Quote of the Day:
“Apropos of nothing — other than the date — my least successful April Fools Day was the one when I came home from college for spring break of my senior year, and told my mom I was pregnant. No one was amused.”
— Ashley Parker, reporter, The Washington Post.
Mood: “I think if you have an intestinal parasite you should at least get to lose some weight. I mean come on.” — Lizzie O’Leary.
Lena Dunham shares a bagel with her dog
“Just split a bagel with my dog … April Fools! (actually, she ate a quarter I ate the rest, doesn’t really count as a split)” — Lena Dunham, actress, anti-Trump activist.
Various Washington types defend ex-Veep Joe Biden
BILL KRISTOL, editor-at-large, The Bulwark: “Could I just say this for what it’s worth about Joe Biden? I’ve never been close to Biden, but am struck by how many stories I’ve heard over the years of instances of his kindness and compassion, and from people who had no particular political motive at the time for telling them.”
MEGHAN MCCAIN, co-host, ABC’s “The View”: “Joe Biden is one of the truly decent and compassionate men in all of American politics. He has helped me through my father’s diagnosis, treatment and ultimate passing more than anyone of my father’s friends combined. I wish there was more empathy from our politicians not less.” (RELATED: Meghan McCain Comes To Defense of Joe Biden)
HOWARD FINEMAN, NBC, MSNBC, news analyst: “I’ve covered @JoeBiden for decades. He’s no predator. Not sure he’d be a fine president or strongest #Dem nominee, but to watch him writhing under attack now, especially given #Trump’s behavior, is gruesome. Joe’s truthful rebuttal, that he’s just a ‘tactile’ old guy, is no help.”
At least one woman is not jumping on Biden’s defense bandwagon. That would be Juanita Broaddrick, who says former President Bill Clinton raped her in the 70s. “You better bet Creepy Joe will change his creepy tactics toward young girls and women from here on out,” she tweeted Monday. (RELATED: Juanita Broaddrick Calls Greta Van Susteren An ‘Imbecile’)
Neither is this feminist writer: “I think a lot of these Biden gestures *are* sexual, if not threateningly so. But the idea that women should tolerate paternalistic, infantilizing touching from men is also insidious, and is based on the same logic: That women exist to make men feel good, sexually or morally.” — Moira Donegan, self-described “angry feminist writer,” Guardian, and creator of the “Shitty Media Men” spreadsheet.
Journalist crowdsources Joe Biden groping
“ALERT: Dear Tweeters, Please send me your thoughts regarding Groper Joe. Should Biden’s well-documented lack of respect for personal boundaries be disqualifying? Does it rose to the level of #metoo. If so, why? If not, why not? I’m looking for genuine, non-partisan analysis.” — Amy Holmes, conservative journalist.
Reporter feels shame about minor email gaffe
“I just wrote ‘Thanks so much!’ twice in a one-line email and I am ashamed.” — Scott Nover, staff writer, The Atlantic.
Gossip Roundup
A reporter’s first-person account of trying — and failing — to get a story about alleged sexual harassment at CBS published in The Washington Post. Once enamored by the depiction of WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron in Spotlight, she now sees things differently. Here.
The Zeitgeist: “Hardest thing about moving to DC is taking nothing seriously in a city that takes everything seriously.” — Joe Gabriel Simonson, Washington Examiner.
Filmmaker Mike Cernovich attacks Meghan McCain: “I will never pretend that John McCain was anything but an anti-American zealot and will never suck up to his talentless daughter who got her job due to nepotism. Embarrassing to see how some people pander to that terrible family.”
Viewer spots lump on Inside Edition host Deborah Norville‘s neck. Now she’s having surgery. Here.
Activist/actress Alyssa Milano has Joe Biden’s back. Here.
A bad April Fool’s memory…
“I have hated April Fools since a mean girl in elementary school told me: ‘Seung Min, you’re cool. April Fools!'” — Seung Min Kim, White House reporter, The Washington Post.
An April Fool’s guide to dating
“Today is a good day to ask someone out of your league on a date, because if they turn you down, you can just play it off as an April Fools joke.” — Pat Ward, producer, “Fox News Sunday.”
A funny April Fool’s memory…
“True story: Cavs cheerleader came up to me during ‘96 Knicks game. Said, ‘Are you Mike Wise from The NY Times? OMG, I read everything you write.’ I went to talk to her after game and she blew me off. I walked into locker room. Patrick Ewing looked up and smiled: ‘April Fools.'” — Mike Wise, WUSA9.
Yashar Ali Vs. Eddie Scarry fight gets ugly
Fallout from this went on and on all day Monday and into the evening.
I’ll just bring you the highlights.
It all sprang from a weekend ordeal in which Denise McAllister made some pretty jarring comments about Ali, telling him that it’s “sad” that he has to comment on a heterosexual woman’s marriage and that he has to “find his soul in another man’s asshole.”
Many in the Twittersphere found McAllister’s remarks to be homophobic. The Federalist fired her as a result of her commentary. Meanwhile, Scarry wrote a commentary piece in the Washington Examiner pushing back on the mob mentality of social media and wrote that McCallister was suffering from “righteous anger” not homophobia.
Noteworthy: Scarry has a book coming out in September called Privileged Victims.
YASHAR: “In the Washington Examiner, @eScarry writes: ‘Denise McAllister tweets weren’t homophobic, they were righteously angry.'”
SCARRY: “Here comes the mob.”
YASHAR: “You wrote an idiotic, inaccurate, and poorly written opinion essay in the Examiner. You aren’t some random person who tweeted something. So quit your fake victimhood. Also, let’s be real @eScarry, you are loving it.”
At 8:44 p.m. Monday night, Scarry tweeted, “Does @yashar want to talk on the phone or what? We can do it on or off record. He gets a fair shake no matter what.”
Yashar never replied.
Scarry disagreed internally with some Washington Examiner colleagues who took the other side, such as Washington Examiner Commentator writer Tiana Lowe. Read her opposing commentary here.
TIANA LOWE: I didn’t want to add more attention to whatever breakdown McAllister is clearly having, but no mental health crisis is an excuse for the dehumanizing homophobia she levied at @yashar this weekend. My colleague @eScarry is incorrect.
SCARRY: “No one is defending whatever she has to say. But I AM attacking the sick twitter mob that got her to kneel!”
Townhall‘s Political Editor Guy Benson, who is openly gay, jumped into the fray of this fight.
GUY BENSON: “Setting everything else aside, some of what she said was patently homophobic.”
SCARRY: “She was being a nasty woman. @yashar was being a passive-aggressive bully. I want to hear nothing about homophobia until you acknowledge that.”
Somehow actor Tom Arnold EVEN FOUND TIME to weigh in with all caps
“I’M GIVING YOU THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT THAT YOU ARE ONLY IGNORANT @eScarry HER TWEETS ARE HOMOPHOBIC AND YOU ARE PUSHING HOMOPHOBIA UNTIL YOU CORRECT YOUR WORDS. Then you could be a kind of hero in a teaching moment otherwise YOU ARE THE IGNORANT HOMOPHOBIA GUY.” — Tom Arnold, ex-husband to Roseanne Arnold and an actor.
CNN analyst wants to limit her weekends to cute animal videos
“I would personally love a setting on @Twitter that allowed you to automatically limit your feed to cute animal videos on Saturday and Sunday. Who’s in?” — Asha Rangappa, CNN analyst, former FBI Special Agent.