American Journalism

Many expected the giant freak-out today over an ill-worded joke in the middle of a longish interview focused on finance and macroeconomics, despite the White House's immediate apology and regret. It's the stuff of partisan food fights, so let the mashed potatoes fly. Whatever, and Obama shouldn't have said it. But the episode has been instructive for, if nothing else, revealing what a massive tool Jake Tapper is:

Everything you need to know about the DC journo establishment, from ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper's Twitter feed:

Breaking- PrezObama on Leno jokes about being a bad bowler- says it's "like the Special Olympics or something" http://tinyurl.com/bholeno about 12 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Am trying to imagine the reaction if President Bush joked that his bowling skills recalled the Special Olympics. 3 am- we just landed in dc about 6 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Preparing for day of hypocrisy: conservs who would normally defend the SpecOlymp joke acting offended, liberals saying lighten up. Sigh about 3 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Moments after David Kurtz posted that writing of the script of the day before it happens, Tapper blocked him from reading his Twitter feed. And then he blocked Adam Serwer. And then, after the heat rose, he unblocked Kurtz. You can read the whole extended whine at Tapper's feed, claiming somehow that "rudeness" ruins his nice conversation with his Twitter compatriots... which is not the point, since he was responding to journalists slagging him on their blogs by cutting them off.

Favorite comment on this sorry affair: "Arguing on the internet is like working for ABC News. Even if you win, you're still Jake Tapper."

Twitter is kind of a useless tool anyway, perfect for media types who can't think beyond 140 characters, but the pissiness it's bringing to the fore is most amusing.