Before I Go, Here Are the 15 Craziest Clips I’ve Covered for Mediaite
The time has come. After almost three years as Mediaite’s resident west coast editor, today is my last day with the site. And while I will most certainly miss my colleagues, past and present, instead of writing a sentimental love note to those I will leave behind I have decided to share with you 15 of the most insane things I’ve seen while working here, in chronological order.
As of today, I have somehow written more than 6,300 pieces for Mediaite. Remarkably, my very first post for the site on January 7, 2013 (not counting a one day stint a few weeks earlier) was about Donald Trump and what then seemed like a meaningless feud with NBC. If only I had known then what I know now…
That same day, out of nowhere, I was delivered this gem, courtesy of Al Roker:
Al Roker Admits He Pooped His Pants at the White House
“You pooped your pants.”
“I pooped my pants.”
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Four months after I started working for Mediaite, my hometown of Boston was bombed. It was a rough week, until this happened and made things just a little bit better:
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Wolf Blitzer Asks an Atheist Tornado Survivor if She ‘Thanked the Lord’
There was nothing funny about the tornado that devastated much of Moore, Oklahoma in May 2013, except for this.
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Mika Brzezinski Freaks Out over Miley Cyrus
No one was more upset about that Miley Cyrus MTV VMA performance than Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski: “I think that was really, really disturbing.”
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Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson Doesn’t Have Fingerprints
What does it mean that Fox News host Gretchen Carlson has finger pads so smooth that she can’t use them to unlock her iPhone? What else is she not telling us?
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Samantha Bee Sums Up Why The Five Is the Best/Worst Show on Cable News
In January 2014, Samantha Bee delivered what will forever be my favorite thing that has ever happened on The Daily Show. It wasn’t until more than a year later, as Bee was preparing to leave the show for her own late night gig on TBS, that I found out it was writer Zhubin Parang, and not Bee, who shared my unhealthy obsession with cable news’ most simultaneously brilliant and awful hour of television.
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CNN’s Endless Speculation About Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Before we even knew just how much this story was going to consume CNN in 2014, the speculation was off the charts.
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Bill Nye Wins Crossfire Climate Change Debate with S.E. Cupp
Crossfire 2.0 was rarely a success for CNN, but this exchange between Bill Nye and S.E. Cupp stood out for its sheer audacity:
Cupp: “I want you to look me in the eye and tell me in good conscience that climate change is our most urgent, number one priority right now.”
Nye: “Climate change is our most urgent, number one priority right now.”
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Jake Tapper Gets Real in Ferguson
For a few moments one August night last summer CNN’s Jake Tapper let America see what was really happening on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri.
“Now I want you to look at what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri, in downtown America, okay? These are armed police, with — not machine guns — semi-automatic rifles, with batons, with shields, many of them dressed for combat. Now why they’re doing this? I don’t know. Because there is no threat going on here. None that merits this. There is none, okay? Absolutely there have been looters, absolutely over the last nine days there’s been violence, but there is nothing going on on this street right now that merits this scene out of Bagram. Nothing.”
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Stephen Colbert Says Goodbye to ‘Stephen Colbert’
Stephen Colbert’s honest reaction to never having to watch Bill O’Reilly again pretty much sums up my feelings about quitting cable news coverage: “No one’s going to pay me to watch him anymore, so fuck that noise!”
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That Time Eddie Murphy Forgot to Be Funny at SNL40
Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary show was one of the most successful television specials in recent memory, except for the moment when Eddie Murphy appeared on the Studio 8H stage for the first time in more than 30 years and refused to do anything resembling comedy. It was even worse when we found out he had declined the chance to play Bill Cosby in the Jeopardy sketch.
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Obama Actually Sings ‘Amazing Grace’
Is President Barack Obama really going to end his moving and inspiring Charleston eulogy by leading the congregation in “Amazing Grace?” Yes, yes he is.
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John Oliver Proves Whoopi Goldberg Will Literally Defend Anything
Of all the impressively-researched segments John Oliver has delivered over the past year and a half on Last Week Tonight, none rang more true to someone who spends way too much time watching The View than this one.
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If this kind of childish, dictatorial behavior can’t kill Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, then really, what can?
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Definitive Proof That Mediaite Is Not a Gay Porn Site
It’s always fun when Mediaite gets shout-outs on cable news, but I’m not sure anything will ever top this exchange between Wolf Blitzer and Don Lemon during which they were forced to clarify on air that this site you are reading right now is “not a gay porn website.”
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Well, there you go. Those are just some of the clips I will keep in my heart forever. In addition, I’ll always remember that time someone on Fox News said the words “Screw you, Matt Wilstein” and when Sean Hannity told me I “SUCK” in all caps:
@TheMattWilstein Lets do the BEST OF MEDIAITE CONCHA. ALL THE REST OF U MEDIAMATTERS WANNABEES SUCK IMHO . #badge of honor
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) December 22, 2014
To Dan Abrams, thank you so much for trusting me with my first job in media and giving me the freedom to write about ridiculous stuff like the videos above. And to Andrew Kirell and Jon Nicosia, who have supported me from day one, it has been a fun journey that I will not soon forget. To everyone else, good luck!
Starting next month, I will be taking on a new role covering entertainment for The Daily Beast. At least I’ll still get to write about Donald Trump.
If you want to keep in touch, please follow me on Twitter @TheMattWilstein
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
