Good morning! Let’s start the day with a look at the ol’ POLITICO top stories e-mail… oh dear sweet jesus god.
If you thought POLITICO wouldn’t create a new major section of its website just for coverage of an annual banquet for local reporters, THEN YOU JUST DON’T GET IT.
No that’s an actual headline. “Correspondents want to ‘give back.’” It is truly the greatest form of altruism, to join the board of a local trade association.
CNN’s Ed Henry began shooting his stand-ups in front of the White House in 2006. And he ran for the board’s TV seat a year later. “I wanted to give something back, not just show up and punch the clock,” he said.
Henry jokes that, like a good politician, he listens to his constituents. He’s fought the White House press office for more access, questioning a recent decision to bar cameras from a critical foreign policy meeting.
But he also succeeded in replacing the microwave — which had stains dating back to the first Bush administration — in the press break room. As chairman of the microwave subcommittee, Henry navigated the perplexing process of ordering a new appliance through the General Services Administration and getting it through White House security. “Nothing is easy in government,” he said.
That’s it, we’re joining Al Qaeda.
[POLITICO]
{ 33 comments }
…reporters, reporting about reporters? Shouldn’t that tear a hole in the space time continuum or something?!
A banquet? How many sugar packets do you have to steal from the soup kitchen to afford a banquet?
As chairman of the microwave subcommittee …
That’s it! I officially no longer work for the worst organization on earth.
Smooth move there, picking a host who’s made himself the most hated man in show business last year. But then the single time the host made it so that the correspondent’s dinner was actually relevant, they apologized for it, so being this out of touch is just par for the course (as it is with all their actual news reports).
He solved the pressroom microwave problem?
FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! …
This is nothing, Jim. Wait until you see the Al-Jazeera correspondents’ dinner
How about some hard news here. Like how many desserts K-Lo can fit in her purse. Will she wander around the whole room asking people “Are you going to finish that?” or just keep it to the people at her own table.
The public has a right to know!!
Also.
Wow — there’s so much to despise, I hardly know where to begin. Anyway, Medal of Freedom for Ed Henry and for whoever finally got 2-ply tp in the bathrooms.
Oh and the great thing about having Jay Leno do stand-up at your dinner — if you didn’t catch the punchline because you were chewing or talking to the attractive reporter next to you — you can just wait a moment, because he always tells them twice so you know when to laugh. That’s how edgy Jay Leno is. Because he’s edgy, right? See, like that.
Anyway, these things always remind me of video of Filipino or Vietnamese dinner guests doing “My Way” in whatever they called karaoke before they called it karaoke — a quaint last-days-of-the-old-regime obliviousness that makes me want to put on a helmet and flak jacket because it’s a sign that the peasant army isn’t far from the gates.
What is this event they’re talking about? Is it time for the special olympics again?
This is like being able to give yourself a blowjob. Eventually it must get kind of lonely.
[re=567695]SayItWithWookies[/re]: There really is an insane amount of material to tackle here. For example. In the Leno story, Harris actually writes this: “Popular, profitable, predictable: Leno is the McDonald’s of humor.”
Fucking self-important fucks. And Jay Leno is not funny. Also.
Today we are all pressing our noses against the glass, envying the cool kids and their special party that we’re not invited to.
They can order a microwave, so they must know everything.
It’s like a Sadie Hawkin’s Day dance where all the ugly girls (reporters) get to invite hot jocks (celebrities) and they aren’t allowed to say no.
Reading Politico has officially replaced waterboarding as America’s favorite torture method.
Also, I was saving this for a Newell post– did you all know there was a company called Newell-Rubbermaid???
The only time this shindig ever mattered, was when Colbert was invited.
It’s got to be ironic.Got to be! Look at those scare-quotes on “give back.”
Or else we’re all fucked, the government can do whatever it wants and these assholes will suck its dick for the sweet, sweet milk of access, until the People’s Army launches its amphibious assault across the Bering Strait.
[re=567697]x111e7thst[/re]: I’d never leave the house.
I can think of better ways to start the day, like with a quart of gin, suicidal ideation, and a loaded gun.
[re=567700]freakishlystrong[/re]: “And Jay Leno is not funny.”
I thought it was just me…
Leno?
Rodney Dangerfield would have been much better.
I’m unclear as to what they’re giving back. The wasted minutes of my life I spent reading their dribble?
For each reporter who wants to “give back” there’s another who wants to “give head.”
But Jim, we need to know one thing: were you & Liz able to get tickets?
[re=567699]Jim Newell[/re]: If it’s any consolation, this thing has two of the funniest political jokes I’ve seen in a while. Although it looks like the authors (they needed tow people to write this?) just stopped writing in the middle of the piece to cover something more slatheringly bootlicking.
Anyway, I don’t envy your job of picking out the most loathesome tidbits for derision.
“…glitziest of all galas”? The people journos should be hardest on show up to be idealized and worshipped by them. Politicians & journalists need each other and have pretty much the same ethical standards.
[re=567699]Jim Newell[/re]: Don’t work too hard on that. In two weeks time some former risk arbatrage manager will be in your job, and you’ll be reduced to Twittering from the back room of the Apple Store, during pre-designated break time.
[re=567699]Jim Newell[/re]: “Popular, profitable, predictable: Leno is the McDonald’s of humor.”
Is that why his show at 10 pm was so wildly successful?
[re=567695]SayItWithWookies[/re]: That vision of ‘the last days’ was absolutely poetic.
The journalistic equivalent of a circle jerk…
These guys better start doing their jobs or risk being replaced by unappreciated, high-octane wall street wealth creators.
Jay Leno??? They couldn’t get Rich Little?
[re=567680]AngryBlakGuy[/re]: At this point, reporters simply reporting would be enough to wormhole the shit outta DC like it was Donnie Darko on downers.
Comments on this entry are closed.