A blog about politics.

Joe the Pulitzer Prize Winner

Joe the Plumber, aka Joe Wurzelbacher, having bravely followed in the footsteps of Ernie Pyle and Michael Herr by "reporting" on the war in Gaza, brings us this insight, which just might win him a Pulitzer.

“I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting,” Wurzelbacher said. “You know, war is hell. And if you're gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity,' well you don't know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”

Really. He really said that. The link goes to CNN, not The Onion.

For video of Wurzelbacher's report, click here.

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  • 1

    Really, so true Michael. I mean, what kind of desperate, cynical bunch of manipulative political operatives -- assisted by an eager media -- could have ever thought that propelling this individual into the limelight could possibly be a good thing for our nation?
    `
    Oh yeah -- the McCain campaign.

  • 2

    has anyone asked Senator McCain what he thinks of these pearls of wisdom from his "hero", his "role model"?

  • 3

    Michael-Not your fault, but a post about Joe the Plumber? Who gives a f**k what this guy has to say or why he is saying it? Just cause the right wing news media can do no better does not mean the rest of the media can't ignore this made up bullsh*t of a person.

  • 4

    Watch your back, Mikey. This guy sounds like he could be after your job. Seems eminently qualified...

  • 5

    "Really. He really said that."
    .
    Want us to start posting some of the stuff you've said here? Didn't think so....
    .
    So did he go home after he said that, since he is there as a member of the media to, ya know, report on this war?

  • 6

    "So did he go home after he said that, since he is there as a member of the media to, ya know, report on this war?"
    .
    I think he is too scared of Obama's tax cuts benefiting him personally to come home.

  • 7

    Why are we still being inflicted with Sam, Joe or whoever this person is. Who gave him a microphone? I understand the desire to get him out of the country. But please take away this blowhard's platform.

  • 8

    Hey, at least he's out in the field looking for a story. What the hell you doing, Scherer?

  • 9

    Never forget, Michael: your critics on the left want you to do a good job reporting the news.
    -
    Your critics on the right want you tried for treason (well, at least accused of it) and hung from a tree.

  • 10

    Hell just froze over.
    .
    A member of the media -- a conservative member of the media -- finally noticed the anti-intellectual and anti-freedom mentality raging through the GOP base.
    .
    Hey, Michael, all these commenters? All these people who insult you on a daily basis? They want you to do your job and win a Pulitzer. Joe the Plumber? Your party's mascot? He wants you fired and your magazine shut down.
    .
    Ironic, huh?

  • 11

    Shorter sqr1: What Elvis said.

  • 12

    Maybe Citizen Joe can look into why the ME's only "democracy" just banned parties from elections based on race (this info is fresh from the media of righteous Israel, no less):
    .
    http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054867.html

  • 13

    I wonder how this numbskull feels about unlicensed plumbers installing boilers?
    .
    It may be news to some of the staff at Time, but the future of "journalism" is more jacka**es like Joe Wurzelbacher given a platform from which to spew their uninformed opinions masquerading as reporting.
    .
    Joe is the new (and I will wager, much cheaper) Mark Halperin. I can't tell them apart. I am sure the mucky-mucks at Time have taken notice.

  • 14

    Looks like Joe's reporting career is going the same route as his plumbing career. But he is, in fact, stating Isreal's position on media in the Gaza...not allowed. War is messy business from which the media and public outside Gaza is best protected.

  • 15

    Not to be confused with the Shakesspeare quote: "First kill all the lawyers" (which may or may not still have merit).
    .
    What surprises me is they are letting him use his own words. I was expecting this all to be scripted. Plus has he found out yet that Jews live in Israel?
    .
    MS must be thinking "Thank god I have an editor...otherwise there before the grace of god go I."

  • 16

    Some questions? When did the Plumber apply for a ppt? How long did it take him to get one? What is the average waiting period for a US ppt? Did the Israelis give him VIP clearance? They take time to check "journalist's credentials". What occupation did he give when he made his application? This stuff smells.

  • 17

    Will Palin now complain that Joe is being shunned by the "elitist media" because he isn't being taken seriously? This is truly a sad day for media and honest reporting.

    Does Same not know that people actually risk their lives to give the world war zone reports?

    So he really believes that the media shouldn't be reporting on the surge success in Iraq?

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • 18

    First Gannon/Guckert and now Joe the Plumber? Is there a factory where the GOP pumps out gay, bald, wingnut-talking-point-spouting, pseudo-journalists?

  • 19

    .
    More like Gomer Pyle than Ernie, I think.
    .
    Nah. Gomer wasn't such a tool.
    .

  • 20

    JOE: The story here is people are being killed and the media's slanting it and trying to make it Hamas is, uh, as far as, that Israel's being bad. Do you believe Israel is bad?

    REPORTER: Do I believe it?

    JOE: Yeah, do you?!

    REPORTER: I'm Israeli, so…

    JOE: So answer the question!

    REPORTER: No, I don't think Israel is bad.

    JOE: Do you think Israel has every right to protect itself?

    REPORTER: Yeah.

    [pause]

    JOE: You do?!

    REPORTER: Yeah.

    JOE: Have you said that on air?

    REPORTER: I'm just a reporter.
    http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/12/joe-the-plumber-exposes-blatantly-pro-hamas-israeli-reporter/

  • 21

    "I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting."
    .
    I think this guy's finally starting to make some, you know, sense.

  • 22

    No, I don't want 'Joe the Plumber' to go away. Nor do I want to see Palin disappear from national stage.
    .
    The GOP is in the process of shifting from making excuses for all that went wrong during their time in power to a much easier role of blaming all that's bad on Democrats. They will have the help of a largely uncritical media that itself is shifting back to it's former use of 'Clinton rules', false equivalency reporting (see the recent reporting that 'many economists believe' that FDR's New Deal made the Great Depression worse), and warnings about evil unnamed straw-man liberals ('There are those on the left who simply believe that Israel does not have the right to defend itself...' -- Joe Klein).
    .
    As the nation's memory fade, we will need people like Palin and Joe to remind us of just what a freak show the GOP has become.

  • 23

    The 'Joe the Plumber' interview cincinnatus posted reveals a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. It has long been noted that conservatives tend to see the world in black and white, while liberals tend to see complex shades of gray.
    .
    Joe's question ('Do you believe Israel is bad?'), and the liberal reaction to it, is a perfect example of this.

  • 24

    bobcn, good point. Lest we forget. Of course, I never was in that camp, but Bush did serve 2 terms and the idiots pranced around causing destruction for 8 years. Could we at least have kept it to 4?
    .
    We need Palin and her family values and Joe and his small bidness worries about imaginary income from his unlicensed plumbing fantasy by an imaginary Obama tax. Education takes repetition, and maybe the fools who voted to give us 8 years of failure and misery will eventually see the light.

  • 25

    Let's have a contest. Name the most contorted example of wingnut logic in recent memory. Not just something you disagree with, but over-the-top, scratch-your-head internally inconsistent nonsense.
    .
    I'll start:
    .
    1. Joe Plumber becomes a journalist and travels to a war zone to protest journalists reporting from war zones.
    .
    2. Justice Scalia blames Al Gore for 2000 recount fiasco because "Mr. Gore brought it into the courts" ...by getting sued by George Bush.
    .
    3. John McCain suspends his campaign in order to travel to Washington to make sure that Congress passes a bailout package...that he opposes.

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