RIP: 'Mouthpiece Theater,' 2009-2009

Man, the top brass at the Washington Post are killing the everlasting shit out of Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza's horrific web gag  "Mouthpiece Theater," and not very discreetly! Both Cillizzaandin-house arbiter of all that is true and fair in media, Howard Kurtz, have written long pieces about this Internet "experiment" gone bad, badder, and ultimately bad enough that Washingtonpost.com began choking to death on this ball-gag of experimental video-journalism.

Cillizza, to his credit, apologizes for making such shitty, offensive videos over the last few weeks. He admits that even his wife started hating him, and that's no good. There are many, many more mainstream political reporter/pundits out there worse than Chris Cillizza, who seems like a nice enough guy and has produced plenty of valuable items for Wonkette to steal over the years. So we're glad that he's leaving Dana Milbank's deadly sphere of influence now, before it's too late.

Still, ha ha, no less a figure than thePost's executive editor publicly shames Milbank and Cillizza in Howard Kurtz's obituary of record:  

The Clinton joke, Cillizza said, "was inappropriate, over the line and highlighted the broader problems with the show. I'm personally apologizing on The Fix. It's not consistent with the Post brand, but more important to me, it's not consistent with the Fix brand I've worked to cultivate -- insider, straight-dope journalism that tries to shoot down the middle."

Brauchli called the Clinton joke "a serious lapse. . . . It's really beneath us and not something we should engage in."

In a letter to Brauchli on Tuesday that was signed by 32 women, the organization Women, Action and the Media demanded an explanation for what it called "the video's patently sexist -- and otherwise tasteless -- content," which the writers said displayed "misogyny" and "utter contempt for women" as well as racial insensitivity.

Although the scripts for "Mouthpiece Theater" were approved by editors, Milbank and Cillizza often ad-libbed parts of it, as was the case with the inclusion of Clinton's photo. "We did not have an effective system for vetting videos and other multimedia content," Brauchli said, insisting that will change. He said the paper will keep experimenting with new media but that "we need to hold ourselves to our standards to deliver that."

Uh oh... PUMAs? Was it all 32 PUMA ladies who got it canceled??

...Bring it back!

 Washington Post Kills 'Mouthpiece' Video Series [WP]

 A Word on Mouthpiece Theater [WP/The Fix]