That’s a rhetorical question, of course. But let’s take a look anyway.
Last Friday, TheDC’s Patrick Howley reported the following:
The White House held a background briefing Friday to discuss Obamacare implementation with a handful of journalists from liberal and progressive outlets.
Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias posted a photograph to Instagram Friday featuring himself and other liberal journalists at the White House, with the caption “#thistown…”
Yglesias, who publicly cheered the death of conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, is known as a member of a tight-knit circle of progressive bloggers that includes Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein and low-rated MSNBC host Chris Hayes…
Yglesias did not respond via email to a request for comment.
Not directly, at least. But after Howley e-mailed him for comment — which is something that reporters do every day — Yglesias screencapped the e-mail and tweeted it. Including Howley’s private phone number (redacted below).
If you’re wondering what Howley did to provoke such a reaction, other than working for a publication Yglesias hates, you’re not the only one.
I’ve had my disagreements with Politico’s Dylan Byers (and too bad about your traffic woes, guys), but I’m glad he took Yglesias to task for his petulantly unprofessional behavior:
@mattyglesias Is that not a reasonable line of inquiry?
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) July 12, 2013
@mattyglesias In that case, I'd like to know the answers as well.
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) July 12, 2013
@mattyglesias And mocking legitimate inquiries from a reporter, plus publishing their phone number, is per se pathetic.
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) July 12, 2013
@mattyglesias are you a reporter?
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) July 12, 2013
@DylanByers I don’t feel like I do very much reporting.
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 12, 2013
Neither do I, Matt. I’m not a reporter either. That’s why I get to tell you that you’re a dick.
Oh, I'm not a journalist, @mattyglesias. In much the same way you're not a victim, no matter how hard you may try.
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) July 13, 2013
And this isn’t the first time Yglesias has done this to a Daily Caller reporter. As Ethan Epstein at True/Slant reported on July 22, 2010:
The indispensable crew at Ydiot note that earlier today, Matthew Yglesias posted the phone number of Daily Caller reporter Jonathan Strong on his popular blog. He obtained the phone number through private correspondence with Strong, and cut and pasted the following conversation:
I wrote you about this yesterday, but I continue to be curious as to why it is that you’re writing this series of stories based on misleading descriptions of excerpts of JournoList emails where you don’t post the full text of the emails online anywhere.
best,
Matthew YglesiasThen at 4:07 PM Eastern, Strong finally replied:
Mathew,
I was hoping to chat with you for a few minutes this afternoon regarding Journolist. If you could call me at 202-xxx-xxxx, I would appreciate it.
Best,
Jonathan Strong
I redacted the phone number to protect Strong’s privacy. Yglesias afforded him no such courtesy. Needless to say, this is a shockingly churlish action on the part of Yglesias.
It certainly was. And clearly, he didn’t learn anything from it.
But then, why should he? Slate.com obviously doesn’t care about his behavior. Basic professional courtesy only extends to publications that agree with you.
Right, Slate?
(Hat tip: Twitchy)
P.S. In related news, Ace of Spades notes: Slate makes compelling case against Texas abortion law that doesn’t exist.