E! Online reporter doesn’t like Paul Ryan very much, does he?

So, Paul Ryan has obviously become enough of a part of pop culture to be considered an of-the-moment celebrity, thus requiring E! Entertainment (who’s slogan “Pop Of Culture” and who’s greatest contributions to American society is the Kardashian family and the career of Melissa Rivers) to do a story on him, where they reference his shirtless pictures and fabulous abs and undeniable raw sexual and economic appeal or whatever.

They’re E! News. They have to pop culture. That’s what that means, right? Because otherwise the slogan doesn’t make sense except as a ridiculous and vaguely sexual joke about the seriousness of their reporting. And they reach the large number of Americans who like to get their political news mixed in with information about reality show stars and touching stories about Justin Bieber, so despite what they probably think of their media reach, they have at least some responsibility to do, you know, actual reporting.

So imagine our surprise when E! News’ Jason Zabel didn’t even bother to scroll through Hey Girl It’s Paul Ryan before reporting on it, calling it “denigrating” to the Vice Presidential nominee and lumping it in with it’s unfunny knockoffs.

Some of the best sites for these Ryan macros (heygirlitspaulryan.tumblr.com andchooseryanlosechoice.tumblr.com) operate under the assumption that a lady voting for Ryan is a lady voting to have her rights taken away.

A simple mistake, right? Or maybe just wishful thinking – after all, a number of publications – the Washington Post, even – were noticeably disappointed when we didn’t turn out to be shrewd liberal operatives with a destructive agenda. Maybe Zabel just didn’t have time.

Or maybe he’s just kind of a jerk. When HGIPR co-creator Lyndsey Fifield reached out to him on Twitter to correct this teensy little error, Zabel revealed just how professional of a reporter he really was.

Here’s Jason’s reply:

Classy.

He then blocked Lyndsey on Twitter so she couldn’t see the rest of his comments or, perhaps, catch him in the process of, well, acting kind of like a complete dong, though apparently he is unfamiliar with the concept of screenshots. Thankfully, we’re not.

This guy contributes to a number of outlets, but E! News seems to be the most high profile. Like I said, it’s not like E! is known for its hard-hitting reporting on much aside from the love life of Jennifer Aniston and the fashion pitfalls of celebrities who own stylists but not mirrors, but come on. Is it really that hard to write a normal piece onsomething you don’t even need to ask questions about (though most reporters have been considerate enough to submit media requests, or at least ask whether they had permission to use HGIPR’s meme; Zabel did neither)?

I mean, we’ve been happy to answer questions, but generally even the reporters who have declined our offers have at least gone to the damned website.

But whatever, it’s cool. I guess we know exactly how professional reporters covering this election for millions of Americans really are now.