Death Wish
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I spoke at quite an offbeat public event last night organized by my colleague and supreme journo K.C. Cole and, inevitably, I ran smack dab into the usual gaggle of full-time hand-wringers, wearing their knuckles thin over all the wonderful, enlightening, irreplaceable marvels we are on the brink of losing as newspapers fold into obscurity.
Do they mean crap like this? Where column space of one of the supposedly most influential papers in America splays itself wide to carry an endorsement of Liz Cheney's stomach-turning gutter McCarthyism? While it simultaneously pats the Bushie pro-torture lawyers on the back?
Gag me with a spoon, please. This is, of course, all performed in the name of objectivity, fairness, non-partisanship, neutrality, presenting both sides and yada yada yada.
I have a simpler characterization of it: pro-torture propaganda.
Remember this sort of crap the next time someone comes up to you weeping over all that we are losing in the Digital Age.
Could we please lose it just a bit faster?
Here's the fascinating duplicity of modern American journalism. On the one hand, we are told that this is no job for amateurs. That only highly-trained, hard-nosed, highly skilled professionals can dig up facts, assemble them and interpret them. And then we are told, heavens no, it would be unethical for these same geniuses to actually draw any conclusions. In the world of he said/she said everybody's equal. And nobody's ever guilty.
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection.
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I spoke at quite an offbeat public event last night organized by my colleague and supreme journo K.C. Cole and, inevitably, I ran smack dab into the usual gaggle of full-time hand-wringers, wearing their knuckles thin over all the wonderful, enlightening, irreplaceable marvels we are on the brink of losing as newspapers fold into obscurity.
Do they mean crap like this? Where column space of one of the supposedly most influential papers in America splays itself wide to carry an endorsement of Liz Cheney's stomach-turning gutter McCarthyism? While it simultaneously pats the Bushie pro-torture lawyers on the back?
Gag me with a spoon, please. This is, of course, all performed in the name of objectivity, fairness, non-partisanship, neutrality, presenting both sides and yada yada yada.
I have a simpler characterization of it: pro-torture propaganda.
Remember this sort of crap the next time someone comes up to you weeping over all that we are losing in the Digital Age.
Could we please lose it just a bit faster?
Here's the fascinating duplicity of modern American journalism. On the one hand, we are told that this is no job for amateurs. That only highly-trained, hard-nosed, highly skilled professionals can dig up facts, assemble them and interpret them. And then we are told, heavens no, it would be unethical for these same geniuses to actually draw any conclusions. In the world of he said/she said everybody's equal. And nobody's ever guilty.
Cancel my subscription to the resurrection.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Wouldn’t you want to know if there were insurance company representatives on government committees deciding health care? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know which Justice Dept. attys deciding terrorist legalities actually represented terrorists.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Send my credentials to the house of detention. Liz Cheney has some friends inside.
Marc Thiessen is a torture fetishist, who had his head handed to him here by someone who has actually interrogated people.
March 8th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
When you’re a right-wing asshole and you’ve lost Ken Starr and Ted Olson – both of whom have criticized Cheney’s Jihad – you’ve obviously gone a bridge too far…
The best Beltway journalist working for the Washington Post right now is Ezra Klein, a 25-year-old blogger with no formal training as a journalist. Their biggest personnel mistake in recent months was getting rid of Dan Froomkin, their…uh…political blogger.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
thats why its a miracle Rachel Maddow is allowed air time.
she draws conclusions. she pulls the fuckers out from under the rocks where they live and she does a recitation of their deeds and because we are in the digital age she can usually hoist them on their own pitards.
the joke is more people get their news of tv and the internet than read the Wa Po.
I dunno who owns/runs the WaPo anymore but follow the money and find the puppet master.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Are you not going to mention in this indictment that that the same ‘gag-me-with-a-spoon’ newspaper you reference is the one that broke the story that our dear president is planning to flip-flop on plans to try these alleged terrorists in civilian courtrooms and instead use military tribunals? Which were even eschewed (in all but three cases) by Bush?
What you link to is a column, Marc. It is labeled as such. Last time I checked we’re all entitled to an opinion.
I’m all for the digital age — when it’s making money and not relying on free labor, give me a shout. I’d be happy to, you know, get PAID to cover something important like say, terrorism or civil liberties, for some esteemed online publication when it does in fact exist.
Until then, let me know what other outlet is actually using the resources to track what our government is up to in prosecuting the war on terror, though they may also run an unpopular column or two.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
ouch. good point, Amanda. didn’t realize the beef was over an Oh PIN Yan column.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Reg,
Don’t forget Eugene Robinson.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I like Gene Robinson, but he’s a more predictable columnist and, IMHO, Klein does an incredibly energetic job every day of presenting a supersized combo of useful information and informed commentary. Robinson, Dionne and Myerson are bright spots in a remarkably bad opinion page. It’s remarkable how many crappy columnists the WaPo has managed to round together.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Speaking of Eugene…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030803122.html