Sick to death of reporters whose idea of deep, thoughtful coverage is yet another piece regurgitating the last round of polling? Then you’re ready for Wimblehack, the “tournament to determine America’s – er, the world’s – worst journalist.”
Already in its second round, Wimblehack is the brainchild of Matt Taibbi, columnist with the New York Press.
A sample entry:
WHEN TRYING TO judge campaign coverage, we utilize what we call the Jayson Blair Test. You apply the Jayson Blair Test to determine whether or not a campaign piece ostensibly filed from some remote trail locale could actually have been written from New York, in the tenement apartment of a $15 one-legged hooker, with no props beyond a gram of coke, a television and a Rolodex.
An on-the-road-with-Bush report Bumiller recently filed from Iowa (“Bush Calls Kerry’s Policies a Danger for World Peace,” Oct. 5) was a classic Blair test piece. The byline is Bumiller’s and the dateline is Clive, IA, which means she was physically in Clive at some point, but you’d never know it.
With a mouth as foul as his temper (and if you’re reading a parental advisory into that, you go right ahead), Taibbi’s Wimblehack may end up being the best reporting of the campaign.
