How disgusting and cruel. How thirsty for wordplay. Annie Linskey should be ashamed.
The far less important business to get out of the way is that The Kibbitzer, about whom I've written twice before, has been identified as Annie Linskey of the Washington Post. The more important business is that she has made herself the center of a gross, truly repugnant story. The reporter should never be the story, but we are a site that calls out terrible reporting, so here we are.
Sunday morning, Linskey decided to engage in some pointedly cruel personal and political linguistics on Twitter, targeting President Joe Biden's regular weekly church visit.
Get it? Mocking him for going to church (he's unapologetically, personally, religious) and visiting the church's graveyard, connecting the graveyard visit to what SHE predicts is a "dying" agenda in DC. HAR. So clever, Annie.
Up for debate, however, is whether she knows that graveyard is where Biden's son is buried. Not up for debate is that if she didn't know, she should have, and that mocking a church and graveyard visit for clicks and attention, regardless, is cruel and unprofessional.
She got ratioed quick, deleted her tweet, and sent out another one in peak snotty white lady defensive mode.
I deleted an earlier tweet, which was not intended to cause offense.
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) October 3, 2021
Mind you, this is not an apology. And no one on Twitter gave her the grace she craved. I mean, she got attention, but it wasn't the nice kind.
This is the old "I'm sorry you were offended" nonpology. You didn't delete it because it was offensive. You deleted it because you got a deserved ratio for being an insensitive tw*t. pic.twitter.com/T8m6bzBIPb
— Kim Wexler's Ponytail (@MadisonKittay) October 3, 2021
It's well known that his son is buried there, how did you miss that information?
— Rachel Luxemburg (@rlux) October 3, 2021
What exactly was this intended to do, and are you sorry or just defensive? pic.twitter.com/RDb6VN1mUn
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) October 3, 2021
“Your legislative agenda is as dead as your wife and child, and I mean that in a good way.”
c’mon.— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) October 3, 2021
Nah Annie, you know the rules and you should apologize. But you won’t.
Definitely gonna lose some subscriptions all over a tweet that you absolutely knew was offensive.— Renee (@PettyLupone) October 3, 2021
We are about to be on Act 4. pic.twitter.com/jzxsevlclP
— California Dem™️ (@moonbeamvotes) October 3, 2021
Your tweet was offensive on a personal level to the President. It was also a blatant lie about the state of his agenda and offensive to any sense that you're a fair reporter.
It caused offense. You need to apologize.— Patrick 💛 (@patrick_phila) October 3, 2021
@washingtonpost She should be pulled from covering the White House. There is no getting over that tweet.
— Violeta (@VioletaQSmith) October 3, 2021