I know the guy had been drinking, but this is really quite shocking:
And we wonder why journalism is in trouble?
[via MarkMedia]
Update: the drunk journalist in question is Adam Smith of the Birmingham Mail. As Ian reported in the comments, his story on Obama's victory appears to have been pulled down.
Oh. My. God.
Interestingly, a blank page is now being served on the paper's website instead of his prose from last night.
That isn't funny enough..
Adam, can you come over here to Washington and pull my jaw up off the floor.
Unbelievable but all too believable. Bloggers just cut and paste, eh? Alcohol really is truth serum.
His only mistake was speaking...
"The thing is, they get my version of the truth. And I'm a bit pissed."
That sucks for his readers. If only they could somehow get hold of coverage from other journalists...
When did it become shocking for "hard news journalists" to be hard-drinking sots? I mean, isn't that the traditional image of the mainstream media public monitor?
Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but a news guy getting drunk as a skunk in Miami and picking up chicks while he half-asses some newspaper column seems to be exactly what is expected. At least he's honest about the best part of the job -- pulling the birds.
I love the fact that he "resigns" at the end, to me it appears he's joking about cutting and pasting from the BBC, and he managed to get a plug in for his new website!
He had also paid for himself to fly to Miami and help the Obama campaign. He got caught out but - given the circumstances - who wouldn't have been caught up in the atmosphere and celebrations?
It's still available via Google's cache:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:V7Pyf0WhdboJ:www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2008/11/05/reporter-adam-smith-on-barack-obama-s-victory-97319-22188006/+birmingham+mail+adam+smith+barak+obama&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
I wonder if the stetson played a deciding factor...
Here's his response.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5lUWLBYfU