Mopsy Jimenez-Tippington (born 1970) is an American television journalist.  

Mopsy Jimenez-Tippington in 2005                                                 Mopsy Jimenez-Tippington in 2008

Early life and career

Mopsy Jimenez-Tippington was born Mopsy Booth Tippington in Miami, Florida, in 1970. From an early age, she showed both interest and aptitude in journalism, eventually becoming the editor of her high school newspaper, The South Dade High Beacon. During her Beacon years, she was noted for her coverage of the infamous "trickle-down Prom," which purportedly allowed economically disadvantaged students to attend the school's end-of-the-year dance; in reality, they were forced to work in the kitchen and polish the shoes of the Prom king and queen. In college, she adopted her familiar hyphenated surname, in honor of her mother, Silvia Jimenez.

In the 1990s, Jimenez-Tippington worked as a correspondent for various local news affiliates. Her first important interview was with Lucianne Goldberg, a key player in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. When Jimenez-Tippington asked, "Why haven't you received a subpoena from Kenneth Starr?" Goldberg said, "Why haven't you?" Jimenez-Tippington was indentified by Rush Limbaugh, Archie McPatton, and others as a member of the "liberal media," accusing her of bias when she objected to the use of a graphic depicting President Bill Clinton as a mythological creature with the body of a goat.

Jimenez-Tippington reports on the chaos at the

Republican National Convention in New York in 2004

Rise to prominence

Jimenez-Tippington's first national exposure was an interview she conducted with George W. Bush in 2000, when he was competing for the Republican presidential nomination. This was the famous "dyslexia interview," also known as the "interview dyslexia":

Q: Governor Bush, since the campaign began, you’ve accused the press of treating you unfairly.

 

A: Yeah, like that woman who knew I had dyslexia – I never interviewed her!

 

Q: Well, no…she interviewed you.

 

A: No, yeah, that’s what I meant to say, but she didn’t.

 

Q: She didn’t know you had dyslexia?

 

A: Yeah, I don’t have dyslexia. My brother Neil has it too. And so did one of my big heroes, President Winston Churchill. So it seems like to me that I could still be a good president even though I’m not dyslexic, which I am.

 

Q: Well, that clears that up, thank you. Let’s move on, Governor Bush, to another issue that’s been raised in the press, and that’s the drug issue.

 

A: Yeah. I won’t talk about my past, or what I may or may not have did. I don’t want some kid to say, “Well, Governor Bush did it, so I guess it’s smart.” I believe that those of us who have got positions of leadership must have a loud, unified voice, saying, “Drugs will destroy you.”

 

Q: But if you used drugs, is it fair to have people in prison who were arrested on drug charges in Texas?

 

A: No, but I think – look – yeah, no, what you’re trying to do is to get me to talk about my past, and I respect your attempt to do so, but I’m not willing to do so.

 

Q: Okay. Hypothetically, the governor of a state does something illegal –

 

A: Yes, well, I appreciate your attempt to get me to talk about my past, but look, here’s what people need to know about me: that I’m going to bring honor and dignity, that I’ve learned from mistakes I’ve made, that I’m prepared to send a message of personal responsibility, and that’s what I’m going to do. And that dyslexic woman, I never even met her when I interviewed her, and to tell you the truth I’m not even sure which paper I write for.

 

Jimenez-Tippington became a household name in 2004, when her fearless reporting on the Republican National Convention earned praise from high places. Interviewing the custodial staff, she discovered unsanitary conditions on the convention floor, where one janitor, Reggie Fellish, told her the staff was "up to our knees in bullshit." Also during this period, Jimenez-Tippington broke the story of George Pataki (then governor of New York) and his resemblence to a potato on a stick. In 2005, she conducted an interview with Dick Cheney in which the Vice President remarked, "Aaaaaaaaarrgh...arrrrrggh."

Jimenez-Tippington interviews Dick Cheney

Conflict with Pubert Gristle

Jimenez-Tippington was fired from her job as a cable news reporter in 2006, when media mogul Pubert Gristle demanded that she incorporate White House talking points into her reportage. To make matters worse, Gristle replaced her with the infamous Muffy O'Reardon-Sanchez. Disenchanted with the mainstream media, Jimenez-Tippington switched to the Internet, successfully providing news from an independent perspective. She has made occasional returns to television to cover the 2008 election, and is reportedly in negotiations to host her own news program in the fall.

See also

• City Under Siege
• Burning Bush: A Faith-Based Musical
• Moral Value Meal
• Life After Bush

Photographs: Kim Moscaritolo as Mopsy Jimenez-Tippington