Throughout history, mankind has achieved many astonishing things — significant discoveries in the fields of mathematics and science, marvels of architecture, the ability to explore everything in between outer space and the bottom of the ocean floor and great works of literature that have been read for thousands of years.
Unfortunately, the mere existence of Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher is a stain on that record.
Christopher, whose Mediaite byline is a pseudonym and is likely a tax write-off for Dan Abrams’ media empire, has found his niche: seeking out the most provocative angle on the hot-button issue of the day and exploiting it for Web traffic and the long-shot hope of landing three minutes of airtime on a cable news program.
Fortunately for America, the latter has been an elusive achievement for Christopher. But Mediaite’s editors continue to allow Christopher to use their website as a platform to stoke the flames of nonsense.
In his latest attention-whoring exercise, Christopher imagined veiled racism from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, coded in a generic black-and-white banner that says “Obama Isn’t Working.”
“The slogan is a multiple entendre, but one of those entendres, intentionally or not, is evocative of a nasty racial stereotype about black men,” Christopher wrote.
Christopher verifies his hallucinatory imagination with a confirmation from C-list race provocateur and MSNBC regular Goldie Taylor, who blamed the Romney campaign’s lack of diversity for the imaginary racial misstep.
“That’s what happens when you don’t surround yourself with a diverse array of people,” Taylor told Mediaite. “Maybe if Mitt Romney’s experience was more diverse, or the people he surrounds himself with, somebody would have looked at that banner and realized how it could be offensive to some people.”
But this latest pedestrian effort at race-baiting is just the tip of an iceberg of shenanigans Christopher has employed to draw attention to himself.
Earlier this month in a post titled “Really, White People? New Polling On Trayvon Martin Shows White Folks Not Paying Attention,” Christopher criticized an entire race of people because respondents in polls didn’t view racial tensions in the United States as a serious enough problem.
Christopher has also challenged The Daily Caller’s skeptical look at the Trayvon Martin case, even though that skepticism has proved to be valid. In fact, Christopher seems to be obsessed with exploiting the Martin tragedy. Mediaite’s so-called White House correspondent had 39 different bylined posts about Trayvon Martin published on the Mediaite website between March 21 and April 14, taking an array of provocative stances on the media’s coverage.
In addition to dabbling in the politics of the Martin case, Christopher has shown a willingness to carry water for other liberal causes when necessary. In February, he took aim at conservatives who attacked the Obama administration’s contraception mandate. He has also championed the left-wing meme that the economy is on the path to recovery, meaning doom for the Republican Party in November.
Someone might want to let Christopher know that there is already a website for these sorts of pieces — a website where the articles aren’t quite so self-serving. It’s called Media Matters.
It’s not clear why Mediaite publisher Dan Abrams or his management at Mediaite, which has a revolving door that spins faster than a tornado, allows its more reasonable content to be contaminated by the publicity-seeking adventures of Christopher.
Want proof Tommy’s work is all about Tommy? Look no further than his shameless but persistent effort to get an invitation to appear on Chris Hayes’ MSNBC weekend program.
Until its Christopher problem is rectified, Mediaite will continue to hold its place among the Internet’s bottom feeders — only dragging down the hard work of its other scribes, who do a seemingly adequate job of watching the media.