Writing a story about someone else’s booger feature is no easy task. On some email requests I put a simple, bland, “request for comment.” On others, I went for shock value: “BuzzFeed’s booger post.” It wasn’t plotted. I imagined some might find it funnier than others.

On Tuesday night, BuzzFeed‘s Benny Johnson took Washington’s political and media worlds by surprise by creating a GIF feature about House Speaker John Boehner allegedly checking out his boogers. BuzzFeed Political Editor McKay Coppins promoted the story, even guided readers to it on Twitter.

The headline reads: “John Boehner Looks at His Boogers During the State of the Union.”

Who among us would have the mental fortitude to look away from a Boehner booger post? “It looks like a first-step by BuzzFeed into honest coverage,” said former TWT Editor and Public Affairs exec Sam Dealey. “After all, everyone — the Speaker, the public and evidently BuzzFeed’s reporter too, was bored by the speech and looking for anything even remotely more interesting.”

Boogers are interesting. But by and large, the editors and journalists around town that we interviewed opposed the booger post. “Dumb and dumber; political coverage as booger op? What next: beaver shot?” asked Washingtonian‘s media writer Harry Jaffe. WTOP’s Jim Farley also expressed journalistic outrage. “I believe it is over the top,” he said. “It would have been like showing video of George H.W. Bush throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister at a State Dinner. A private moment.  Would we show video of Michelle Obama’s skirt blowing up on a windy day?”

Um, there’s actual video showing Bush throwing up? As it turns out, there is.

And by the way, there’s no judgment here. We’ve written about everything from Larry King passing gas on air and a journo popping a zit at a party to females showing ample amounts of cleavage and breasts on TV. Suffice it say, BuzzFeed can write about the Speaker’s alleged boogers if they want to and there won’t be any ethical bitching from us.

And yet we couldn’t help but wonder, is this, in part, the psychological result of our miniscule attention spans and around-the-clock reporting? That we now require boogers to grab our collective attention?

“Poking fun at people in power has always been been part of political journalism,” Coppins told FishbowlDC when asked to comment on the matter. “Dead-tree newspapers used to do it with political cartoons; now the internet does it with GIFs and memes. What actually struck me most about this State of the Union was how many other news sites were competing with us on that front. A year ago, we would have been the only ones GIFing Marco Rubio’s reach for the water bottle; this year we were racing with The Atlantic‘s Twitter feed.”

But some journalists thought BuzzFeed had slipped beneath themselves. “That’s certainly a headline you don’t see every day,” said a longtime Washington editor who preferred to remain anonymous. “But regardless, this is over the line. A classic example of something that gets hits, but is in poor taste. The post appeals to the 10-year-old in all of us, and that’s not a good thing. BuzzFeed is better than this.”

A cable news insider agreed, saying, Read more

Quotes of the Day

Convo Between Two Journos: BFF’s discuss Adele, Chris Brown, Rihanna

NBC’s Luke Russert: “Loved how Adele didn’t even acknowledge Chris Brown before her hug to Rihanna. #Grammys”

Politico‘s Jake Sherman: “Good. Guy is scum.”

Female journos outraged over Fun’s capris pants

“So, man capris are not ok. We need a national conversation about that, for Fun.” — HuffPost‘s Elise Foley.

“After tonight, we shan’t speak of this again.” — NBC White House Producer Shawna Thomas.

NPR correspondent’s daughter succumbs to Justin Bieber

“For the first time ever, Kayleigh uttered the name Justin Bieber tonight. I pray it is the last we hear of him.” — NPR’s Andy Carvin.

Dating a woman from BuzzFeed means…

“My boyfriend who is not on Twitter: ‘Please don’t send a tweet to all your friends about this conversation.’ #doesthiscount#hellneverknow.”  — BuzzFeed Publicist Ashley McCollum.

Politico Playbook publish time: 7:53 a.m.

Guiding Sophia’s Light

“The reason we don’t stay committed today and love forever is because we analyze, think 2 much, & give up 2 quickly. #LostValentine” — theGrio and Essence’ Sophia Nelson.

Weekend party hazards

“When white girls go ‘WOOOO!’ and throw up hands it’s a eye hazard for tall bamas like me. #giantproblems #ouch” –BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

Hooked on ‘Homeland’: NBC’s David Gregory

“Only Homeland has given me as many headaches as the Wire from watching episode after episode without a break. ‘You feel me?’” — NBC “MTP” Host David Gregory.

Editor encounters enigma of city living

“Randomly oracular statements from lightly medicated schizophrenics u pass on street is one of the curious elements of urban life.” — TPM founder Josh Marshall.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“Started Cycle with @cyclemeter at 3:30 PM, on a new route, see cyclemeter.com/74b1bad6b8971c…, Cyclemeter will speak your replies to me.” — DCist‘s Ben Freed. Speak your replies? Do our ears deceive us? We just may have to try this, because why wouldn’t we want to converse with Ben Freed while he’s “cycling” around town?

Why Gov. Christie’s heft is a plus (no pun intended)… Read more

In response to Matt Lewis‘ declaration of hatred for Twitter Wednesday in a column in The Week, Ben Howe and Paul Brandus have written stories to counter Lewis’ view. Howe, who recently joked on Twitter about Lewis having sex with animals, wrote his “Why I love Twitter” for RedState; Brandus published his in The Week.

Howe admits he first got hooked on Twitter after attending CPAC. He made new virtual friends. He acquired a nasty habit of trolling for fights. “An easily achievable goal,” he says.

Like a yo-yo dieter, he has had his ups and downs. In 2010, he produced a video that went viral and as he says, his email blew up. But then, eventually, he went on a downward spiral. He couldn’t keep up. Worse, he didn’t want to keep up. Oh the horror.

Soon he implemented rules for himself. An excerpt:

“It was then that I made the decision to have 3 requirements for following someone: 1) I know them in real life, 2) they were interactive on twitter (as in, actually speaking to me rather than just expecting me to follow them because they followed me), or 3) they are someone who interests me regardless of interaction.“

Miraculously, Twitter began to become meaningful for him again. “17,000 followers later, I can’t imagine my business or my networking without twitter,” he writes. Countering Lewis, who believes Twitter has become a “dark place” and a “prison”, Howe argues that the petty sh-t that happens on Twitter is just life and “simply how social interaction works.” Really? Do people in real life rattle each others cages by joking that they have sex with animals when they disagree with their political beliefs?

Brandus, meanwhile, has his own views on the matter. Read more

Matt Lewis, a columnist for The Week and a media contributor to The Daily Caller, is hitting chords today with a column titled, “Why I hate Twitter.” NBC Political Director Chuck Todd called his story a “compelling case” for why Twitter is like high school. Author David Limbaugh, brother of conservative bigmouth Rush Limbaugh, swallowed the story whole. “I learned during the Fluke kerfuffle that the block button was my friend,” he reacted on Twitter this morning.

Naturally detractors chimed in. “Guys, the economy may be tanking but we need to focus on the important matters,” wrote conservative blogger Ben Howe on Twitter. “Like how people on Twitter are super duper mean.”

Party lines aside, Lewis says he’s received more positive private feedback from prominent opinion leaders on this piece than nearly any other he has written. “I can’t tell you how many smart and successful people have reached out to me today to tell me they feel the same way,” he told FishbowlDC in an extensive email exchange. “As I have learned from all the emails I received today, a lot of other folks who once embraced the Twitter community have already begin distancing themselves from it.”

Twitter as a Dark Place

In recent weeks, Lewis’ feed has been a virtual cage fight with some conservative bloggers, such as Howe, joking about him having sex with animals. Which part tipped Lewis over the edge of thinking Twitter was still a sane and reasonable place? In his column, he writes, “It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment it happened — but at some point, Twitter became a dark place. It’s a lot like the transformation of the 1960s. It started out being about free love, sharing ideas, and changing the world, but somehow we ended up being more about Altamont and Charles Manson… What was once an inspiring place that gave you a competitive advantage became a prison.”

While the precise moment or insult is unclear, likely all of it over the past year contributed to his declaration that his relationship with Twitter is on the outs.

No, he won’t be leaving. But he will be preserving his “inner artist” by 1) Utilize Twitter lists, following only those he finds “interesting or inspiring”  2) blocking those who want to mock or otherwise engage him in verbal warfare. “I’ll try to use whatever tools available that can empower me to discover new ideas, while also avoiding the negativity and bitterness and noise,” he told FBDC. “Blocking is what you do when you try to weed out the bad seeds, but remain yoked to Twitter. I’m advocating that people should step back a bit from Twitter, take breaks from it, etc.” 3) Generally refrain from conversation or debates.

Lewis says he has never enjoyed the fight. Read more

I love a good Twitter fight. Wednesday saw one, of sorts, between The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis and Redstate’s Ben Howe.

Apparently they don’t like each other. Or at least Howe doesn’t like Lewis, Lewis claims. What caused Lewis to write the post? This exchange between Howe and Tweeps named “John Ekdahl Jr.” and “ConArtCritic”.

While attacking Lewis, Howe said “God I hate that guy” and “I’ve never liked that guy. He’s high on his own intellect which is funny given how average it is” and, what finally set Lewis off, was this: “not to mention he has sex with animals.”

Mature, right?

Lewis, who can be a bit of a bitch sometimes, was rightly at the end of his rope. And, as often happens when you attack someone with an audience, he took to his soapbox and told his reads about it.

In the spirit of hitting back harder than you were hit, Lewis contacted the Heritage Foundation for comment (Howe has done contract work for them) on what they think of someone who does work for them accuses someone of bestiality. Heritage quickly distanced itself from Howe, pointing out how he’d done things it the past and doesn’t have a contract with them.

This set off a bunch of complaining about Lewis on Twitter by friends of Howe and people who just don’t like Lewis, none of which is important or relevant here (plus you’ve probably never heard of the people complaining anyway).

But Howe did tweet, “Not to be too nitpicky, but trolling usually requires you put the person’s name in the tweet. This is how you ‘troll’ them (bug them)’ in reference to the title of the Lewis piece. But what Ben fails to note is when someone is mentioned in an original tweet, as Lewis was in the tweet that led to the bestiality tweet, they can see all the replies to it by simply clicking on it.

More importantly, Howe seems to be justifying talking shit about someone behind their back. That may fly in high school, but not on the Internet. Read more

The Daily Caller‘s Matt Lewis showed his darker side earlier this week. It was something we hadn’t really seen before. The new, evolving Lewis cusses like a sailor. We’re enjoying the change. His metamorphosis, which may involve a bear rather than a butterfly, continued Wednesday.

A bit of context: Conservative media is broken up into two camps: The grassroots, perpetually confrontational activist crowd and the more establishment-friendly, “can’t we all just get along” crowd.

Lewis is in the latter, which doesn’t always sit well with grassroots folks like RedState‘s Ben Howe, who has also done work for conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. Yesterday, the tension between the two was on full display, both sides letting their asses hang out for everyone to see on Twitter.

The squabble started Tuesday with John Ekdahl, a writer at the conservative blog “Ace of Spades HQ.” He sent Howe a link to a piece by Lewis wherein Lewis wrote that using a screen still from a TV hit as a Twitter photo makes one look like a “narcissistic douchebag.” Howe’s own Twitter photo is a still of himself on TV.

“I’ve never liked that guy. He’s high on his own intellect which is funny given how average it is,” Howe said of Lewis on Twitter. Some mocking of Lewis ensued, with Howe eventually joking that Lewis “has sex with animals.”

At that, Lewis wrote up a post at The Daily Caller yesterday in which he referred to Howe as his “personal Twitter troll.” Read more

Quotes of the Day — Happy New Year!

Travel Bitches

“If an airplane itself could have influenza, I’m on it.” — Politico‘s Dave Levinthal.

“Guy behind me on plane whacks me w/ suitcase as putting it in overhead. ‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you.’ Cuz I’m REALLY tiny #HappyNewYear.” — Joanne Bamberger, mommy blogger, former news anchor and author of “Mothers of Intention.”

And a travel apology…“Off to Paris for a bit. Nice to see you again, turkish air. Please carry me safely to my destination and sorry for any anxiety exhibited.” — Seyward Darby, freelancer, former online editor at TNR.

Press aide tells everyone to calm down

“Folks out there w/ crazy theories about what’s going on in House. All ridiculous. Just figuring out best path forward. Stay calm, carry on.” — House Maj. Leader Eric Cantor aide Rory Cooper during fiscal cliff negotiations.

For a gay old time…

“Two tickets for @GayPimp‘s #GayestWeekendOfAllTime this March in Florida? Yes, please.” — Syndicated columnist and Bullfight Strategies’ Karl Frisch.

Loesch takes a breather from laptop

“I’ve not opened my laptop since December 21st. Rare. Christmas vacation was lovely, but am ready to roll up the sleeves again.” — Ex-Breitbart.com’s Dana Loesch, who is now suing her former employer. Considering the backlash she received after the Sandy Hook shootings, in which she accused President Obama of playing politics with the deaths of children, this may have been a welcome relief.

Breitbart newbie on first-name basis with U.S. leaders

“In case anyone didn’t notice, we have now officially jumped off the fiscal cliff. Thanks John , Barry and Harry!” — Breitbart.com‘s Matthew Boyle, who hopes to one day fill the shoes of the late Andrew Breitbart.

A rare nod to CNN

“CNN is the only big cable news network doing fiscal cliff coverage right now. (I mean, if you’re a geek.)” — The Daily Caller and The Week‘s Matt Lewis on New Year’s Day.

And now, a New Year’s Eve observation on facial hair: “Back on CNN with the bearded ones–Wolf Blitzer and Robert Reich–at 8:30. All agree. No taxation of facial hair.” — Americans for Tax Reform Prez Grover Norquist.

The Self-Appointed Media Critic…

Read more

Matt Lewis of The Daily Caller and more recently of The Week keeps his readers guessing “WTF?” and that’s why we like him. One day he’s dissecting the history of angels and comparing them to journalists. The next he’s praising the Redskins’ RG3. The next he’s suggest Republicans adopt “fresh” ideas like returning back to ideology espoused by former President George W. Bush.

Today Lewis does a few things under a column headlined “The working class epidemic of demoralization.” First, Lewis bemoans the “disconnect” between coastal elites and everyone else in “flyover” country.

That’s a real problem worthy of looking into. While reading, we looked forward to what thoughts or insight Lewis might have to share on the matter. But before we knew it, Lewis had shifted into commentary about the destructive behavior poor people engage in while imitating the rich.

An excerpt, which uses MTV programming as a guide… Read more

When The Daily Caller‘s Matt Lewis wrote on election night that the GOP needed “some fresh ideas,” he apparently meant old ideas that still stink. In his latest column for The Week, Lewis says “Republicans ought to take a second look at George W. Bush‘s political philosophy.”

During his presidency, Bush was known to label his political views as “compassionate conservatism,” characterized by promoting the helping of others while encouraging accountability (ie. No Child Left Behind).

“Of course, they wouldn’t have to call it compassionate conservatism,” Lewis reasons, “That brand is obviously tarnished. But it is an uplifting mission statement to serve as a feel-good umbrella for their other policy ideas.”

Lewis says it’s a winning philosophy that would appeal to both “the urban hipster” and “the guy in rural Ohio.” Wow, really? … Read more

A hearty congratulations to The Daily Caller’s media scribe Matt Lewis for possibly picking the most outlandish baby name he could find.

“Happy to welcome Becket Wilberforce Lewis to the world! 8 lb 5 oz,” — Lewis announced on Twitter last night at 7:04 p.m. Please note the father and son’s matching dimples.

Lewis told FishbowlDC: “I should definitely mention that Becket has an almost 2-year old brother, Burke (named after British statesman and philosopher Edmund
Burke). Burke and Wilberforce were contemporaries. Hopefully, they will get along in the 21st century, too!”

Asked if he will call the child “Wilberforce” or come up with a nickname, Lewis replied, “Hmm. Since Becket is his first name, I’m thinking ‘Beck’ as a nickname.” He then quickly stressed, “Like Beck Hansen, not Glenn Beck.” As he explained, “Wilberforce will probably only come out when were mad at him: ‘Becket Wilberforce Lewis, you march on here this instant!’”

Lewis acknowledged that he’s a big believer in the importance of names. “Lets be honest, if my name were Becket Lewis, my whole life would be different,” he said. “I’d probably have my own Fox show.”

Without further delay, welcome Becket Wilberforce Lewis to the Fishbowl! We only hope we have many reasons to mention you. Needless to say he’s going to be a wilberforce of nature (and this is just the beginning of jokes he’s bound to get in elementary school and beyond.)

Lewis explains he and his wife’s choice in baby names…

Read more