The FishbowlDC Interview With <em>WaPo</em>'s Sargent

Say hello to Greg Sargent. He's the guy manning WaPo's liberal "Plum Line" blog. Sargent joined WaPo in 2009, after having worked at Talking Points Memo, New York magazine and The Observer. In the past, FishbowlDC has documented (at great length) the Twitter brawls between Sargent and his conservative counterpart Jennifer Rubin. He typically doesn't respond to any of our comment requests on the battles, but luckily we got him to partake in the FishbowlDC interview. Let's begin... If you were a carbonated beverage, which would you be? Scotch and soda. How often do you Google yourself? Relentlessly. How else can I keep up with all that abuse? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said to an editor/boss (or vice versa)? Take your butter and shove it! (To my boss at a restaurant where I worked as a busboy in my teens -- he'd criticized me for giving customers too much butter with their bread.) Who is your favorite working journalist and why? Pleading the Fifth. Do you have a favorite word? Yes! Who would you rather have dinner with – FNC's Bill O'Reilly, NBC's Brian Williams or ABC’s Diane Sawyer? Tell us why. Bill O'Reilly. I want to get a close-up view of his fascinating case of Soros paranoia. The Earth’s human population is dying out and you must save it. You will spend a romantic evening with either CNN’s Candy Crowley or FNC’s Greta Van Susteren (significant others will understand). Who will it be? Sorry, no can do. My significant other is not quite that understanding. What swear word do you use most often? Fuckshitfuckshitfuckshitfuckshit You’ve just been told the big news: You get to have your own Sunday morning talk show. Who will be on your roundtable? (Pick four journalists or pundits types.) Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Samuel Clemens, and William Lloyd Garrison. On a serious note for a moment, if you could have dinner with a person who has died, who would it be? Abraham Lincoln. Who is your favorite Boybander and why? (Ezzy, Hazy, Weigel, Attackerman, Beutler) Beutler. He gets what my son is about. And he likes chess. When you pig out what do you eat? Chicken tacos with coleslaw and jalapeno/cilantro salsa. What is your absolute favorite item of clothing in your closet? We want the fabric, the brand, the store and the price if possible. If it’s a certain kind of underwear we don’t want to know about it. My Led Zeppelin t-shirt. But I'm not sure what it's made of at this point. Find out what bodily function led to Sargent getting a ticket after the jump... Pick one: Mad Men, The Newsroom or True Blood. Is it embarrassing to admit that I've never seen a single episode of any of them? Have you ever had a tarot card reading? Never. When it comes to the future: I don't want to know. Have you ever had a near-death experience? Climbing all over the Williamsburg Bridge while drunk was kind of a dumb thing to do. Ever been arrested? Nope, but I got a ticket for public urination once. Tell us a secret not many people know about you. My middle name is Twain. What scares you? My alarm clock. What’s your most embarrassing career moment? Other than this one? Have you ever been fired? Yes. That "take your butter and shove it" line didn't go over too well. When and why did you last laugh so hard you had tears in your eyes? A Tweet by feminist writer Jessica Valenti: "Smug virgin at Fox says most women are `floozies.' Floozies collectively shrug shoulders, go back to awesome banging." When and why did you last lose your temper? A long time ago -- permanently -- due to circumstances that remain mysterious. If anyone finds it, please return it. Who would you want to play you in a movie? Peter Falk. Do you have a me-wall? If so, who’s on it? What's a me-wall? Who should just call it a day? Baseball umpires who oppose instant replay. Breakfast food of choice? Don't say coffee: PB&J. Favorite foreign country that you’ve visited: France. They've got a pinball machine in every cafe. A Question from ABC7's Kris Van Cleave: Finish this thought: I’d rather stick a pen in my eye than do ______ again. This questionnaire. Finally, please come up for a question for our next FishbowlDC interviewee. This one may live on indefinitely. Make it good. How many years do you think choosing to go into the politics/media racket will take off your lifespan?

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The FishbowlDC Interview With WaPo's Sargent

Eddie Scarry

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Eddie Scarry