Fired POLITICO Reporter Blames Conservative 'Noise Machine,' Not His Comments About Romney and 'White Folk

During an interview on Current TV’s “The War Room With Jennifer Granholm,” former White House correspondent for POLITICO Joe Williams explained why the conservative "noise machine" is to blame for his firing and not, in fact, his own mouth.

For those of you wondering who Joe Williams is, here’s a refresher: he’s the “objective journalist” who used Twitter to mock Romney for his wealth, call NASCAR fans racists, and retweet a penis joke involving Ann Romney [stay classy]. Once, while bemoaning what’s really going on in politics, he tweeted: “what's most irritating is the overlay of blatant racism. that's the secret sauce in the Politico s***burger.”

He then appeared on MSNBC and said that former Massachusetts Gov. Romney is only comfortable when he's around “white folk.”

“It’s very interesting that he [Romney] does so many appearances on ‘Fox & Friends’ and it’s unscripted,” Williams said during an interview with MSNBC’s insufferable Martin Bashir.

“It’s the only time they let Mitt off the leash, so to speak ... Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. That’s one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in some town hall settings, why he can’t relate to people other than that. But when he comes on ‘Fox & Friends,’ they’re like him. They’re white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company," he added.

Apparently, this was too much for the folks over at POLITICO.

Not long after Williams made these remarks, and shortly after his editors removed their palms from their foreheads, POLITICO did what any other business would do to protect its profit and reputation: it ditched the reporter.

But, of course, Williams refuses to admit that his mouth got him into trouble and insists he's a casualty of the right-wing "noise machine."

“This is a problem that the journalism industry is going to have to address,” Williams said Granholm. "You have a small cadre of people that are willing to make enough noise, and throw up enough dust, and obscure enough issues to target people."

"And one of the things I think journalism really has to start thinking about is the fact that these people ... they’re self-appointed watchdogs. They’ve decided to take it upon themselves to root out what they see as a liberal bias in the media," he added.

He continued:

And that’s to me a sort of antithetical of what a watchdog really is. A watchdog keeps vigilance and makes sure that he’s aware that nothing goes wrong. These folks are actually seeking it out and they’re creating it in some ways when it doesn’t necessarily exist and newspapers and journalism outlets too often tend to react to that rather than think very carefully about “who are making these allegations?” “what is their point of view?” and “what is their ultimate objective?”

So, there you have it: POLITICO fired Williams not because he said Romney was more comfortable around “white folks,” but because the people at Breitbart have it out for him.

“Who funds them?” Granholm asked. “Who’s underneath them?”

Although Williams isn't sure who funds conservative news sites, he is certain of one thing: the people who work for them are “just bloggers” as opposed to the big boy reporters who, you know, retweet penis jokes.

This story has been updated.