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Home » Remember when the adjective “hard-boiled” used to regularly be attached to reporters?

Remember when the adjective “hard-boiled” used to regularly be attached to reporters?

The New Neo Posted on by

Nowadays they seem rather soft-boiled, or perhaps “coddled” would be a better term:

Anchor Wolf Blitzer said on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room” that Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) calling CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju a “liberal hack” was “disgusting.”

Blitzer said, “Manu, I want to ask you something that happened today with you up on Capitol Hill when you attempted to air a very fair, serious, important question to Republican Senator Martha McSally of Arizona. A question about the upcoming trial in the Senate.”

After playing a clip of the encounter, Blitzer said, “Instead of answering a fair question, she simply called you a ‘liberal hack.’ It was disgusting, it was awful.

One of the most repulsive things about the press these days is how sanctimonious they are in defending their own supposed (and yet for the most part non-existent) objectivity. Are Blitzer and Raju really that fragile? Is the press supposed to be given all deference and respect merely because of their august titles, as though they were royalty?

Whether Raju actually is a “liberal hack” isn’t even the issue, although a case can be made that he is. The issue is this: if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Being called a “liberal hack,” quelle horreur!

[ADDENDUM: A highly amusing take by Jim Treacher.]

Comments

Remember when the adjective “hard-boiled” used to regularly be attached to reporters? — 46 Comments

  1. Poor Manu ! He’ll be scarred for life !

    Thank you Martha McSally. I hope you’ve started a trend.

  4. Remember Blitzer asking Trump campaign people to stop the audience at rallies from chanting CNN $ucks because it frightened the reporters sent to cover the event. The left is all full of beta males & female professional victims.

  5. CNN is laughable at best. They are all liberal hacks and it is not news. I receive better news from the seagulls that live in my town.

  7. She could have said worse, but probably restrained herself.
    I certainly could say worse. Dwaz came close.

  8. “One of the most repulsive things about the press these days is how sanctimonious they are in defending their own supposed (and yet for the most part non-existent) objectivity.”

    Hear, hear!

  9. Yes, the movie “His Girl Friday” is the classic example of hard-boiled reporters. The original source was a play written by Ben Hecht called “The Front Page” which goes way back. Many films with the same name as the play were made, including in the silent film era.

    Apparently, the screenplay for His Girl Friday was written 3 times and it changed a great deal. Originally about two male reporters, it was switched to a male and female with a male bully and a more passive female character, and finally the male became a comedic character and female became the hard-boiled reporter. In 1940 no less.

    The film trivial is interesting if you are into that.

    Here is an amusing item, though the context is slightly obscure,

    Howard Hawks managed to ignore Production Code objections to Hildy’s bribing the jailer to get an interview with condemned man Earl Williams, the kidnapping of Bruce’s mother and the attempts to smuggle Williams out of the court building. One area where he deferred to them, however, was in the characterization of reporters as “the scum of Western civilization.” To soften the film’s depiction of the fourth estate, he added a written prologue setting the film in another era (though without any attempt to capture period costumes): “It all happened in the ‘dark ages’ of the newspaper game – when to a reporter ‘getting that story’ justified anything short of murder. Incidentally, you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press of today. Ready? Well, once upon a time –“

    I saw the film ages ago, and don’t recall that much, but I’ve been meaning to see it again. I just recently saw, “Call Northside 777” (film-noir, 1948) which features Jimmy Stewart as a hard-boiled reporter and based on a true story. Not as entertaining as His Girl Friday, but worth seeing if you like Stewart.

  10. I was commenting to my husband the other day that there are few true reporters anymore. Reporters go out and dig for stories. They get rejected and threatened over and over. They track down a lot of dead end threads. They spend a lot of time diligently doing really boring stuff.

    These over-credentialed “journalists” just sit on their phones and computers and gossip with their friends in the government–oh, excuse me, their “sources.”

    “His Girl Friday” indeed!

  11. I wonder how many righteous Democrats will get up in arms about this Republican “violation” of freedom of the press. How Democrat pols are always respectful of journalists, in contrast to those dastardly Republicans, who want to send journalists to those Gulags that the Bernie staffer talked about. Consider Democrat Senator Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) treatment of a Daily Caller reporter last year.Dem senator threatens to call cops on reporter, calls him ‘trash’ for Green New Deal question.

    Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) tore into a conservative reporter for daring to approach and ask a question about the Green New Deal.

    The reporter is Henry Rodgers of The Daily Caller, who has made waves on social media recently by confronting Democratic politicians and asking them direct questions about newsworthy things they’d rather not talk about, like the Democratic scandals in Virginia, or late-term abortion bills.

    Rodgers went up to Menendez while the senator was waiting for the train to get his thoughts on the Green New Deal, a controversial bill that he will be asked to vote on soon, and which some Democrats probably don’t want to go on record about right now.

    Menendez was not in the mood, clearly.

    “I won’t answer questions to the Daily Caller, period,” Menendez said to Rodgers. “You’re trash.”

    Rodgers asked why Menendez thought they were trash.

    “Don’t keep harassing me or I’ll call Capitol Police,” Menendez replied. “I said no.”

    Democrats like journalists only when they are Democrat operatives.

  12. It’s probably true that at CNN, only a small minority are in fact “liberal hacks”. The rest are hard leftists.

    But all are seditious traitors.

  14. I don’t know why people go to college to become liberal “reporters”. All they need to know is:

    “Don’t write anything good about Republicans, and don’t write anything bad about Democrats”.

    Richard

  15. Senator McSally, should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial

    Why would a question like that make McSally answer in such a rude manner? That’s a softball question.

    How about just say ‘No’? Or nothing at all?

    When ‘conservative hacks’ ask this exact same question McSally… well, still doesn’t answer. She giggles and evades because she was in Laura Ingraham’s studio. No doubt in a safe space where no actual tough questions will ever be asked – expect by Chris Wallace who dares to ask both sides actual questions of substance.

    Neo, if you were given an opportunity to ask questions to any Democrats and they called you a ‘conservative hack’ would you just shrug and ignore it? At a certain point you have to call out any politician who does that – even if you favor one side over the other.

  16. They aren’t reporters anymore, they are journalists. They don’t report the news they promote the liberal agenda.

  17. What I see as being really crazy about this is the fact that the left-wing press truly seems to think that they have the upper hand here, PR-wise. They apparently honestly believe that their hysterical weeping over this minor bit of rudeness will win over the public. They don’t seem to understand that nobody likes a crybaby.

  18. “Why would a question like that make McSally answer in such a rude manner?”

    Yeah! Why was her skirt so short? Who does she think she is?!?!

    Seriously, CNN actually had a panel of people on-air discussing the size and shape of Trump’s penis but calling one of their reporters a “liberal hack” is almost a war crime?

    McSally’s rudeness is NOT the issue. No reasonable person can possibly think it is. What is the issue is the bizarre and disturbing behavior of a major cable news network taking a conservative politician mildly insulting one of its reporters and turning THAT into a network-wide hissy fit.

    McSally’s comment, while perhaps rude and regrettable, is a perfectly normal sort of thing anyone might snap when they’re having a bad day. CNN’s reaction is something you’d get from an neurotic basket case undergoing a full-on breakdown.

    Mike

  19. The ‘professional’ network that formerly called its members “jornolists” and shared stories which were often BS truly believes they occupy hallowed ground.

    It is one of several serious errors in the Constitution, this unchecked freedom of the press, which by intent applied to editorial opinion only, not the creation of fake news, such as the NYT’s recent statement the GAO is an “an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress.”

    That works for Congress. But is somehow independent!

    As to non-partisanship, the GAO’s staff is unionized; that union’s PAC made 100% of its contributions to Democrats in the last election, zero to Republicans.

    It is freedom of the press that allows the NYT journalists to lie to its readers, and to readers of the outlying papers which it owns and to which it economically cycles ‘stories’. like the Boston Globe.

  20. I think the point to take away from this is that even among RINO circles the window has moved to the point where speaking truth to the MSM has no downside whatsoever with your potential voters.

  21. MBunge
    I sort of agree with you. It’s small potatoes for sure.
    But I’m sure if the tables were turned Fox News would definitely make a noise about a Democratic senator calling a Fox reporter a ‘conservative hack’.

    The bigger problem however is a general animosity that has grown between the press and politicians in Washington. It’s to the point that even if a biased news organization asks a legitimate question it becomes easier to dismiss it than answer it.

  22. Yes, the movie “His Girl Friday” is the classic example of hard-boiled reporters.

    TommyJay: I watched it again a few years ago. Screwball delight!

    But what really stuck in my mind was that wacky zebra-striped outfit with striped hat and a string tie that Rosalind Russell wore in the beginning.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8lzyaMZ-mA

    Once upon a time, if one believes Hollywood movies, all true Americans were hard-boiled.

    What’s happened to us!

  23. Maybe she was also thinking about a follow up questions that would most certainly have CNN putting her in an undeserved bad light.

  24. huxley,
    Rosalind Russell was coming off her success with “The Women” when she made “His Girl Friday.” I’ve seen “The Women” a few times in recent years and love the rapid fire dialog which is similar to His Girl Friday. All the women in “The Women” are brash and a couple are tough. (Based on a Clare Boothe Luce play, two women screenwriters, and an uncredited Donald Ogden Stewart and F. Scott Fitzgerald!)

    I was wondering if that feature of both scripts was related to women entering the factories and other workplaces because of WWII. But the timing is wrong I think. Those movies came first. Maybe the success and style of The Women rubbed off on His Girl Friday.
    _____

    I’ve been watching Film-Noir films from their heyday of the late 30’s to the late 50’s. Many of those characters are very tough, until about the early 50’s. Then the films begin to psychoanalyze their villains and look at their hardships.

  25. Montage:

    There would be many different ways to respond. For example:

    (1) “Why do you call me that? I think I’ve always been objective and fair.”

    (2) Just repeat the question and hope for an answer.

    (3) Joke: “I may be a hack, but I’m no conservative!”

    (4) “Why are you avoiding the question? It’s a reasonable one.”

    And there are probably tons more. And a response here and there saying McSally was rude would be perfectly fine as well. But all this weeping and wailing and carrying on as though she did something “disgusting” and “awful” is absolutely preposterous. If someone did something like that to me, I certainly would not find it “disgusting” or “awful.” I would consider it business as usual.

  26. Montage, you’re wanted on the other thread where you asked a couple questions and then vamoosed.

  27. Filed under “The More Things Change…”

    “I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.” – William Tecumseh Sherman

  28. Neo,
    The first thing Manu said after she called him a ‘liberal hack’ was [very casually] “You’re not going to comment about this?” Manu is not complaining. The complaint came from Wolf Blitzer.

    So it seems Manu did exactly what you say here. The whole interview he had with Wolf is here

    The piece is five minutes long and only in the end does the bit with McSally come up. When it does he explains to Wolf that since the Democrats will be bringing in new evidence he wants to know how she feels about that. Manu is a pretty mild-mannered reporter. He’s not a firebrand leftist.

  29. I’ve seen “The Women” a few times in recent years and love the rapid fire dialog which is similar to His Girl Friday.

    TommyJay: Rapid-fire dialog was around then. My impression is it was partly from vaudeville. As I recall, Katherine Hepburn took tips for “Bringing Up Baby” from a vaudevillian who was a character actor for “Baby.” And who can forget the Marx Brothers.

    I do love smart, quick dialog. Not much of it around these days. Keeps me going to Mamet, Whit Stillman and, somewhat, Tarantino. Plus BBC stuff of course.

  30. Montage:

    Actually, I wasn’t even talking about Manu when I gave those hypothetical answers. I was responding to this question from you:

    Neo, if you were given an opportunity to ask questions to any Democrats and they called you a ‘conservative hack’ would you just shrug and ignore it? At a certain point you have to call out any politician who does that – even if you favor one side over the other.

    My answers were in response to the question of what I would say if I were similarly accused, the question you asked me. I wasn’t referring to what Raju had said at all in that part.

    In addition, my post was not so much about Raju at all, actually – it was about the over-the-top reaction of Blitzer to what happened, and Blitzer’s assumption that Raju and all of them are too fragile to withstand the heat. It was Blitzer I was quoting in the post, Blitzer who used the words “disgusting” and “awful.” I don’t even know if Raju is that much of a hack – it’s not my impression that, except for that one story I linked to, he’s been anywhere near one of the worst offenders in that regard. It may be that McSally knew about that one incident, and that that was why she called him a liberal hack, but I’m not sure what was in her mind. As I wrote in the post, the point isn’t whether she was right or wrong.

    But Blitzer and all the rest acting as though McSally practically destroyed Raju – that’s the problem. Blitzer is by no means the only one talking it up: there’s Cuomo and Anderson Cooper, for example (Cooper sure doesn’t sound “objective” in that video, by the way). It was treated as a BIG story, a big outrage, by other reporters rather than by Raju himself.

  31. These days politicians have many obvious ways to get their story out — they are not forced to answer all questions that come their way in order to communicate with the public. Both sides are just beginning to figure out how much the game has changed.

    Now reporters are very often — in effect — asking for a favor rather than granting one when they offer publicity by asking a question. McSally’s best response was probably something like

    “My answer to that question is valuable information. I think I’ll give it to someone who I like.”

    (or is not a liberal hack, etc.– fill in the part after “who” as desired)

  32. Montage … shouldn’t you be working on your film editing instead of making comments on a politically moderate blog?

  33. Montage
    But I’m sure if the tables were turned Fox News would definitely make a noise about a Democratic senator calling a Fox reporter a ‘conservative hack’.

    If you are so sure about that, then you should be able to find out what Fox News said about Senator Menendez (D-NJ) calling Daily Caller and its reporter “trash.”(see my previous comment.)

  34. Kate on January 17, 2020 at 3:40 pm said:
    Yes, if they can’t stand the heat, they will be not coddled but poached.
    * * *
    Well, as Ben Rhodes said, most of them are raw.

  35. And here’s the top definition of “hard-boiled” from the Urban Dictionary:

    An adjective describing a person that is seemingly unphased by anything. Derived from the Hong Kong movie “Hard Boiled” (1992) directed by John Woo.

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hard%20boiled

    Give the youngsters a chance and they will assume nothing much happened before they were born.

    I’m old enough to remember when “hard-boiled” was already outdated slang.

  37. https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/17/if-cnn-cant-take-punches-they-shouldnt-be-throwing-them/

    JANUARY 17, 2020 By David Marcus
    The powers that be at CNN were in full outrage mode yesterday after Republican Sen. Martha McSally called Manu Raju, one of their congressional correspondents, a “liberal hack,” and refused to answer his questions.

    After the incident, much of the minimal airtime left over from trashing Donald Trump all day was expended in defense of Raju and the network, which they clearly feel, has been unfairly besmirched. I’ve got two words for them: toughen up.

    A statement from their PR department said, “It is extremely unbecoming for a U.S. Senator to sink to this level and treat a member of the press this way for simply doing his job.” Oh no, not unbecoming. What is it when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Fox News’ Tucker Carlson a “white supremacist sympathizer?” Is that unbecoming or is that speaking truth to power?

    And so on.
    Remember: if the Left didn’t have double standards, it wouldn’t have any at all.

  38. https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/17/martha-mcsally-is-now-a-dangerous-media-critic-for-calling-a-cnn-reporter-a-liberal-hack/

    Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in Arizona, and only 32 percent of Republicans find CNN “credible.” A good chunk of McSally’s constituents would probably have a different reaction to the dust-up than Beltway Twitter. That’s why she doubled down and fundraised off of it. Those voters don’t actually have many voices in Congress willing to publicly confront members of the press face-to-face. To the extent McSally’s insult matters at all, it’s probably that.

    Plus, the more sanctimonious criticism McSally receives from the media, the more easy it is for her to fundraise off the incident, fueling the anti-media sentiments that make so many members of the press anxious. Besides being disproportionate, it’s not even practical to attack her.

    Was McSally’s barb polite? Not at all. But you may remember that Washington Republicans’ deferential politeness to people who don’t deserve it was something of a factor in the 2016 primary race. If anything, Washington politicians are too friendly with the media.

    Maybe there’s some middle ground between “hack” and “no comment” McSally could have found in the moment. I honestly just don’t care enough to think about it, and neither should you.

  39. This is what the mild-mannered reporter actually said:
    https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/16/sen-martha-mcsally-blasts-cnn-reporter-on-camera-youre-a-liberal-hack/

    “Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican facing a difficult election race, lashed out when I asked if she would consider new evidence as part of the Senate trial,” Raju tweeted.

    If you actually watch the video, McSally’s comment was less like lashing and more like giving an unwanted suitor the “get lost” line.

    McSally doubled down on her statement, tweeting her own video of the interaction and restating that Raju is a liberal hack. In the course of the exchange, McSally never raised her voice. She simply called out a CNN reporter for his obvious bias. She never “lashed out” or “attacked” Raju by any definition.

  40. Gay Talese published a history of the NYT in 1969. The book is called “The Kingdom and the Power”. Back then the paper employed journalists like M.L. Rosenthal, James Reston, Tom Wicker and Harrison Salisbury. Each one – in his own way – was a tough, worldly reporter. The publisher was the grandfather of the current publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Grandpa could take it and dish it out. A.G. is one of the melting sky-drops of Snowflake Nation. His girl Friday is Maggie Haberman. Add pip-squeaks like Peter Baker, Glen Thrush, Jeremy Peters and Jonathan Martin. All soft-boiled and very rotten eggs.

    Twas only a few weeks ago that the ridiculous Wolf Blitzer was making catty remarks to Kellyanne Conway about disagreements she has with her husband.

    Thanks again to Martha McSally.

  41. remember when democrats banned Fox news from hosting any democratic debate because Fox news was the right wing hack?

    I really really really really really hate democrats and liberals in America, they are infuriating evil, they deserved to not have a voice with the way they abuse God’s gift of speaking. I pray for God to take away democrats and liberals ability to speak like in the story of tower of babel if they don’t use it for anything other than lie and deceive.

  42. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/478777-bill-kristol-on-mcsally-calling-cnn-reporter-a-liberal-hack-i-guess-im-liberal

    “McSally calling a reporter a ‘liberal hack’ for asking a question, and then taking high fives from today’s ‘conservatives’ for doing so, tempts me to say: If it’s liberal to hold public officials in our liberal democracy accountable for doing their job, then I guess I’m liberal,” Kristol tweeted.
    …

    Former “Weekly Standard” founder Bill Kristol defended CNN’s congressional reporter Manu Raju on Friday, with Kristol stating that “if it’s liberal to hold public officials in our liberal democracy accountable for doing their job” then he guesses “he’s liberal.”

    The commentary from Kristol comes one day after Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), after being asked by Raju whether she wanted new evidence against President Trump to be considered as part of his impeachment trial, refused to answer the question while calling him a “liberal hack.”

    Kristol, a staunch online critic of Trump going back to the early days of his candidacy, criticized McSally for taking “high fives” from conservatives over the encounter.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    “McSally calling a reporter a ‘liberal hack’ for asking a question, and then taking high fives from today’s ‘conservatives’ for doing so, tempts me to say: If it’s liberal to hold public officials in our liberal democracy accountable for doing their job, then I guess I’m liberal,” Kristol tweeted.

    McSally, who faces a tough reelection this year, later promoted the exchange in a fundraising email and is selling T-shirts quoting her exchange with Raju that say, “You’re a liberal hack, buddy,”

    Several of Raju’s CNN colleagues have defended Raju, most notably anchor Wolf Blitzer.

    ADVERTISEMENT
    “Instead of answering a fair question, she simply called you a ‘liberal hack.’ It was disgusting, it was awful,” Blitzer said on air while talking to Raju on Thursday evening. “She should know better. Certainly, you’re one of the most respected congressional reporters up on Capitol Hill.”

    “If they did the right thing, she would personally call you,” Blitzer later added.

    McSally dismissed calls for her to apologize during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night.

    “I’m a fighter pilot, you know. I called it like it is, and that’s what we see out of the mainstream media, especially CNN, every single day, so obviously I’m going to tell the truth, and I did it today and it’s laughable how they’ve responded,” she said on “The Ingraham Angle.” “They’re cheerleading the Democrats, they hate the president.”

  43. But ARE they liberal hacks?
    Why yes, yes they are.

    https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/01/18/767807/

    Clearly, at least one writer over at Politico was happy with the deal as well and penned an article entitled, “Senate passes USMCA in major win for Trump.” There was no subheadline or lede below it.

    Forty minutes later, however, the headline had changed. It read, “Senate passes USMCA, but much work remains.” Below the headline was a brief lede which read, “It’ll take years of costly work before American workers and businesses begin to benefit from the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada.”

    The headline had changed from unequivocal praise to acknowledgement of its passage and informing readers that “much more work” needs to be done before America realizes any benefits from it.

    Apparently, somebody inside the organization did not want to give President Trump any credit for brokering the deal and forced the change.

  44. Do they KNOW they are liberal hacks?
    Why no, no they don’t.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2020/01/18/mcsally-responds-to-cnns-hysteria-n2559731

    On Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Friday, McSally continued to defend her decision “to call a liberal a liberal” and said it was more troubling that the liberal media is masquerading as “objective” when they are really “helping with the Democratic agenda.”

    “I actually thought they understood that they were liberal,” McSally began. “They were a part of kind of helping with the Democratic agenda. On a daily basis, you see whatever the Democrat talking points are are the talking points in the liberal mainstream media as you know and I thought they were aware of it but somehow they just check their journalism objectivity at the door. What’s been fascinating in response is it seems like they actually think they’re neutral. They think they’re objective, and that is more troubling — it’s just delusional how they’ve responded to this. You know, never mind their hyperbolic words about … did she just have a bad day? Was she emotional? No. I was a fighter pilot. This was a choice I made. I did not crumble under their pressure. I’ve flown A-10s in combat. I decided to call a liberal a liberal and for whatever reason they couldn’t handle it.”

    Bernie Goldberg, who wrote a book about bias at the networks years ago, recalled how dumb-founded he was when Dan Rather described the New York Times as middle-of-the-road.

    https://bernardgoldberg.com/bias/

  46. Loved the Treacher piece — thanks!

    While there, I read the review of the latest Star Wars:

    https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/a-modest-proposal-for-dealing-with-star-wars-vii-ix/

    .

    Also a fan of Northside 777. The only version I’ve seen of The Front Page is Switching Channels with Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve — enjoyable romantic comedy.

    Would love to see the version w/ Rosalind Russell (huge fan). And The Women is another favorite of mine.

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