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Jezebel says: Don’t “Shoot the Messenger”?!

The Internet is funny, and in this case it’s the funny weird variety. Just try to watch this interview Lizz Winstead had with Jezebel editors Moe and Tracie last week on Shoot the Messenger.

More than a few people watched it live. They weren’t exactly thrilled by it. And I just got finished reading the 577 comments that Jezebel readers have posted in the two hours since that site’s editor wrote a post-mortem piece (probably much more by the time you click on it). You can also read Lizz Winstead’s take on it here (she also blogged it on the Huffington Post). This interview will go down as less of a triumph and more of an insult dog-eat-dog drunken trainwreck.

So. Why did I say the Internet is funny weird, again? Jezebel gets more than a half-million visitors every weekday. And Moe and Tracie write for the site. So they all know how the Internet works. Right? People seem to be familiar with the Google at this point. Not my grandmother. Thank goodness. But most people. So whether you’re weighing in with a comment about the Shoot the Messenger show, or, say, about to appear on the show as a guest, you could actually, before going on the show or talking about it, go visit the Shoot the Messenger site and see what the show is about. You’d see that it’s two shows, the first half a parody of morning TV "news" programming, and the second half an actual interview segment in which Winstead talks to people in the media about serious issues. Sometimes she talks to funny people. But you could see this by visiting the site, and by see, I mean they have past interviews on video. Upcoming guests include Kurt Andersen, Rachel Maddow (Winstead used to work with her on Air America Radio), Catherine Crier and Bill Moyers. Paul Reickhoff, who founded the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has been on the program multiple times. I just looked that up on the Internet! I also wonder if people who get requests for a field interview from The Daily Show know that it’s not a real news program and airs on Comedy Central and will probably take them to task? Oh, wait. What’s that? Winstead co-created that show? Funny weird.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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