Why journalists are no fun at Christmas parties

Ann Coulter

After the initial feeding frenzy by the media regarding the sudden illness of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), there have been a few really tasteless moments, with the media hovering somewhere between merely crude and reprehensible. I can only hope that I fall into the latter catagory.

The Huffington Post ran an opinion piece that raised a few hackles called "Did You Know that Dick Cheney is Praying For Tim Johnson?" (Ha! As if the Cheneymeister prays for anything but money and a new heart bypass.)

News Hounds caught FAUX News dancing on Johnson's grave in piece called "Fred Barnes' Ghoulish Speculation About Tim Johnson."

Over on the other side of the potato, newsbusters.org wrote two different articles about the media coverage of Johnson's sudden illness. It would seem that in News Busters scientific opinion the coverage started out as "disgraceful" and degraded quickly to utterly disgraceful. News Busters focused heavily on a MSNBC piece that they felt made Republicans look uncaring and callous. (Too late! the damage is already done that category.)

Ann Coulter had some fun remarks, but she was not in fact the winner (loser?) of the week's morally destitute media shenanigans of doom.

Proving my original theory correct, On the December 13th broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's "The Jon Caldara (Jon Who?) Show," the host let slip the actual facts of the matter regarding the murder of Johnson:

CALDARA: "The kind of radiation poisoning that we gave to the senator that caused him to collapse, you know, it takes a long time to take effect." [Coulter laughs] "We saw that in the U.K. And it's going to take, it's going to take some time before -- before we finish this mission." Media Matters

So now the cat is out of the bag, we now know what is really going on over in the senate. It was John McCain in the library with the candlestick Polonium-210.

Caldera's (Who is this Caldera guy?) guest, Ann Coulter, said that Sen. Tim Johnson was faking his illness, and probably just has gas.

COULTER: "He probably just has indigestion." Media Matters

Obviously Coulter is merely playing a ruse to cover the GOP's tracks in this matter. In being purposefully flippant regarding Johnson, Coulter was attempting ing to steal the thunder out from under the heartless minions of the mainstream media by being the most crass and insensitive person reporting on the matter. Nice try Ann, but this week's honors go to another dirtbag more clever reprehensible than you.

Though Coulter is usually the hands down winner in this category, so far the winner of most ghoulish and disgraceful this week goes to John W. Lillpop and his December 16th commentary titled "Senator Tim Johnson: Another Brain-Dead Liberal?" Lillpop uses the near-fatal illness of Johnson to point out his theory that most democrats are brain dead, in his opinion.

Now that's journalism! The opportunity presented by Johnson's illness is the perfect time to make heartless remarks, but Mr. Lillpop has really taken the inititiative and gone then extra mile. I couldn't sink that low on my best day! Anne Coulter, bow to your new sensai: John W. Lillpop.

postchronicle.com: Senator Tim Johnson: Another Brain-Dead Liberal?
newsbusters.org: Utterly Disgraceful Eleanor Clift Column Regarding Sen. Johnson
newsbusters.org: Disgraceful Media Coverage of Sen. Tim Johnson’s Medical Condition
MSNBC: Balance of Power
newsbusters.org: Utterly Disgraceful Eleanor Clift Column Regarding Sen. Johnson
News Hounds: Fred Barnes' Ghoulish Speculation About Tim Johnson
Huffington Post: Did You Know that Dick Cheney is Praying For Tim Johnson?
Media Matters: Sick jokes: Coulter, Caldara laughed about Sen. Johnson's illness the night he was stricken