Generally, I couldn't care less about Ed Henry having a bit of a hissy fit and walking out because he was ignored during a White House press briefing, but it's an excuse to share Charlie Pierce's brutal take down of Henry and Fox "news" at his blog at Esquire, so here you go:
A visibly angry Henry walked out of the briefing after press secretary Jay Carney ignored his repeated questions. Speaking to colleague Brian Kilmeade on Monday, Henry said that, though he looked annoyed, he had to duck out to appear on television. "The briefing went on for about 40 minutes and I didn't get a question, for whatever reason," he said. "I guess Jay Carney will have to answer that. I don't know why, I guess maybe he was upset. I wasn't. I was running to do a live shot." "Does he do that a lot?" Kilmeade asked of Carney. "That hasn't happened before, ever," Henry said, adding later that the "professional thing" for Carney to do would have been to call on him.
You work for the bilge pump of wingnut propaganda. The "professional thing" for you to do is to slink off and do five years penance reading the hog reports on a 300-watt station in west Texas before you're allowed in respectable company again. The "professional thing" for journalists with any pride to do is to spit at the mention of your network's name and to hang bells around the neck of you and all your colleagues so that we know when you're coming and can clear the room. You're lucky you have Jay Carney. Put me in that job and you're doing your stand-ups from a chicken wagon halfway down the mall. Put me in that job and your picture is in every guard shack.
Your organization is a running sore on the profession. It's what happens when a craft fails to keep its septic system up to date. You do not deserve the respect given to a schizophrenic in Lafayette Park who screams about the aliens from Zontar and the Rockefellers. I know people who staple their screeds to lamp posts in Central Square who are far more worthy of professional courtesy than you are. You work for a Chronic Ward of grifters, unemployables, and whatever else sticks to the bottom of journalism's shoes on a hot summer's day.
Brian Kilmeade is your "colleague."
Res ipse loquitur, dude.
Thank you Charlie Pierce. Somebody had to say it.
