CNN politics editor at large Chris Cillizza took part in a Reddit AMA where he was promptly ridiculed by Redditors and journalists alike.
Cillizza posted to the /r/AMA (Ask Me Anything) subreddit Tuesday, saying, “Hi everyone, I’m Chris Cillizza, editor at large for CNN Politics. I haven’t been here long – but I’ve been covering politics forever, mostly at The Washington Post and before that at Roll Call. At the Post, I started their politics blog, The Fix, which they still use. Here at CNN, we recently launched The Point with Chris Cillizza, a multiplatform brand that helps you cut through the crap. Check it out here. I like the Internet and I like politics. I also like pro wrestling. And Dawson’s Creek. And the Washington Nationals.”
Almost immediately Cillizza was criticized by Reddit users and journalists that appeared in the AMA to ask Cillizza some of their own questions. As a result, the AMA was locked by Reddit moderators after approximately 4 hours of questions and less than 500 upvotes. Many of the questions were deleted by Reddit moderators but luckily could be recovered using the Reddit archiving tool Ceddit.
Fusion staff writer Libby Watson chimed in at one point, asking Cillizza, “Why do you think so many other journalists think you suck?”
This question was initially deleted by Reddit admins, but Cillizza replied:
Critics immediately piled on Cillizza for this reply with many comments being deleted by moderators:
Ashley Feinberg of WIRED magazine also commented on the AMA, asking, “how could you possibly thought that this would be a good idea?”
Cillizza replied to Feinberg saying that he was “good with people having different opinions about me and my journalism”:
One of the top replies to this comment was a reference to the narration in the TV series Arrested Development:
One user asked Cillizza a question about possible voter suppression in the 2016 election. Cillizza decided instead to claim there is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud and link to a CNN article on the topic, which he was derided for by Reddit users:
Some of the deleted replies to this comment read:
One of the final replies in Cillizza’s AMA related to his first experience in journalism, working as an intern for George Will and later Charlie Cook. According to Cillizza, the best part of these internships was getting access to seats for Orioles games and house sitting for Will who allegedly had a pool. One user quickly pointed out a major issue with this reply:
The full uncensored AMA can be found here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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