Site Refuses to Acknowledge <em>TWT</em> Scribe's Joke

When CNN Contributor Van Jones foolishly fell for the fake photoshopped Fox News report that President Obama had blamed Russia's meteor on global warming, he did what any reasonable political type would do -- he deleted his tweet, said "Pobody's Perfect" and moved on with his life. But DCist? They're stubborn little jackasses who refuse to acknowledge that TWT's senior opinion writer Emily Miller was joking when she published this tweet on Friday morning: Cue Obama to blame the Russian meteor on global warming. — Emily Miller (@EmilyMiller) February 15, 2013 DCist's Ben Freed, who has unfortunately been in a couple of nasty bike accidents, and has previously suffered a concussion and may not be thinking clearly, used the following headline: "The Dumbest Tweet You Will Read All Day About the Meteor That Struck Russia." He then looked down on Miller, writing, "...just wanted to dispel one thing real quickly. Meteors—and other astronomical phenomena—are not connected to global climate change." DCist's wimpy Editor-in-Chief, Martin Austermuhle, stuck by the ridiculous report and weakly directed Miller to Freed when she lashed out at them on Twitter, asking, "What moron wrote this story? I was clearly making a joke." She continued, "You need to post a correx. Would he make that assumption for a liberal reporter?" Freed replied on Twitter, "Yeah, I would." Miller said her joke was obvious. "Anyone with the slightest knowledge of current events and even a passing sense of humor knows that it was sarcasm, and that I don't literally believe that global warming caused an asteroid to hit the earth," she told FishbowlDC. "This is clearly not journalism, but even worse, these staunch liberals show they will do anything to mock those who have conservative views, even if it means being dishonest to the public." Even commenters who disagree with Miller's politics and think she's a "partisan tool" understood she was joking. Wrote one woman, "It was an obvious joke. She's suggesting the Obama administration makes outlandish claims about global warming. Guh. While she may be a partisan tool, she gets that blaming the meteorite on climate change is absurd." No one at DCist bothered to ask Miller if she was serious. But worse... even after they knew better they did nothing. This just in..."Dumbest Post You Will Read All Day About the Site That Got It Wrong." We checked in with Freed to ask a) if he's feeling okay and b) why won't he update the post to reflect the truth? He replied, "It's sometimes difficult to tell when certain people are joking." Why not give Miller the benefit of the doubt and at least add her claim to the post? No answer by press time.

Fishbowl

Site Refuses to Acknowledge TWT Scribe's Joke

Betsy Rothstein

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