Thursday, August 06, 2009

Giving the printer's devil his due


Yesterday, I noted the general lameness of Dana Milbank's Washington Post videos and the newspaper universe in general.

NONE OF THAT has changed. But to show that I'm not a total a****** -- a half-a******, perhaps, but not a total a****** -- I would like to point out something Milbank and the WaPo did right.

In fact, what they did was craft a funny response to the Internet tizzy touched off by his and Chris Cillizza's unfunny "Mad Bitch" episode of Mouthpiece Theater. Really . . . it made me chuckle.

But this is the newspaper industry we're talking about, so you know there's a "but" just around the corner. Or a "butt," as the case may be.

Well, the "butts" in charge of things at The Washington Post had this "but" in store (and, really, it was no surprise): They spiked Mouthpiece Theater just when it was starting to shows signs -- maybe -- of hitting its stride. Sigh.

It's too bad Rupert Murdoch isn't in charge there. He could have ordered up a couple of topless babes for the show and put the whole damn thing behind a for-pay firewall.

Oh, what a pity it is that nobody can figure out how to sell panicked flailing. That's the only going concern newspapers have left.

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