Similar articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post about Hillary Clinton's campaign saying the candidate will be more spontaneous and joyful drew laughing derision from MSNBC's Morning Joe Tuesday.
The Times wrote "there will be new efforts to bring spontaneity to a candidacy that sometimes seems wooden and overly cautious."
"We were laughing before the show," panelist Mark Halperin said. "There's twin stories, one in the New York Times, one in the Washington Post, about [how] Hillary Clinton is turning the page ... She's going to be showing more humor, heart, and joy."
"That's not calculated," co-host Mika Brzezinski said sarcastically. "What is wrong with them?"
Clinton has been far more reticent to do press events than other presidential candidates during the campaign, sitting down for just her third nationally televised interview of the cycle on the Friday before Labor Day weekend with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Her campaign has acknowledged its handling of the private email scandal has been too guarded and casual, and Clinton has seen her favorability numbers suffer as a result.
This comes on the heels of more news over the weekend that Clinton received emails on her private server containing highly classified information.
"These same aides that calculated the dumping of documents, like at midnight Friday night [on] Labor Day weekend, now are telling us in a calculating way she's going to show ... humor, heart, and joy," host Joe Scarborough deadpanned.
"Show, not tell, is usually better, but in this case they're going with tell," Halperin said.
David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Obama who has been critical of Clinton in the past, ridiculed the strategy as well on Twitter.
.Today's @nytimes story on HRC read more like The Onion: Her detailed plan to show more authenticity and spontaneity. #Justdoit!
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 8, 2015