Who's Afraid of Joe the Journalist?
Creators Syndicate ^ | Friday, January 09, 2009 | Michelle Malkin
If a community organizer can be president and a Saturday Night Live comedian can be a U.S. senator, why can't a plumber be a reporter?
Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, is headed to Israel to interview ordinary citizens about life in the crosshairs of jihad. He'll be filing dispatches for conservative Internet video broadcasting site PJTV.com (to which I also contribute). Predictably, the very idea of a non-credentialed public figure attempting to "do journalism" has catty elite journalists hacking up hairballs.
CNN television anchor Kyra Phillips sneered (in her most objective and professional manner, of course): "Oh, Lord, Joe the Plumber's got a new gig. It's got nothing to do with the pipes, it's got everything to do with Gaza." After catching her breath during a commercial break, she embellished her teleprompter lines with ad-libbed contempt (something only seasoned professional journalists have experience doing, you see): "Now Joe the Plumber wants to flush out the truth as a war correspondent. I know, there are just no words."
Still not done trashing the Toledo, Ohio, citizen who had the temerity to question Barack Obama's redistributionist policies, Phillips piled on more derisive words: "Hey, Joe, what do you know? No, seriously, what do you know? … [H]e says he hopes to air Israelis' views on the Gaza offensive. Lord, help us. Just want to remind you that Joe the Plumber has no journalism experience. No war zone experience, either. But he thinks he's, quote, 'pretty well protected by God.' So, what's Joe been smoking, drinking?"
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Joe the Plumber-Turned-Reporter can't do any more to harm journalistic credibility than the "credible journalists" have already done.
Creators Syndicate ^ | Friday, January 09, 2009 | Michelle Malkin
If a community organizer can be president and a Saturday Night Live comedian can be a U.S. senator, why can't a plumber be a reporter?
Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, is headed to Israel to interview ordinary citizens about life in the crosshairs of jihad. He'll be filing dispatches for conservative Internet video broadcasting site PJTV.com (to which I also contribute). Predictably, the very idea of a non-credentialed public figure attempting to "do journalism" has catty elite journalists hacking up hairballs.
CNN television anchor Kyra Phillips sneered (in her most objective and professional manner, of course): "Oh, Lord, Joe the Plumber's got a new gig. It's got nothing to do with the pipes, it's got everything to do with Gaza." After catching her breath during a commercial break, she embellished her teleprompter lines with ad-libbed contempt (something only seasoned professional journalists have experience doing, you see): "Now Joe the Plumber wants to flush out the truth as a war correspondent. I know, there are just no words."
Still not done trashing the Toledo, Ohio, citizen who had the temerity to question Barack Obama's redistributionist policies, Phillips piled on more derisive words: "Hey, Joe, what do you know? No, seriously, what do you know? … [H]e says he hopes to air Israelis' views on the Gaza offensive. Lord, help us. Just want to remind you that Joe the Plumber has no journalism experience. No war zone experience, either. But he thinks he's, quote, 'pretty well protected by God.' So, what's Joe been smoking, drinking?"
..................................................
Joe the Plumber-Turned-Reporter can't do any more to harm journalistic credibility than the "credible journalists" have already done.