There was no pounding the pavement, hitting up sources, or assembling and verifying facts for Chozick. Instead, she hit a Yahoo! message board, posted a “hey does anyone else think Obama is too skinny?” query, and when someone posted a snarky, sarcastic response, she bit.
The folks at Sadly, No! have the details:
Amy Chozick starts a thread:Is Obama too skinny to be president? 15-Jul-08 06:04 pm
Does anyone out there think Barack Obama is too thin to be president? Anyone having a hard time relating to him and his “no excess body fat”? Please let me know. Thanks!A reply is posted:
Re: Is Obama too skinny to be president? 15-Jul-08 10:21 pm
Yes I think He is to skinny to be President.Hillary has a potbelly and chuckybutt I’d of Voted for Her.I won’t vote for any beanpole guy.Amy responds:
Re: Is Obama too skinny to be president? 16-Jul-08 09:12 amThe entire rest of the brief thread consists of people saying that the question is stupid, and/or making fun of Chozick.
Love your response and your username (onlinebeerbellygirl). Would you mind shooting me an email so I can ask you a few more quesitons? My email is [redacted] Thanks so much!
-Amy
SN! links to the Google cache of the thread; you can read the whole sorry thing for yourself. I'm not sure that "onlinebeerbellygirl" ever responded to Amy, because the quote that ended up in her story was the"I won't vote for any beanpole guy" bit.
This is what passes for journalism at the Wall Street Journal under Rupert Murdoch? Posting threads on message boards and then reporting the inane responses as if they are the actual, legitimate opinion of American voters? Cripes.
Hey, does anyone think Obama is a space alien? Amy Chozick of the Wall Street Journal wants to know.
