olympics. Personally, I am more offended by the routine use of "retarded" as a pejorative than by Obama's self-deprecation of his bowling skill. I would rather have my brother stereotyped as a bad bowler (which he is in real life) than have him deal with the all-around stigmatization he gets now.
Posted by: jonp72 | March 20, 2009 11:06 AM
I used to respect Tapper during his days at Salon, he was great on the Florida recount, but at ABC he has turned into a typical Media Whore angling for a Drudge link whenever possible.
I guess he went with, "Screw journalistic integrity when there is money to be made!"
Posted by: The Other Ed | March 20, 2009 11:37 AM
Sad and predictable. The President makes a classless remark about the disabled, and you attack a journalist who reported it. Exactly what Tapper predicted. Nice work being so intellectually dishonest.
Posted by: Mike Brim | March 20, 2009 11:55 AM
Intellectual dishonest would be to claim Tapper was "reporting" what took place on national teevee by "twittering" (which would be closer to gossiping).
Posted by: red | March 20, 2009 12:46 PM
"Personally, I am more offended by the routine use of "retarded" as a pejorative than by Obama's self-deprecation of his bowling skill."
jonp72 that always angers me too. As does calling someone "gay" because they do something silly or stupid.
Posted by: Symphony | March 20, 2009 6:36 PM
Tapper is not a journalist...he just plays one on TV. And poorly, at that!
Posted by: peace | March 20, 2009 7:42 PM
I think that Tapper is probably the worst of the worst. There is the whole crew though--Tapper, Scherer, Gregory, Chuck Todd, Ed Henry, John King, and the rest of the nitwits. I call them the cicadas. Like the bugs that show up every 17 years, but in this case these bugs show up every Democratic administration and go away for every Republican administration. They all basically slept for eight years, but now they are clicking their heels (like teenagers going to the prom) and ready to go because the culture of vapidity and stupidity is back--watch them jump on every statement and every faux scandal. We slow walked to dictatorship and nary a peep, but now we will have xxxxxgate everyday.
Posted by: poopsybythebay | March 20, 2009 8:34 PM
It isn't just the Drudge-whoring, it seems that only hardcore Bushies keep saying "Can you imagine what would happen if Bush said/did X and Y." Is Tapper still secretly a Bushie? I think so! He certainly sucked up to him at the time, and was very reverent towards him and big Dick.
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