DISQUS

Deacon_Blues · 7 months ago

Impeach the media! No, seriously. The Washington Post building needs to be razed, the ground sowed with salt, and all reporters and editors (and their wives and children) need to be sent to Guantanamo.

But I'll settle for the new media sending them all into bankruptcy.

Judas Peckerwood · 7 months ago

Hear! Hear! The sooner these corrupt dinosaurs die off, the better. They are a disgrace to the once-noble concept of journalism.

The late, great Molly Ivins had it right when she said "I don't so much mind that newspapers are dying -- it's watching them commit suicide that pisses me off."

b.g. · 7 months ago

all reporters and editors (and their wives and children)

Because, of course, all the reporters and editors are male.

Deacon_Blues · 7 months ago

You are correct, of course. "All significant others and their children"; my bad.

SouthernYankee · 7 months ago

Nico should have told him to look in a mirror if he wanted to see a dick. Its about time that blogger journalist who do outstanding work like Nico should be in the press room at the white house. Newspaper reporters are scared to death because bloggers don't have to answer to corporation and can get the news out without any interference from corporations.

naschkatzehussein · 7 months ago

I think "dick" has too much of a macho ring to it for Dana Milbank.

Butch1 · 7 months ago

I always thought of Dana Milbank as a putz. ;-)

bigtimepatriot · 7 months ago

"The Villagers would rather talk about Nico's question instead of doing real reporting. No wonder old journalism is tanking."

Did you really write this sentence with a straight face at the bottom of a post that had NO news content or analysis at all other than bitching about a reporters REACTION to Nico's quesiton?

If you are going to go all meta about the reaction to a question based on the media identity positioning of the reactor and the questioner, instead of discussing perhaps, I don't know, Iran, the economy, etc., don't expect to be REPLACING the old media. Apparently all we might get is no media and just a bunch of whining instead.

cowboyneok · 7 months ago

"NO news content." Oh really???!!!

I guess YOU might be the authority on that?

It IS news content to focus in on how the media isn't doing their damned job. The Fourth Estate is dead.

bigtimepatriot · 7 months ago

"The Villagers would rather talk about Nico's question instead of doing real reporting. " -Mr. Sudbay

"It IS news content to focus in on how the media isn't doing their damned job." - cowboyneok

Sounds like the argument is between you and Mr. Sudbay, not between me and you. If you think reporting about reporting IS news, you disagree with the sentence I quoted from Mr. Sudbay. I'll just get out of the way and let you argue directly with the premise of Mr. Sudbay's statement.

cowboyneok · 7 months ago

The entire premise of "Reliable Sources" is a critique of reporting. The featured debate is between old media and new media. Its obvious Dana Milbank wants to protect his turf by criticizing Nico Pitney's journalism.

Recently, I've noticed the most interesting and valid questions are the ones being asked by new media. For instance, "Wonkette" founder Ana Marie Cox is a great example of new media asking questions about Don't Ask Don't Tell and gay rights that would just go unasked by "The Villagers." I think its obvious who asks uncomfortable questions and who just plays along, and its not "The Villagers" asking the stuff the American people want to know. If you decide to concentrate on and pull that ONE sentence out of Joe's entire post to prove your point, "out of context" comes to mind. If I read that sentence by itself, and totally forget what Joe had written previous to it, I see your point but the entire POST is about the relevancy of new media versus the old media. I still think a Dana Milbank whispering to an internet journalist he is "a dick" on a show about reporting most definitely is worth a read because it shows the aggressive conflict between the old and new.

cole3244 · 7 months ago

howie may or may not have heard the comment, if he did he wouldn't admit to it, he would protect one of his ilk in the con media to be sure, talking heads of a feather don't you know.

cowboyneok · 7 months ago

and frankly if it weren't for the blogosphere, we'd never hear word of one of the "elite media insiders" calling Nico "a dick."

Thank G-d for the internet! Exposing the puppets for who they are... one pompous sellout at a time.

naschkatzehussein · 7 months ago

I've been reading Nico's running commentary on the HuffPo, and I suppose they don't give out Pulitizers to bloggers, but he sure deserves one. There is no one in the printed media or on tv who has come close.

Chris From Maine · 7 months ago

The old school media is watching itself collapse and die off, and cant stand the new media's dominance.

Milbank is the one who is a dick, with his nose in the air in the presence of people he thinks are "beneath" him.

Nico Pitney has done a FANTASTIC job covering the Iran protests, 500x better then any "traditional" media could have ever done.

crackbaby · 7 months ago

A couple of years ago, I was teaching at a big midwestern university and when I asked the students what program of study they were enrolled in, one of them responded that she was now majoring in journalism because "science was too hard".

That seems to be the case with today's elite class (as well as the non-elite and class-less) of "journalists". Sure there are a few out there who really know their subject but the majority don't know shit from sherlock.

I'll never forget Dan Harris' idiotic yellow journalism on dioxin for the insipid National (re)Public(an) Radio back in the 90s. Nor can one ignore the ongoing stream of prattle that is vomited on the airwaves every day by the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc. etc. And we should certainly remember how the rush to war with Iraq in the early 2000s was cheerleaded by the newsmodels on nearly every major media outlet for years.

So when that blow-up doll of a man, Dana Milbank, shrieks that Nico Pitney is a "dick" we should all keep in mind Milbank's lack of that...um...organ, if you will, so to speak.

Poor, poor, Dana.

Butch1 · 7 months ago

I was happy MSMBC and Dana had a parting of the ways. His catty comments and lazy journalism should have demoted him to a Gossip Columnist instead of a real reporter. Nico, has done a superlative job at reporting and journalism and makes the MSM envious of the way it should be done.

JustAnOldLady · 7 months ago

I saw the encounter and thought Nico was so "professional" while Dana was so "juvenile"...

Butch1 · 7 months ago

It was interesting to me that the information Dana had in his little file was only what he thought were "got-ya" moments and nothing substantial about the subject. He is a putz for trying to discredit Nico in that manner.

Butch1 · 7 months ago

Amazing that the republicans need two people to go after one democrat. It is also obvious the so called "journalist-reporters" are jealous of bloggers.

AnnieR · 7 months ago

Milbank used to be a regular on Keith Olbermann's show until he wrote an article in the Washington Post taking a comment Obama made out of context. When given the opportunity to take it back, he would not. He lost the gig on MSNBC and suddenly appeared on CNN. I e-mailed CNN, telling them what he did, and apparently it's not an issue for them. Huffington Post has the story about the article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/30/iwashi...

It's obvious Milbank, not Nico, is the dick.

Ed_Tracey · 7 months ago

There was a time when Dana Milbank (although way too snarky) seemed to get it. He concluded this 2008 essay:

“It must have been very difficult being Doug Feith: correct all the time, and surrounded by idiots.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

But then, he seemed to join The Villagers .. and has gone downhill ever since.

caphillprof · 7 months ago

I'm thinking the WaPo's days are numbered.

Nylund · 7 months ago

But Nico implied that Dana's hard-hitting work on Obama's swimsuit wasn't real journalism! Have you seen his send-off of masterpiece theatre? These are the hard-hitting stories that change the nation.

How dare that uppity interweb guy get all high and mighty! Doesn't he know that Dana is a member of the Skulls 'n Bones?

SkippyFlipjack · 7 months ago

Just watched the video. Milbank's right, Nico was kind of a dick. But so was Dana. Nico started out by briefly explaining his take on the press conference question, and then snarkily brought up Milbank's questions last year about Obama in a bathing suit and called them pathetic. Milbank of course came complete with notecards detailing Nico's history, so he was on the attack as well. But I can't see getting up in arms about Milbank's little expletive.

davidinchelseama · 7 months ago

Cowboyneok wrote: "I think its obvious who asks uncomfortable questions and who just plays along, and its not "The Villagers" asking the stuff the American people want to know."

Thanks for crystallizing the situation perfectly.

obamacrat · 7 months ago

The MSM had been complaining about how blog reporting really relies on them and if they go down the tubes so does journalism. I think what the news coming out of Iran showed is that that may not be the case. They claim they are essential. Recent events in Iran, which they were shut out of, kind of demonstrated that they are not. Ergo, they are pissed.

run_dmc · 7 months ago

I don't know Dana Milbank and I can't name-drop like you about Nico Pitney either. I only know what Nico did at the Obama presser - and it sure wasn't journalism. Nico may not be a "dick," but he is the new Jeff Gannon of the Obama WH. Asking pre-selected questions that the president knows before hand and agreeing to be a pre-selected questioner is pretty whorish, if not dick-ish, but it's not professional. I guess since you "know Nico," that's something that'd be too hard for you to admit, being all chummy and everything.