Archive


Mudline Archive
STICKS, STONES, BROKEN BONES
During the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential race, we began collecting negative soundbites and posting them weekly on a MUDLINE ticker, as a temporary election feature. But in the aftermath of that tumultuous contest we realized that the tone of public discourse was unlikely to improve, and elected to continue the feature. Unfortunately, we were right; two decades later, incivility is hotter than ever. If you just can’t get enough snark on social media, this mud’s for you.
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December 3, 2010
Cavaliers fans on LeBron James: "Ak-ron hates you!"....Daniel Ellsberg on Amazon: "Cowardice and servility."....WikiLeaks: "Pravda justifiably criticizing U.S. for trying to stifle a free press. How times change."....Mike Huckabee on WikiLeaks source: "Guilty of treason...anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.”….Bill O'Reilly on source: "Is a traitor and should be executed or put in prison for life."....Charles Krauthammer on U.S. government: "What is appalling is the helplessness of a superpower that not only cannot protect its own secrets but shows the world that if you violate its secrets -- massively, wantonly and maliciously -- there are no consequences."....Meghan McCain on Julian Assange: "Looks like a James Bond villain."....Wiki-leaked cable on Moscow: "A kleptocracy."....John Boehner on Dem tax cut vote strategy: "Chicken crap."....Ed Rollins on Sarah Palin: "I would have hoped somewhere along the way through the five colleges you attended that you would have learned a little history."....Max Read: "People hate Kim Kardashian's tweets more than AIDS.".... -
November 29, 2010
Rep. Peter King on WikiLeaks leak: "Terrorist activity."….Steven Aftergood: "Information vandalism."....Blake Hounshell: "Grotesque and irresponsible."....William Kristol: "Beneath contempt, and beneath comment."....Charles Johnson: "I don't recall voting for Julian Assange.”….Rush Limbaugh on Obama: "He says nothing about the Constitution in his Thanksgiving proclamation, because he's got a problem with it."....Keith Olbermann on himself and Fox: "One side sticks to the facts, and the other side is close to playing with its poop."....Alan Simpson: "You don't want to listen to Keith Olbermann and Rush Babe and Rachel Minnow or whatever that is, and Glenn Beck. They're entertainers. They couldn't govern their way out of a paper sack."....Tom Gliatto on Andy Richter: "As if Ed McMahan were a squeak toy.".... -
November 18, 2010
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes on Obama: "Has a different belief system than most Americans."....Ailes on NPR executives: "They are, of course, Nazis...They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don't even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda.”….Morgan Meis on official Bush National Portrait Gallery painting: “Mundane kitsch…Aggressively suburban….A Sears portrait."….Ryan Grim on Dubya: “Too lazy to write his own memoir...A collection of other people's versions of events.”….Fidel Castro on Obama: “Handing out jobs in the UN Security Council, as if it were his own property.”….Rush Limbaugh on Obama: “A juvenile delinquent.”….Rosanne Cash on John Boehner: “An asshat.".... -
November 12, 2010
Michelle Goldberg on Glenn Beck's Soros rant: "A symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles.”….J.J. Goldberg on Beck: “As close as I’ve heard on mainstream television to fascism.”….Glenn Beck on George Soros: "Has admitted in the past he doesn't believe in God, but that's perhaps because he thinks he is.”….former chancellor Gerhard Schroder on Bush: “Not telling the truth.”….George Will on Obama presidency: “An exhausted volcano.”….Bobby Jindal on Congress: “Is now often an apprenticeship program for lobbyists-in-waiting.”….Nancy Franklin on TLC: "The Leering Channel.".... -
November 8, 2010
DNC committeeman Robert Zimmerman on White House: "Couldn't sell cocaine to Charlie Sheen."....Ann Coulter on Obama: "He blew the country up."....London Daily Mail on Obama India trip: "Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur."....Sarah Palin on Alaska TV station KTVA: "Corrupt bastards."....Clive Crook on the Left: "Can always find time to attack its own team, cry and complain, and demand to be patted on the head."....Texas Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg on Yankees fans: "By far the worst of any I've seen in the postseason...An embarrassment."....Ted Rall on Obama: "If he was honest with himself and with us, he would resign."....Mark Mellman on Bush book tour: "Great news for Democrats."....Jimmy McMillan: "The only thing higher than the rent is Charlie Sheen."....