Could the petty feud between the Biden administration and the New York Times get even pettier than what we heard about last week?
Well, is the sky blue? Is water wet? Does a bear shit in the woods? Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself? Are you people drunks?
Yes, yes, yes, we’re pretty sure yes, and yes.
The latest battleground is the Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the annual orgy of DC onanism that every year results in hurt feelings and whiny write-ups and sociopaths being so offended by jokes at their expense that they decide to destroy American democracy. With terrine of jumbo lump crabmeat appetizers, because pettiness and decadent end-of-empire vibes can give one a right powerful hunger.
This year’s celebrity emcee was comedian Colin Jost of “Saturday Night Live.” We watched his set on Sunday and our reaction was a loud and enthusiastic “Meh.” Some okay lines, some stinkers, overall grade a C for mediocrity, which is pretty much in line with how most of the emcees do at this gig, though to be fair it is generally a room full of fairly humorless narcissists, so it is a big hill to climb.
Now, no one cares what we thought. But some people maybe do care what the comedy columnist at the New York Times — yes, it’s a real gig — thinks. And since Jost’s routine had a couple of eye-rolling jabs aimed at the Times (ha ha, a Wordle reference, how timely!) and the comedy columnist panned Jost’s performance, both current and former Biden employees grabbed at the chance to publicly twist the knife.
From Politico Playbook, which for the millionth day in a row has WON THE MORNING:
Treasury spokesperson MEGAN BATES-APPER kicked things off, suggesting on X that the review was payback for a Jost dig at the Times (“Wordle is here today — sorry, I meant the New York Times”). Campaign official T.J. DUCKLO later chimed in to say the paper’s assessments “as usual, badly miss the mark and say more about them and their own insecurities than the topic they are covering,” while former White House comms official JENNIFER PALMIERI called Jost “the best comedian I have seen in that room.”
There is zero chance that Jennifer Palmieri really thinks Colin Jost is the best comedian to ever fire off 20 minutes of lame barbs at the WHCD. Nobody thinks that, except possibly Colin Jost’s relatives. This is either pure gaslighting or evidence of a carbon monoxide leak in her house.
The irony, as Politico mentions, is that the Times famously does not attend the dinner. Their Opinion columnist Lydia Polgreen — who also this weekend published a good look at the student protests at Columbia that we recommend reading — noted on social media that former editor Dean Baquet thought it “unseemly” for journalists to spend an evening giggling over shrimp cocktails with the people they cover.
Baquet wasn’t wrong about that either! But that’s a whole other piece.
So what does this latest snarking do to the chances that Joe Biden will finally give in to bratty nepotism baby AG Sulzberger and sit for an interview with the most important news outlet since ancient Mesopotamians were chiseling crop reports in Sanskrit onto cuneiform tablets? We certainly doubt it helps! If the Times runs another 117 stories between now and Friday reminding its readership that Joe Biden is old, then we will take that as an answer as to how any negotiations might be going.
OPEN THREAD.
[POLITICO]
Your generous donations will not go towards us renting a tux to attend next year’s WHCD because we are definitely not being invited.
