The Battle

Mediaite White House Correspondent Tommy Christopher and Breitbart.com editor Dana Loesch started the weekend off right by waging a “You lie! No, you lie!” Twitter war on Friday.

Twitchy.com, a right-leaning site, has the argument played out in full but it’s a complete fustercluck (a word introduced to us recently by the Washington Examiner‘s Kytja Weir) we can barely follow.

The gist: Loesch sent out tweets analyzing the politics of GOP hopeful Mitt Romney‘s repudiation of anti-Obama groups attempting to make Rev. Jeremiah Wright an issue in this election. The blog Little Green Footballs picked up the tweets and suggested Loesch or her Breitbart colleagues were in cahoots with the Romney campaign and attended a “secret meeting.” Loesch  anticipated Christopher would do a writeup on it. He did. Like a ferocious lioness, Loesch attacked, calling Christopher a “hack.” She said Christopher implied Loesch had attended this “secret meeting” in D.C. despite the fact that she was hosting her radio program in Missouri at the time.

The feud turned unnecessarily bitchy. Christopher parsed his words to demonstrate that everything he wrote about Loesch was technically accurate and wrote up a clarification. Loesch thanked him kindly but started a snarky hashtag, #tommylogic, parodying his writing.

Playing off the idea that she could be both at a “secret meeting” and hosting her show simultaneously, Loesch then got her followers to start the hashtag #teleportingdana. Exhausted yet?

The Daily Caller‘s Mary Katherine Ham jumped in, tweeting, “I read the whole piece, Tommy. It clearly & unfairly implies she either was at the mtg…” Enter Loesch’s husband Chris, a producer on Loesch’s radio show, who valiantly defended his wife’s honor. “Love how the left simultaneously cuts down @DLoesch while giving her more powers… She can do everything! #TeleportingDana”

Without taking sides, we note how Loesch riled up her troops followers to gang up on Christopher. For that reason alone, on a scale of 1 to 10 punches, we give this fight 8.5 punches with a headlock for Christopher.

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It’s an open secret these days that some of the big boys at Politico (Alex Burns, Dylan Byers) are butting heads with Roll Call Columnist Stu Rothenberg. Rothenberg recently called Politico‘s journalism “atrocious”, but he may want to watch it on conceptually mimicking a story that the outlet he can’t stand wrote five days earlier.

On May 15 Rothenberg wrote a column with the following headline: “Is Pennsylvania In Play for November? Maybe.” Four days earlier on May 10, Charlie Mahtesian, a blogger and editor, wrote, “Is Pennsylvania a Swing State or not?” Both stories question whether Pennsylvania will seriously be in play for the presidential election.

As the battle is brewing, may we suggest a good old-fashioned Twitter fight? Or Politico can run a special live show and invite Stu on as a special guest. Politico‘s Executive Editor Jim VandeHei will moderate. Juana Summers will pipe in from Pennsylvania. It’ll be a great time.

 

The friction between Mediaite‘s White House Correspondent Tommy Christopher and The Daily Caller continued to smolder yesterday as Christopher took to his site to get in a late afternoon dig at the publication’s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson, calling it a “no-name” site. This came on the heels of The Daily Caller’s TV writer Jeff Poor dinging Christopher over the weekend for a recent story on presumed Presidential nominee Mitt Romney using what he perceived to be a racist sign against President Obama.

The feud has been brewing for sometime. On April 1 Christopher wrote a story highlighting that The Daily Caller, among other conservative publications, had “turned against Trayvon Martin.”

Late last night at approximately 2 a.m. Christopher took to Twitter to give Daily Caller reporter Alex Pappas, who once left the publication for the Washington Examiner only to return less than five months later, a piece of advice. Christopher wrote, “Your name rings a bell, I get the sense you might be a good guy. Quit that rag if you are.” Before that the exchange grew ugly after Pappas challenged Christopher’s story attacking Carlson and The Daily Caller. Christopher’s former editor Colby Hall, now at ClearChannel, jumped into the fray in his former reporter’s defense. Christopher wrote to Pappas, “Thanks for confirming your site is a race-baiting sewer. Gnite” Pappas also bid his foe a good night, saying, “Anyway, I’m not your editor. Gnite.” Christopher linked to yesterday’s FBDC story about the dust-up saying, “Bunny-boiler Jeff Poor goes after my family, after his boss Tucker Carlson begged me to let up on his psycho ‘reporter.’”

Christopher charged Monday that Poor was retweeting things that could endanger his brother and his children. Poor’s retweets concerned Christopher’s possible real name, his brother, Jesse McNulty, being a “colorful” character in Georgia and an assertion that Christopher bears a similar nose to that of NYT Exec. Dir. of Marketing Diane McNulty. Christopher also declared that whatever truce existed between he and Carlson a month earlier about The Daily Caller disclosing his real name is off.

The headline of Christopher’s column late Thursday afternoon: “Goldie Taylor Rips Tucker Carlson For Bathing In ‘Filth And Bigotry Of Fringe Right-Wing Propaganda’”

And the lede:

“During an appearance on Don Lemon‘s CNN Newsroom Sunday night, cable news commentator and social critic Goldie Taylor blasted The Daily Caller for digging up the nugget that President Obama ate dog meat as a 6 year-old, and putting it on their ‘no-name’ website.”

Update: Christopher’s story blasting The Daily Caller‘s Trayvon Martin coverage published on April 1, not yesterday afternoon as was previously reported. The above has been changed to reflect it.

Whatever truce allegedly existed between The Daily Caller and Mediaite‘s Tommy Christopher is kaput. Ill feelings toward Christopher erupted this weekend when the DC’s TV writer Jeff Poor wrote an opinion piece . The headline was, “Real Men of Genius: Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher.” The piece focused on Christopher’s latest charge that a campaign sign by Mitt Romney struck a racist tone against President Obama. The situation grew to a fevered pitch when Poor revealed Tommy’s supposed real name in a tweet: “Tommy Christopher’s real name is Thomas McNulty. Do I win a prize? His brother is kinda freaky, too.” Christopher won’t dispel the mystery. His name is also believed to be Thomas Beller.

Christopher, who wrote a series of stories against The Daily Caller regarding what he considered the publication’s racist portrayal of the Trayvon Martin case, is incensed by what he is calling Poor’s “media campaign” against his brother, Jesse McNulty, who lives in Georgia, and Christopher’s two children.

“His boss, Tucker Carlson, contacted me after the name thing started to make his site look worse than it already did, and begged me for a truce,” Christopher told FishbowlDC by email referring to the flap over Poor revealing that Christopher was writing under a pseudonym. “At first, I told him to shove it up his ass, since Jeff’s freakish obsession with me had already resulted in threats to my family, including my children. Over the course of a long conversation, I reluctantly agreed to stop pointing out how he had allowed his website to become an outlet for Jeff Poor’s Hinckley-esque vendetta. That agreement has now been broken by Mr. Poor and Mr. Carlson.”

Asked if he would consider having a beer with Carlson or Poor, Christopher replied, “If either of these assholes wants to have a beer with me, I suggest they bring extra ice.”

Poor had words in kind about Christopher. He told FishbowlDC, “Tommy hiding behind his family is disgraceful. I imagine when his son is older, he’ll be embarrassed that his father used him for cover whenever someone was critical of his ploys to whore for traffic and to get on television. Maybe he needs to consider another profession if this heat is too much for him. And for God’s sake, he needs to stop whining to my boss like he’s my father. He talks about a truce, but he doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to confront me personally about this so-called truce? I don’t email his boss Dan Abrams every time he wants to take me on for something. What is this, second grade? Grow up, Tommy.”

More from Tommy after the jump and how he doesn’t “give a rat’s ass” what Poor thinks. Also…Poor encapsulated his entire distaste for Christopher’s journalism in one sitting.

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We brought you the news yesterday of former Roll Call Features Editor and Intern Coordinator Debbie Bruno, who wrote a controversial op-ed for The Christian Science Monitor in which she recalls questionable hiring practices. She said she was told to hire interns based on race.

Roll Call Editorial Director Mike Mills shot back at her late Wednesday afternoon, saying, Bruno was “wrong” and was doing a disservice her former colleagues. (See his full quote in the link above.)

Late last night, we reached Bruno in Beijing, who had this stinging response for Mills: “I’ll give Mike Mills the benefit of the doubt that he just didn’t know about the order,” she wrote by email. “But it’s been heartwarming to hear from so many current and former Roll Callers, who don’t feel I’ve done them a disservice at all. I guess they appreciate the truth.”

But some Roll Call staffers are less than thrilled about the op-ed and are chalking Bruno’s deed up to an ex-editor trying to burn as many bridges as possible. On that note, Bruno joked over email, “And now I’m going to go get a tattoo of a burned bridge on my arm.”

Actor Alec Baldwin fell for the easiest lure in the book last night during Super Tuesday coverage — Twitter baiting. The result? He says he hates TWT. But hey, at least he didn’t call the pub or TWT senior opinion writer Emily Miller a “a thoughtless little pig” like he did his daughter back in 2007. Miller remarked to FBDC, “Alec Baldwin needed to be shut down from his baseless attack on all political reporters. Since he thinks none of us ‘really matter’, I’d like to know what this actor brings to the public discourse that is so important.” Watch out, Alec. Consider yourself baited. Again.

ALEC: “The question is: Does any of this political press really matter? Conservative, liberal, any of it? Not much, really.”

EMILY:  “But actors do?” she wrote with a simple retweet of his message.

ALEC: “@EmilyMiller God, I can’t stand the Washington Times.”

EMILY: “Lord, I can’t stand leftists,” she shot back.

When Al Gore hired Keith Olbermann to anchor his primetime line-up, he knew he was getting a bomb-thrower more than a newsman. Just how much more, he might not have known.

On Monday, Current’s Chief News Officer created an uproar when he and guest Markos Moulitsas joked about alleged rapes at Occupy Wall Street protests. This is always a dumb move. He later doubled-down on the stupid when he tweeted “No Occupy rapes, no cover-up, no apology, no retraction…” and accused BigGov’s Andrew Breitbart of creating the whole thing in an attempt to discredit the protests.

When Big Journalism Contributor Lee Stranahan complied all the rape and sexual assault stories about Occupy in one post for the world to see, you’d think that would’ve been the end of it. But Olbermann’s ego won’t allow anyone to have the last word on anything, so he “debunked” each one, one by one.

Unfortunately for Keith, the Breitbart websites are not the silent, wallflower types even if their writing is sometimes abominable.

In his “debunking,” Olbermann changed his tune from “No Occupy rapes” to “Because almost none of the allegations are of rape and most of this list are duplicated…” to “2 stories duplicated” to “Occupy MEMBERS were victims.” That’s quite a journey in just one day, especially without ever acknowledging his position completely changed.

Even still, where he ended up, that the victims and not the perpetrators were the only Occupy people involved in these rapes and sexual assaults, isn’t the truth. After Olbermann’s “debunking, Stranahan was back a few hours later with a section by section debunking of what Olbermann said. Keith then went silent, maybe to bed, maybe to play with his baseball cards, or maybe to Stuart Smalley in the mirror to calm his nerves.

On a final note, Olbermann tweeted, “Here’s a wager: @DLoesch (Editor-in-Chief of Big Journalism) and @AndrewBreitbart will NOT post the video of tonight’s debunking.” They did. No terms were offered, but here’s a wager: Olbermann won’t admit they made a fool of him.

 

Trouble is definitely brewing today between BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith and The Daily Caller. They’re usually at odds, often itching for a fight. But today is especially contentious.

Earlier today Smith received a call from The Daily Caller‘s Will Rahn. The topic concerned a story Smith wrote today about strife about Israel within the Democratic Party. Media Matters, he writes, plays a big role and has been largely at odds with Congress’s pro-Israel leadership as well as that of Obama. Headline: “Israel rift roils Democratic ranks.” Smith, who we’re told went ballistic on the Daily Caller reporter, followed up with the following tweets:

It must be Tuesday: A call from a Daily Caller reporter with a hot story on how I’m a tool of …Media Matters! Also, I think, Soros.

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

My conspiracy on behalf of Media Matters began with this devious false-flag coverage of them politico.com/news/stories/1… cc @rp_newsletter

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

The publication’s clash with Smith first began in Oct. 2010, eight months after The Daily Caller‘s inception, when Smith questioned the viability of the news outlet. Smith wrote that The Daily Caller is “struggling” to find its place and therefore attacking more established publications like National Review. Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson responded by email: “The Daily Caller is ‘struggling’? What a ludicrous hack job, and stupid. Fuck you.”

Rahn did not return our request for comment. UPDATE: Smith told FishbowlDC: “I’m a little surprised Will would characterize an exchange he told me was off the record, and I won’t reciprocate, but wouldn’t characterize it that way.” Stay tuned…this isn’t over. UPDATE 2: Nicole Roeberg, The Daily Caller‘s Spokeswoman, told FishbowlDC: “As you noted in your story, Will never responded to your request for comment. He didn’t characterize the exchange to anyone. Will stands by any and all pledges of ‘off the record,’ and this would never have been an item for you if the off the record call hadn’t been tweeted about in the first place.”

The Human Rights Campaign, a LGBT civil rights organization, is bashing The Weekly Standard this afternoon after the pub’s marketing department sent out an anti-gay letter from a sponsor.

Headline: HRC to Weekly Standard: Don’t Fundraise for Bigots

And their deck: Conservative Political Outlet Sends Email from Sponsor Calling LGBT Americans “deviants”

“The Weekly Standard is now giving gravitas to outrageous lies about LGBT people.” said HRC Prez Joe Solomnese. “William Kristol should do the right thing – apologize and distance his publication from the hateful misinformation campaign of the so-called Public Advocate of the United States.”

What’s more, HRC is asking its members to email Kristol to condemn the marking email sent out earlier in the day.

Read their full release after the jump…

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A fight between two grown men in media is always worth watching.

In one corner: WaPo‘s Erik Wemple. Dirty blond curly hair. Medium build. In the other: The Baltimore Sun‘s David Zurawik. Balding. Glasses. Skinnyish.

Are you rrrrready to RRRRumble?

Over the weekend, Wemple castrated Zurawik by critiquing his critique of NBC’s newest star, Chelsea Clinton, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” Wemple called him “childish and misanthropic.” He said Zurawik’s take on Chelsea was “rehearsed.”

Z’s quote: “Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, in his shameless hype for this journalistically bankrupt decision, said it’s as if Chelsea has been preparing all her life for this thing. Based on the first show we saw, if that’s true, it’s been a largely wasted life. And as mean as that might sound, I don’t take it back, really.”

On Monday Zurawik fired back with a complete ass kissing of CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz, saying that WaPo used to have “best media reporter in the country in Howard Kurtz” in the first line of the story. Now they have that shithead Wemple, he lamented. He also tried to reattach his testicles by making a big stink out of Wemple not calling him for comment. He called Wemple a “water carrier” for the Clintons and suggested that calling him for comment might have at least made him seem like a reporter. As if that would have made Wemple’s analysis of Zurawik’s analysis any different.

(Brief memo to Zurawik: First of all, on which planet is self-pimping Kurtz the best media reporter in America? Kurtz is a longtime media reporter, but the best? Does the best attribute anti-Obama administration quotes to Nancy Pelosi that aren’t hers? Does the best think he’s talking to a congressman when he’s talking to an aide and then try to cover the whole thing up? Does the best wait five days to cover the Weiner sex scandal, reasoning that it’s sometimes prudent to wait? We know you’re a regular on Kurtz’s Sunday show, but WTF Zurawik?)

Getting back to the pissing match, Wemple was riled by Z’s accusation of being in bed with the Clintons. “So I’m now a ‘water carrier’ for the Clintons?” Wemple asked in an interview with FBDC. “It’s clear that Z, the ultimate reporter, perhaps didn’t check out this item and this item.”

He continued, “It’s instructive to follow his logic: If I cite any objection to Z’s stating that Chelsea Clinton has lived a ‘largely wasted life,’ I am carrying water for her. Not, mind you, just sticking up for basic decency. Because anybody who dissents from the notion that Chelsea Clinton has lived a ‘largely wasted life’ is just a suckup for the Clintons.”

The fight continues…Please note, Zurawik phoned us back last night with a reasonable excuse for his tardiness and we returned the call today. If and when the conversation happens, we’ll bring you his remarks. Stay tuned…

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