Media Matters Editor-at-Large Parker Molloy attacked White House Correspondents’ Association President Olivier Knox this week for his handling of the CNN Jim Acosta debacle at the White House.
As everyone with a TV or a smartphone knows, the White House suspended Acosta, the network’s chief White House correspondent, until further notice for allegedly manhandling a female White House intern during a press conference. Many Washington reporters believe this was a totally fabricated charge by President Trump and the White House press office. Anyone with eyes and a brain can see that the presser turned into the Jerry Springer show, with Acosta attempting to manhandle a mic, not a young woman who acosta-ed him — not the other way around.
Trump declared him a terrible human being and said CNN should can him. Then they invented a story and threw him out on his ass. He and the White House are routinely at odds. But his real crime as of late is his snoozer of an appearance in the Season 6 of House of Cards.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, headed up by Knox, released a statement in defense of Acosta.
“Revoking access to the White House complex is a reaction out of line to the purported offense and is unacceptable,” WHCA declared in a statement. “We urge the White House to immediately reverse this weak and misguided action. We urge anyone with doubts that this reaction was disproportionate to the perceived offense to view the video of the events from earlier today.”
So what the fuck is Molloy’s problem?
On Thursday, she finally gave herself a much needed timeout by locking her account. It didn’t stop her from tweeting self-pitying drivel.
“Locked my account for the day because I’m really just not in a good enough mental place to deal with this stuff,” Molloy confessed Thursday. “Obviously there are still like… 140k+ people who can see my tweets, so it doesn’t do much, but oh well.”
She’s not in a good enough mental place?
Are we supposed to care about her mental condition?
And then, “Anyway, I’m still recovering my dumb surgery I had last week, and everything makes me feel so tired.”
Depending on what that dumb surgery is, we might care.
But for now, let’s hold our compassion and examine her asinine exchange with Knox, who, in addition to heading up the WHCA, is also chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM radio.
“It’s kind of funny the @whca got at least equally upset with @michelleisawolf for telling a joke that dared to suggest that the @PressSec lies (she does) as they are with the White House for banning a journalist for asking tough questions.”
Then she added, “Funny in a way, not in a way.”
Molloy is referring to Michelle Wolf, the comedian at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, whose routine fell flat after she criticized Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her looks and her lies. At the time, the WHCA said Wolf’s routine was “not in the spirit” of its mission.
Molloy continued, “I seriously think @whca might have been more upset with Michelle Wolf the [sic] they are with one of their members getting banned from the White House. Weak, @OKnox.”
OK, so let’s get this straight. Molloy is falling apart because the WHCA defended a reporter against a White House that has it in for him and comparing it to the time that they scolded a comedian for what they believed to be inappropriate joking about Sarah Huckabee Sanders?
Knox started out pretty neutral. He replied, “Thanks for reading, Parker!”
Molloy responded with illiterate blather and sarcasm.
“Thank [sic] for keeping the country safe from the most pressing threat to a free press ever to exist: comedians. Where would we all be without such essential work?”
Knox said, “Ha! You got me! #zing (mostly hurts because I’m a long-time reader of yours and you don’t care what the WHCA does.)”
Molloy whined, “I just feel like things are kind of careening off the tracks right now. It’s not just the WH revoking Acosta’s pass, but that they’re trying to convince people that he assaulted someone. This feels like a precursor to more admin retaliation. And that worries me a lot.”
In other words, she vehemently agrees with the association. But she’s just whining for what — the sake of being heard?
Knox rightfully shot back at her, “So why train your guns on me? I represent 600 people who elected me to negotiate with the White House — dull but vital shit like Internet access, press planes, hotels, access to events, etc.”
Well said.
UPDATE: Molloy checked in with The Mirror to explain why she locked her Twitter account. She wrote, “Hey Betsy, I just saw that blog post. Figured that I’d clear up why I locked my account: I locked it because I was getting a lot of angry responses from people on the far left after I tweeted out that it’s wrong to harass Tucker Carlson or his family at his home. And honestly, I just didn’t want to deal with hours of people justifying abhorrent action in my mentions, so I locked it.”
UPDATE II: She also said she basically owned up to being an asshole to Knox. “Also, Olivier and I actually chatted last night. I said that he was right and that I shouldn’t be such a snarky ass.”
