Washington Post food fight a 'big time embarrassment': Howard Kurtz
'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz reacts to the firing of Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez following days of Twitter attacks on the paper and colleagues.
"Real Time" host Bill Maher closed his show Friday night with a scathing takedown of the viral turmoil The Washington Post experienced earlier this month.
"If you missed it, the Washington Post recently got embroiled in a self-inflicted s---storm when one of their best reporters David Weigel retweeted, not tweeted, retweeted this joke: 'Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual,'" Maher began. "The comedian who actually wrote the tweet called it a banal, throwaway joke, which is exactly what it is- throw away, as if you don't like it, throw it away."
Maher blasted the "unlicensed daycare center that is today's newsroom" for going "apes---," pointing to reporter Felicia Sonmez's tweet publicly shaming Weigel, who had removed the retweeted and apologized.
THE WASHINGTON POST'S WEEK FROM HELL
"Of course, the leadership at the Post folded like a Miami condo and suspended Weigel without pay for a month and denounce the offending retweet is a ‘gross violation of their values.' - free Speech apparently not being one of them," Maher quipped. "For days, [Sonmez] raged with the fire of a thousand burning bras, sending a gazillion tweets calling for more to be done against Weigel, mocking her bosses attacking colleagues and letting the world know how much the Washington Post sucked. And this endless bickering and infighting continued online in public view until the bell rang and they all went to seventh period."
Washington Post reporter Felicia Somnez was fired after spending nearly an entire week berating her colleagues on Twitter, including David Weigel. (Eric McCandless via Getty Images)
The HBO star pointed out how he hadn't pointed out the age of Sonmez nor her "quarreling co-workers" because he "didn't have to."
"The New York Times just read an op-ed entitled, ‘Why are we still governed by baby boomers?’ This is why," Maher told viewers. "Because too many millennials are overly sensitive, overly fragile and have no sense of priorities. You know, I'm sure many boomers would love to retire, but they can't. They're like the grandmother who would much rather be watching Judge Judy and has to raise her grandkids because her own kids are too f---ed up to manage it."
"It's funny, you think my generation is an eyeroll? Let me let you in on a little secret about the younger generations; No one wants to hire you. Your sense of entitlement is legendary and, with notable exceptions, your attention span and worth ethic suck… This Washington Post story had such resonance because it's behavior we all recognize. There is a war going on within the millennial generation. I know because I'm friends with the good ones. But the crybabies, unfortunately, are still winning. They complain they haven't taken over yet? We'll stop complaining because in many ways you already have. The fact that the Post's initial response was to punish not Felicia but one of their best reporters for a silly joke shows that the kindergarten is already in charge," he continued.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
Maher then commemorated the 50-year anniversary of the Watergate scandal, which the Post famously broke, leaving the host to wonder how the paper's "newsroom of today" would handle that story or any story.
"All this time blubber-tweeting over a retweet begs the question don't you have anything better to do?" Maher asked. "Aren't you supposed to be reporters digging up stuff? Are there no more vital issues going on in America right now? This is why you're not in charge. Because if someone named Deep Throat called the paper today and wanted to meet in a parking garage, this crew of emotional hemophiliacs would have an anxiety attack and report it to HR that they didn't feel safe," Maher told viewers.
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He added, "If there is a silver lining to this story, it's that eventually, the Post did fire Felicia Sonmez, so maybe there is a line that's just too much nonsense, but that generation needs to move that line much closer to sanity and find it much sooner because democracy dies in dumbness."
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