WaPo Kills "Mouthpiece Theatre" After Controversy, Relentless Unfunniness

Days after Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza presented their "Mouthpiece Theatre" take on President Barack Obama's beer summit, repellently referring to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a "mad bitch," the Washington Post has decided to get out of the "Mouthpiece Theatre" business.

As I said yesterday, "The proper lesson" of the episode was: "IF the Washington Post's website has a feature that only receives substantial attention for how bad it is, and that no one pays any mind to were it not for an awful, mean-spirited joke, THEN perhaps it is a feature that the website can do without."

Based upon this statement from Marcus Brauchli, this is precisely the lesson the Post has learned:

"I don't think the series worked as they intended," Brauchli said. "It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format."

Indeed, this is in the running for Understatement of the Year 2009, as "Mouthpiece Theatre" never managed to achieve "funny" or "insightful" and more or less "translated" the idea that Milbank and Cillizza were a pair of juvenile twits who'd rolled in off the street one day, managed to commandeer a video camera, and then convinced the Washington Post to post embeddable clips of the two self-indulgently loving themselves to their website.

As so excellently satirized by actual excellent satirists from Public Service Administration, Mouthpiece Theatre was really nothing more than a desperate attempt for the Washington Post to achieve some sort of "virality" online, an effort that was ill-aided by the lack of creativity, intelligence or humor behind the entire set-up and delivery of the video content. The great irony is that only when "Mouthpiece Theatre" achieved its apogee of awesome, startling awfulness did the effort finally "go viral."

Said virus finally destroyed its host body. Time of death, August 5, at 1:53pm. Go have a candlelight vigil, if you want.

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Comments

[Chumleysmom]

" ... superb journalism Chris and Dana do ...."

Now THAT's funny!

[protagonia]

Dark hair and glasses, do not a Colbert make.

They right uses look-alikes to trick the dull-wits.

[1dogs2]

"the superb journalism Chris and Dana do"?

Until they fire this smirking twosome, I have no interest in WaPo.

[hillaryj]

When are they going to send Milbank home???? He is not credible and has become a joke!

[pmorlan]

"...the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format."

Superb journalism? Since when?

[NotFooledByDistractions]

Good riddance.

To think they let Froomkin go and kept these two bozo's...u­nbelievabl­e.

[whiskeytangofoxtrot451]

Go to Youtube and search for "two guys and a webcam" for a really good parody of this fiasco.

[fignozzle]

this is the best thing.
it was not good.

[IcedTee63]

So can we salt the earth where it is buried?

[marthlois]

Is Jason even credible anymore? His ratings must be down - or the hp ratings down -because of the way he slummed into his KO rant tonight. I'm done with him and his all too many rants. Those who stick with him - just hope you have as much fun as writer Jason has! bye.

[rkossik]

Jason did a good job summarizing the situation. I thought he used enough hyperbole to be interesting, but nowhere near enough to make it a "rant."

Making 2 AM posts is risky, especially if you get cranky when it's past bedtime.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

a mercy killing

at least they didn't say it went to live happily on a farm with all the unwanted puppies and kittens.

[xargaw]

I have a pretty good memory, yet I can't remember the last time Dana Milbank read or said anything that could pass for quality journalism or insight. Cilliza, runs hot and cold, but mostly only luke warm lately. Perhaps he got the word from upstairs that real journalism is dangerous to your career and your employers corporate interest.

[Decipherer]

Milbank is pretty full of himself and oftentimes seems to be channeling Maureen Dowd. I have much more respect for Cillizza's integrity and quality of his writing, but he made a big mistake teaming up for that dreck.

[Exexecution]

Thanks for giving this the treatment it so rightly deserves, Jason.
Can't wait for the Post to tank, though they are probably happy to operate at a loss as long as TYhe Wapoo compnay, Kaplan, Inc. gets their piece of the No Child Left Behind action, a major revenue source.

Wikipedia: Kaplan, Inc. - Kaplan is one of the world's largest providers of educational services. Kaplan focuses on four areas: higher education, professional training, test preparation and after-school tutoring programs and services for U.S. school districts.

[Decipherer]

Nowadays, the word is Kaplan is an educational services provider which happens to run a newspaper.

[JeffmChicago]

Good riddance! That Dana Milbank is an elitist. For real.

Chris Cillizza I am surprised that he got hoodwinked by that elitist Milbank or maybe I had Cillizza figured out all wrong? I dunno.

[jalowe1957]

May Mouthpiece Theatre go the way of Fox News' "Half-Hour News Hour."

From hell they came, and to hell they shall go...

[judyx]

I had forgotten all about the Half-Hour News Hour, lol

[Mustang Sally]

Republican'ts are just unable to do comedy. I wish they would figure that out.