On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that The Washington Post suspending Dave Weigel over a retweeted joke “effectively captures what’s wrong with today’s journalism” and stated that “All this time blubber-tweeting over a retweet begs the question, don’t you have anything better to do? Aren’t you supposed to be reporters digging up stuff? Are there no more vital issues going on in America right now?”
Maher stated, “If someone knows of a story that more effectively captures what’s wrong with today’s journalism than the sad saga of what happened last week at The Washington Post, they need to keep it to themselves. Because it would be too depressing.”
After recapping the story, Maher said, “The fact that The Post’s initial response was to punish, not Felicia, but one of their best reporters for a silly joke shows that the kindergarten is already in charge. Today, June 17, is the 50th anniversary of a very seminal event in American history. On this day in 1972, the Watergate break-in happened, and over the next two years, The Washington Post gave the world a masterclass in investigative journalism. I have to wonder how The Post’s newsroom of today would handle that story or how they’re currently handling any story. All this time blubber-tweeting over a retweet begs the question, don’t you have anything better to do? Aren’t you supposed to be reporters digging up stuff? Are there no more vital issues going on in America right now? This is why you’re not in charge. Because if someone named ‘Deep Throat’ called the paper today and wanted to meet in a parking garage, this crew of emotional hemophiliacs would have an anxiety attack and report it to HR that they didn’t feel safe.”
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