This has been a busy season for needling journalists. First Mayor Daley ridiculed a Tribune reporter’s baldness. Then President Bush picked on a Los Angeles Times reporter. Last week AP’s White House correspondent Helen Thomas and the Sun-Times’ Jay Mariotti got the treatment. But if you really want to get under a newspaper writer’s skin, the Tempo Subcommittee on Cheap Shots suggests these remarks:
– Sorry, I only talk to TV reporters.
– I really liked that description in your last story. Didn’t I read that somewhere before?
– You call that a fedora?
– When I grow up, I want to be a blogger.
– You’re not going to quote me by name, are you (after a 20-minute interview)?
– Oh, so you’re not a real reporter, like Tim Russert.
– Your last story would have been twice as good if were half as long.
– Patrick Fitzgerald wants to see your notes.
– If you can’t spot a typo in Bridge Quiz, why should I trust anything you write?
– Who writes your questions, Jon Stewart?
– Who do you think you are, Anderson Cooper?
– It’s the maroon Honda; chop-chop.
– You call this a humor piece?
