Take This Town and Shove It

[Gingersnap]

Take This Town and Shove It
A White House reporter’s tale of sex, booze and the briefing room.
By SAM YOUNGMAN December 18, 2013


If you write about American politics for a living, stop right there. Get back to work, and don’t read another damn word.

Sign out of Twitter, say “thanks but no thanks” to a dayside cable hit, get off your ass, go outside and listen to folks beyond the same 200 know-it-alls in Washington and New York who share your affinity for snark, views on Game of Thrones and predictions for next year’s Senate race in a state only a handful of you have ever set foot in.

The 140-character slap-fight you’re in the middle of with another reporter who has never worked for minimum wage is eating up time that I’m begging you to use trying to win back credibility with a country that desperately needs us to spend more time listening and less time talking.

You might have to look it up, but find humility. A quick glance at the poll numbers for how much Americans trust their media or a two-minute conversation with a voter should do the trick. Remember why you do this for a living.

If you’ve managed to carve out a place for yourself in the shark tank that is the Washington media, you probably see yourself as pretty tough—sign No. 1 that you live and work in a town that long ago broke away from reality. It’s not your fault. Washington is an endless maze of funhouse mirrors, a fact we’re reminded of once a year when the Hill publishes its 50 Most Beautiful list, replete with people who are Washington hot, which is a step above rehab hot and two levels below jury duty hot. All are miles below what the rest of the country considers actual hot.

Read The Whole Thing! This is probably the most important story you'll read today unless your house burned down the paper is running a pic of the arsonist.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz2nw9N1gfQ

[Billy Jingo]

When I returned from my 28 days in rehab, in January 2010, it was harder to ignore the near criminal disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country, especially in an industry that has turned neighbors against each other while its instigators clock out and meet for a beer together, skilled actors who in many cases spend the day feigning hatred for each other on camera but are actually bound by their shared nihilism and reckless self-absorption. In Washington, a divided America is good for business.

Er .... yea.

[Gingersnap]

When I returned from my 28 days in rehab, in January 2010, it was harder to ignore the near criminal disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country, especially in an industry that has turned neighbors against each other while its instigators clock out and meet for a beer together, skilled actors who in many cases spend the day feigning hatred for each other on camera but are actually bound by their shared nihilism and reckless self-absorption. In Washington, a divided America is good for business.

Er .... yea.

You don't think the media (whatever version of it you find acceptable) isn't at all responsible for abandoning their actual purpose in favor of cultivating relationships and borrowing prestige from the very people they should be investigating? You don't think that many journalists with good access to Beltway movers and shakers are out of touch with what standard people think?

[Frostbit]

You don't think

That was far enough