It’s comforting when you learn that the rich and powerful are actually a lot like the rest of us. Just like you or I might, Rupert Murdoch gets exasperated and stops to vent when someone wastes his time. In this case, the time waster was the New York Times — in particular the ‘unintelligible’ Maureen Dowd.
OP-ED COLUMNIST; Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming http://t.co/lZDMScxY
— Maureen Dowd (@maureendowd) October 6, 2012
In fairness, Dowd’s column isn’t really any less intelligible than any other bit of liberal wishcasting. We know they want the real world to be more like an Aaron Sorkin movie — where the repartee is quick and liberal lies go unchallenged:
BARTLET All right! (back to OBAMA) And that was quite a display of hard-nosed, fiscal conservatism when he slashed one one-hundredth of 1 percent from the federal budget by canceling “Sesame Street” and “Downton Abbey.” I think we’re halfway home. Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.” Let’s replay some of Wednesday night’s more jaw-dropping visits to the Land Where Facts Go to Die. “I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don’t have a tax cut of a scale you’re talking about.”
OBAMA The Tax Policy Center analysis of your proposal for a 20 percent across-the-board tax cut in all federal income tax rates, eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax, the estate tax and other reductions, says it would be a $5 trillion tax cut.
BARTLET In other words …
OBAMA You’re lying, Governor.
It’s unclear from this piece whether it was Bartlet, Obama, Sorkin, or Dowd who missed the memo. Twitchy readers know that Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter admitted it was President Obama who was lying several days ago. The welfare-to-work waiver that “Bartlet” tells the President to defend? It’s an extra-legal power grab. The $716 billion Medicare cut that Bartlet tells Obama to deny? Well, Obama really is cutting $716 billion from Medicare.
Wow — so many errors! Maybe Bartlet isn’t as sharp as he used to be!
Dowd can at least be proud that by Sunday evening, her column was rated the most e-mailed piece on the site. And while Murdoch was one of the first to comment on it, he was hardly alone in his views:
#RealityBasedCommunity RT @ByronTau Will McAvoy and Jed Bartlet give Obama some advice in Maureen Dowd's column. http://t.co/Jk5zRlL2
— jon gabriel (@exjon) October 7, 2012
Can fictional readers of Maureen Dowd's fictional dialogue in today's Times tell us why we should bother with it?
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) October 7, 2012
Maureen Dowd, you are not funny. PLEASE STOP, FOR THE LOVE OF HOLY GOD HIMSELF. The "TV show reference" wasn't funny when it was current.
— Ursus, Director of Weather and Banana Programming (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 7, 2012
The most cloyingly Maureen Dowdy column evah? "After the debate, I was talking to Aaron Sorkin, who was a little down." http://t.co/ytCfIrkm
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) October 7, 2012
@mkhammer her next column will have some hip references to Lost in Space and Jeannie
— Ursus, Director of Weather and Banana Programming (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 7, 2012
Dear Maureen Dowd: TVGuide is just a listing of tv shows. It's not a political almanac.
— Ursus, Director of Weather and Banana Programming (@AceofSpadesHQ) October 7, 2012
Don’t worry, MoDo. There are bound to be plenty of people who enjoy reading the New York Times, and who also at least understood your column. And if they read the Times, they probably aren’t even aware of all the errors.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member