Saturday, January 31, 2015

MARK HALPERIN IS INCAPABLE OF SHAME

You know what happened yesterday:
Several media outlets on Friday were forced to walk back articles announcing a definite presidential run by Mitt Romney for 2016.

The spark began with Bloomberg News, which published a scoop early Friday morning by Mark Halperin reporting that Romney would declare his intentions about whether to run. That of course turned out to be accurate.

But then the trouble began....
The now-altered headline of that article, preserved at the Huffington Post and Muckrack, was "Why Mitt Romney Thinks He Can Win (and Jeb Bush Can't)." The piece clearly suggested that Romney was running. Accompanying it was this tweet:



After Romney announced he was running, Rick Massimo wrote this in my comments:
I'd really like to know how Mark Halperin spent his day. If he has any self-respect, or even pretensions at being a journalist, he'd have spent the day (and the next couple of days) calling (or better yet barging past the secretaries of) the sources for his original story and saying, in different combinations, "What the fuck?!" "I hope you don't think I'm ever quoting YOU again" and "You think I don't have other sources, some of whom have some pretty uncomplimentary shit to say about YOU?!"

But who am I kidding? He wrote what they told him. Next week, he'll write what they tell him again.
I would have severed all lines of communication, at least for the weekend, and either crawled into bed or started drinking heavily. But Rick's suggestion is very good.

What did Halperin do? Among other things, he did his regular Web video show, which included this:



No, that's not a joke:



But why am I expecting shame from Halperin? Why am I expecting him to reveal any sign that he feels humiliated? When you're a Beltway insider journalist, there's no penalty for being wrong -- ever.

6 comments:

mlbxxxxxx said...

Halperin, and douches like him, can't afford shame. They would never leave their house. The lack of shame is their super power enabling them to be perpetual purveyors of wrongness. How could you be Mark Halperin or Bill Kristol and have shame? It just wouldn't work.

Victor said...

Once you're in the DC MSM Village Club, 'you can check-out any time you want, but they'll never ask you to leave.'

Halperin will soon tell us that he was right on Thursday night, until Mitt messed-up his story.

He wasn't wrong, you see.
He was the victim of circumstances...

Never Ben Better said...

He's extremely well paid to have no shame. His ego depends on having no shame. He is a professional pundit. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Scott Peterson said...

Tangent: the title of the embedded video is Obama's No Kennedy, Says Orrin Hatch.

I'm certainly not going to play the video to find out, but I assume he means President Kennedy. To which I reply: damn right, and thank god. Obama's thrice the president Kennedy was.

Roger said...

"You knocked my block off!"

Unknown said...

Gosh, Internet fame. Anyway, the best description of Halperin came from Alex Pareene, who said that not only is Halperin a content-free horserace tout, but even worse, he's a terrible horserace tout.

Which leads to Atrios's eternal question for the Villagers: "What do you even think your job is?" A question I'm betting Halperin doesn't ask himself much, if ever.