Well, “Be an Asshole, All the Time” Is a Kind of Journalistic Philosophy
Jesus Christ, what a pathetic operation Tucker Carlson is running.* (Bonus hackery: the heckler in question in an anti-vaccination crank.)
*Since I’ve used it multiple times, I should explain the extremely obscure and oddly appropriate reference. From The Baseball Book 1990, preceded by earlier content about the team for context:
The Indians’ moves this winter seem somehow uniquely pathetic; I can’t quite say why, but I wince in sympathy when I hear each one announced…the signing of John McNamara as manager, the signing of Maldonado and Guante, the acquisition of Mitch Webster. Tired blood for an anemic offense; Hank Peters is reliving his youth. For Christ’s sake, if you want players like this, just wait until the end of spring training, and other teams will cut them loose.
[...]
Playing for Cleveland, [Maldonado] is certain to recover to some extent, but then what? He is, like the acquisitions of Keith Hernandez, Dion James, Chris James, and John McNamara, utterly irrelevant to any eventual success that the team might have. He is, if he plays well, a holding action, a nothing occupying time and space. I mean, I know there is a lot of respect for Hank Peters throughout baseball, but Jesus Christ what a pathetic operation he is running…
Except for the fact that the Daily Tucker doesn’t really have fans, it’s a perfect fit. “I chuckle grimly when each move is announced — trying to create a scandal out of the fact that liberal journalists also express liberal political opinions in private, publishing an article called “What Are Women For?” that intends to be taken seriously, publishing an article about how the army should draft lesbians and convert them to heterosexuality, hiring Mickey Kaus to be a blogger…” I especially like the phrase “a nothing occupying time and space”; that should be on the Daily Tucker’s masthead.
But he was only asking those tough questions the Lame Stream Media are too timid to ask. You know, things like “Why do you hate America?”, and “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
Thinking back, I can’t remember a reporter ever interrupting a sheriff making a statement. This isn’t about respect to the president, this isn’t even about respecting an elected official. This is about showing the slightest modicum of respect to someone while they’re speaking.
You lie!
Well, in Peter’s defense, Chris James was a throw in in the Joe Carter trade, which also got them Sandy Alomar and Carlos Baerga. But yeah, the rest of that was mystifying at the time, and unexcusable. Like moving back the fences because Alex Cole was going to revolutionize baseball with smallball, you know he hit .300 with no power in 60 games as a rookie, let’s build a team around him!
But still not as unexcusable as Tucker Carlson.
The Doily Fucker is where the folks who cannot meet Breitbart’s and PJ Media’s standards go.
Tucker Carlson has seen Andrew Breitbart’s acclaim and financial success and desires to emulate Breitbart in every way but one.
Like Jonas, I have to come to Peters’ defense. His primary job was to establish sufficient credibility to get a tax passed to finance a new stadium and to rebuild an almost non-existent minor league system.
And then two years later, Bill James wrote that essay about how free agency meant the Indians would never contend again – just as Belle, Ramirez, and Thome were making their way to the majors. So Carlson’s master plan is proceeding apace, clearly.
Yes, that was one of James’s least prescient moments.
The whole thing is pretty surreal but the asshole “reporter”‘s Irish accent makes it seem like something out of a David Foster Wallace story.
Go read anything by ratfucker Sean Medlock, aka Jim Treacher, to see the high standards for which the caller is known.
This was a disgusting act of rudeness…
The breaking of social code as tribal marker is as old as time, but for the life of me, I cannot figure if the breaking is more analogous to the broken governance of the 1850′s or the broken governance of the late Republic, pre-Marius and Sulla.
Given that Munro is an immigrant, surely we can say with Broder, as reported by the doubtless reliable Quinn, that “He came in here and he trashed the place, and it’s not his place.”