RIP Chris Cillizza, Owned To Death by Soledad O'Brien, We Hardly Knew Ye

We gather here today to remember Christopher Michael “Chris” Cillizza, who was brutally owned online yesterday evening by Soledad O’Brien.

Yesterday, Cillizza, who ranks somewhere between the Joey and the Milhouse of media pundits, wrote an extraordinary piece on CNN titled, “Donald Trump is producing the greatest reality show ever.” Fully leaning into the shallowest and most obvious reading of what’s happening in the White House, Cillizza equated the past nearly 14 months of instability and disarray in the White House to reality television.

In the column, Cillizza compares the constant reshuffling of Trump administration staffers to Survivor or Bachelor contestants and delights in the various “plot twists,” seemingly without any critical thinking or consideration that these are the people running our country. He also made an inexplicable aside about the success of Game of Thrones, which is decidedly not reality television. It was so bad that Soledad O’Brien did not hold back in her critique:

To which Cillizza responded:

Then the following exchange ensued. Cillizza really tries O’Brien, an effort she briefly entertained before going in for the kill.

I should note here that I do think it’s hilarious that Cillizza accused O’Brien of judging the piece based only on the headline, because this is actually one of the rare instances where the headline (“Donald Trump is producing the greatest reality show ever”) and the byline (Chris Cillizza) tell you everything you need to know about the piece.

D-D-D-D-DAMN. A truly stunning fatality. Chris Cillizza then pulls a Chris Cillizza, conflating de-escalation with defeat, and All Opinions Matter-ing the situation.