Roger L. Simon

Turning Right at Hollywood and Vine

The Perils of Coming Out Conservative in Tinseltown
This is the SECOND EDITION of BLACKLISTING MYSELF, now in paperback from Encounter Books with TWO NEW CHAPTERS! BUY HERE IN PAPERBACK!... KINDLE ... BN NOOKBOOK... SONY READER... also on APPLE IBOOKS.

By Roger L Simon

Bio

Get Updates From Roger L Simon

Joe the Plumber in Sderot for PJTV

January 12, 2009 - 12:41 am - by Roger L Simon

Well, here it is, the first report from Joe Wurzelbacher in Israel for PJTV – and it came out more interesting than I expected, if I do say so myself. Joe had quite a day in Sderot, as you will see. He comes under attack from Hamas rockets and from the international media. I could make the obvious joke that the latter is worse, but that’s not really true, is it? Those rockets are lethal.

This first report will probably generate another round of vitriol from the hotheads who commented endlessly in the posts below. But it will be interesting to see if some of them ameliorate their views when confronted with Joe Wurzelbacher as a human being. He’s certainly a nice enough fellow. Is he the greatest reporter since Edward R. Murrow? Of course not. But who was Murrow really? Just another media guy with an opinion. And what is media anyway? Well, there’s the question.

Welcome to the Middle East, Joe!

PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.

15 Comments, 15 Threads

  1. 1. Lightnin' Hopkins

    Before the trolls convulse and flail about, I’ll just say that Joe did okay – and with less umms and ahhs than the Annointed One and Caroline Kennedy!

    Cue the angry mob.

  2. 2. Lightnin' Hopkins

    Joe’s mention of infrastructure being ripped apart to build rockets brought this story to mind:

    http://tinyurl.com/9hb3am

  3. 3. myna

    The old MSM are having a convulsions. They really think they are the real deal. The new breed of media, PJTV, are here to stay to challenge their credibility.

  4. 4. Lawrence Kellogg

    Roger, neither my MacBook Pro nor my Dell PC will play any PJTV content, and I am registered & paid my $30.
    Any techno-advice?

  5. 5. Lawrence Kellogg

    You and your readers may wish to sign this:
    http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=15&Action=View

  6. 6. Roger L Simon

    Lawrence Kellog, the Joe videos are free even to non-subscribers. But… if you are having a problem, log in and hit “support”. Our support folks are very helpful.

    Also, this is getting a lot of hits, so may be temp server problem. Don’t know.

  7. 7. frankly don

    Hey, if Stuttering John can go from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ to ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ then Joe the Plumber has a bright future ahead him.

  8. 8. Victor Erimita

    How dare you send a so-called reporter to Israel who doesn’t hate Israel?

    I actually think this is a pretty brilliant move. Joe the Plumber, Like Sarah Palin, is a fairly ordinary American, a “working American,” in fact, in the socialist-derived groupsspeak of the Left, who had the temerity to to speak truth to power. Predictably, the champions of the working class tore him to shreds, as they did Palin. Not only did he question The One, but he didn’t go to an elite college, doesn’t speak in the patterns approved by Campbell Brown, Tina Fey and the other guardians of public speech form, and he actually seems to simply question some of the preposterous axioms the reality-based community takes for granted. It would have been worth sending him just to witness the hilarious apoplexy with which the “professional media” regard him.

    But more importantly, it is an eloquent dagger to the heart of what is left of the MSM conceit that it alone determines reality. Unfortunately, the election of a no-achievement zero to the presidency, and the gullibility of the public on issues like global warming and the demonization of Bush, show that the MSM still has enormous, even determinative, power to shape public opinion. But the cracks are in the wall, and Joe the Plumber is the perfect choice to keep pointing out the shallowness of the MSM consensus. I hope he becomes very popular.

  9. 9. Mike_K

    I can’t even register from my MacBook, Roger.

  10. 10. Judge Crater

    There was a short mention of Joe Wurzelbacher going reporting from Israel on NPR’s Morning edition today. More a bemused, wry note rather than anything serious.

    But no mention of PJTV. Per NPR Joe Wurzelbacher is working for “a conservative website.”

    One of those “don’t mention the war” Fawlty Towers moments. Can’t let the name of a possible competitor go out on the airways.

  11. 11. Lawrence Kellogg

    Kudos to Joe and to PJTV for having the balls to stand up and tell the truth—with a very good camera person, as well. What could have been more vivid than what we saw with Joe? I particularly appreciated what he said about the impact of such an attack on the lives of the children. What MSM reporter ever says anything so perceptive, and, of course, accurate? This was a brilliant idea, and Joe is doing a magnificent and brave job. I’m sorry to say this because I assume he has many grateful plumbing customers, but I hope he changes careers and continues reporting around the country and the world for PJTV. He is absolutely terrific.

  12. 12. Joe Schmoe

    That was awesome. Joe was fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like that — a regular person reporting the news. Terrific.

  13. It’s the authenticity, stupid

    Terrific job!

  14. 14. Cap'n Eddie Ricketyback

    Re: 6. Roger L Simon: But… if you are having a problem, log in and hit “support”.

    So, the video froze up my browser and trying to X out or hitting “support” resulted in only the little dinging sound, and the only way to get out was through CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shutting it down with the Task Manager, which of course shut down all my browser windows requiring me to start over. Not the first time that has happened with one of those videos, by the way.

    Just thought that info may be of some use to you.

  15. 15. Belladonna Rogers

    A stroke of genius to send Joe. He has everything a good reporter needs: intellectual and emotional intelligence, the ability to ask questions and actually listen to the answers, the capacity to be a credible eye witness and to communicate his observations with clarity. Not to mention courage and grace under fire. You saw how he gallantly and bravely herded others into the shelter before entering it himself. I was fascinated when he was describing the heinous (and, fortunately, failed) Hamas attempt to murder elementary school children and their parents, when he noted that the students had just returned from a three-week hiatus. He paused momentarily, and then added that they’d been on a break from school. I thought that was terrific—that he realized mid-sentence that there may be viewers unfamiliar with the meaning of “hiatus” and so he clarified what it meant. He is so real, he just makes all the MSM correspondents look like cardboard stand-ups reading their biased, scripted, slanted copy without giving any background whatsoever. With the MSM, it is as if the world began today: no sense of history or context. Joe gets it, and he presents it with clarity, decency and truth. What more could anyone want?

Leave a Reply

Click here to subscribe to the Daily Digest, to stay up to date with the latest at PJ Media. (You will be sent an email asking you to verify your email address. If you have previously subscribed, no verification email will be sent.)