[A. Serwer]
Dana Milbank debates Nico Pitney on Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources. Milbank can barely bring himself to respect Pitney as a person, let alone a journalist: according to Pitney, Milbank called him a "dick" while Kurtz was promoting another segment.
I've already written about what I think of this whole matter--the White House notifying Pitney they intended to call on him in advance would have been offensive if it had been, as Milbank put it, "colluding with the administration" in order to advance their agenda. But that didn't happen, because president dodged Pitney's question of under what conditions it would recognize and Ahmadinejad victory in Iran. The point of "colluding" would have been to make the President look good--and that was neither Pitney's goal nor the ultimate outcome.
What strikes me though, is that Milbank is actually probably the least likely champion of traditional print journalism. His columns are all tone and humor, they offer very little original or significant information. Milbank is not document diving or sneaking into veterans hospitals to find mold on the walls and cockroaches taking over the building--not that he necessarily has to be, we can't all be Dana Priest. But by nature, Milbank's columns are meant more to be entertaining than informative, they draw on reporting from his colleagues at the Washington Post, and they're 90% snark. The only thing that really separates Milbank from the stereotypical blogger is that he writes for the Washington Post and he wears a suit. I think that's actually what bothers him the most about Pitney in particular and bloggers in general. I'm not of the opinion that bloggers make old school shoe-leather reporters obsolete. Not by a long shot. But someone like Milbank? He's a rotary phone. And I think he knows it.
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As I have said many places across the blogosphere, the "tell" for Milbank as well as Mark Knoller and other traditionl media folks who wrote articles criticizing President Obama calling on Nico Pitney was that not one of the articles included the text of Nico's question. Even yesterday on CNN they never got around to giving the text of the question either yet Milbank had to conceed that it was a "legitimate" question when Kurtz pressed him on it. The truth is that if any of those cats had included the text of the question in their criticisms they knew that everyone would have dismissed them as the whiny jackasses that they were being about all of this because of how tough of a question it was. I went back and watched the presser again and I can tell you that President Obama didn't dodge any other question asked in the blatant fashion in which he dodged Nico's. And thats why Milbank should have avoided the appearance altogether because all he did was make himself look worse IMHO. Especially when he called Nico a "dick" as soon as the segment was over.
Of course they didn't include the text of the question. It's quite clear that the Washington press corps doesn't care about substance, it cares about theater. They couldn't care less what the question (or the response) was.
My parents had a book written by Pierre Salinger recounting his days as the Press Secretary for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. One of the things he wrote about was how much the the print journalists hated the fact that Kennedy allowed tv cameras in his weekly press conferences, and how they resented and belittled tv journalists in general.
So I guess nothing has really changed.
What I found sad in the interview is that no one gave Pitney credit for having possibly the best coverage of the Iranian crisis of ALL news outlets. Which would clearly lead to getting acknowledged by the President in the presser. Nico couldn't give that to himself, but it really was incumbent on Kurtz to elevate Pitney a notch above "a HuffPo blogger". The 'lemme tell you something about REAL journalism' attitude from Milbank becomes a thousand times more infuriating with this juxtaposition. That said, Pitney should have saved the bathing suit slam for a rebuttal, rather than opening with it.
Milbank is "a rotary phone" LOL.
Also, Jeff Gannon is the 800 pound gorilla prostitute in the room here. It's revenge for that embarrassment.
I think a lot this stems from the belief that bloggers, et al haven't "paid their dues". Columnists like Milbank see the writing on the wall, or the web as the case may be, that the MSM and the newsprint (dead tree media) is going the way of the dinosaurs. Sullivan made an astute observation - that there seems to be this "thin blue line" within the MSM that seems to go out of their way to avoid criticizing each other. It's sort of a bastardized version of what professional athletes do (or used to do); never say anything about another athlete that could impinge upon his ability to feed his family or handle his responsibilities. So in this case, Milbank lashes out and calls him a dick for Nico basically pantsing him on national TV by calling him out as a war cheerleader and gossip columnist.
Yeah. Dana Milbank. He’s like the poor man’s Maureen Dowd. The sort of guy who seems to design his columns based on what he thinks might sound good coming out of Keith Olbermann’s mouth. He lives to be cited on cable news, and clearly enjoys every moment of television time he can get. He’s a goofball with zero journalistic credibility.
Funny part is, he left Olbermann's show. I think he didn't want to get the perception of being too liberal or something; he certainly didn't want to be a part of the rise of liberal journalism. I think he's just an old media egotist.
Actually, Olbermann banned him. I think it was in the comments on Balloon Juice yesterday.
Ah ok, I remember Milbank arguing something ridiculous and anti-Obama in WaPo, and then he seemed to be gone very quickly after. I don't like the fact that Olbermann doesn't actually ask questions of his guests, I assumed Milbank had a problem with that, but I guess not. Anyway, good riddance.
Oh. I haven't watched any Olbermann since before the election, and couldn't really bear to watch it then. It seemed like Richard Wolffe was his new guy, right?
Pretty much. I have to say the SNL parody had it pretty much dead-on.
I am only aware of Dana Milbank because of this whole episode with Nico Pitney (and only aware of Nico Pitney because of his great work keeping up with events as they've unfolded in Iran at the Huffington Post) but, man, that Dana Milbank seems like a douchebag. And what's going on at the Washington Post these days? It's like Douchebag Central over there.
Well, it's not like I'll ever actually pay for a copy of the Washington Post so what do I care. But Nico Pitney has been doing good work and the circumstances surrounding his being picked to ask a question at the press conference are obviously no big deal.
Pitney and Sullivan led on the most important story in the world almost a week before the rest of not only mainstream media but the blogosphere caught up. Interesting that Millbank did not call Sullivan out as well. The same thing has been true throughout on torture coverage--Empty Wheel at Firedog. No doubt there are charlatans in the blogosphere; Pitney on Iran was not one of them.
Pitney and Sullivan are pioneering something huge. It will go down with Murrow in the Blitz and Rather in Vietnam. They may not get every minute of the work exactly right, but they're reshaping a bit of the planet.
Still, I'd be happy for Pitney ignore Millbank and anyone else in the MSM who want to whine. My favorite Coates sentence ever applies: "Time spent worrying about some fools who you can't control, is time away from improving your chosen craft."
Millbank's supposed take down of Pitney is amazingly stupid, but I agree with Millbank that Pitney was acting like a dick for attacking him in the way that he did.
I would agree that opening with ad hominem was unnecessary and probably counterproductive but my guess is that Pitney had a lot of anger built up against Milbank and his ilk and wanted to get a chance to express his contempt before the debate got away from him. I will admit that I enjoyed watching a member of our petty and venal press - and Milbank might be the poster boy - being called out for their utter vapidity even if it was a bit off topic. On the other hand, perhaps Pitney might have done better by focusing on the central issue that this whole scenario was about both the President and Pitney trying to include Iranian perspectives in a discussion of Iran. He made it personal, which was fun for me because I have no sympathy at all for the Milbanks of the world, but it might not have been especially helpful to the larger debate.
DWEEB is the word that comes way to readily in mind when I hear the name Dana Milbank. Dweebs don't respect creative force, intellectualism or the spirit of justice. Dweebs seem to have something perpetually stuck behind them so they are disabled from being able to walk the proverbial straight and narrow pathway to righteousness.
Nico Pitney has had my respect since i started reading Huff Post. The man knows what he is talking about. That he is also articulate,as well as a voice to be reckoned with, whom Obama greatly respects, must just grate on Milbank and all those stuffy print journalists or politicos who not only don't understand change, (as in the evolution of journalism we have been witnessing this past year with myriad newspaper closures), but fear it immensely, personally.
DWEEB is the word that comes way to readily in mind when I hear the name Dana Milbank. Dweebs don't respect creative force, intellectualism or the spirit of justice. Dweebs seem to have something perpetually stuck behind them so they are disabled from being able to walk the proverbial straight and narrow pathway to righteousness.
Nico Pitney has had my respect since i started reading Huff Post. The man knows what he is talking about. That he is also articulate,as well as a voice to be reckoned with, whom Obama greatly respects, must just grate on Milbank and all those stuffy print journalists or politicos who not only don't understand change, (as in the evolution of journalism we have been witnessing this past year with myriad newspaper closures), but fear it immensely, personally.
A tangential post script for anyone interested: this link provided in Juan Cole's blog to a good and rather detailed summary of Iran's presidential politics leading into this election and the immediate aftermath: http://www.merip.org/mero/mero062809.html.
Dana Milkdud Milbank? Softballer Milbank...Please...spare me the faux-rage. Nico has been on FIIIIYAH. And the last part about the "democrat operative" bullshit...apparently, doing actual grunt work reporting and not mailing it in like CrapHammer et al every other week...is now considered "democrat"...go ahead and call him a fucking marxist and get it over with. His work and Sully's work should be lauded. They match up with any of my persian sources of information.
They do this for real...Milbank's a fucking joke, get real...the ass has gotten me more upset than the actual events in iran....fuck him.
I remember keith's comments on Milbank's leaving. Milbank took an exclusive deal over at CNN and left Keith High and Dry during the election. One night he was Keith's nightly goto guy and the next he was dissing Milbanks as a tool for taking the money and the doublecross.