The New York Times vs. David Mamet (“no longer a brain-dead liberal”)

FrontPageMag.com ^ | Arpil 19, 2013 | Andrew Klavan

[Perseverando]

The New York Times is very good at what it does — which nowadays involves a lot of lying in service to a leftist agenda. There are the outright lies (such as the paper’s recent distortion of a police bias trial to make the NYPD appear racist), the lies of omission (such as its lack of full reporting on the Obama administration’s fatal acts of malfeasance and dishonesty in, say, the Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals), and the atmospheric lies (such as its rose-colored reporting on the disastrous economy in bluer-than-blue California). Altogether, these lies combine to make the paper something like the Matrix: a plausible imitation of reality intended to deceive people so that their substance may be milked to feed an overweening state.

As in the 1999 sci-fi film that begat that metaphor, rebellion against the illusion results in swift retribution. And nowhere does the Times rush to punish resistance so quickly as in the arts. Times reviewers consistently give sympathetic treatment to leftist cultural works while attacking those of a conservative bent, often regardless of quality.

Which brings me to David Mamet.

One of the most important American playwrights of the last 40 years, Mamet, in 2008, at the age of 60, broke from the near-universal leftist conformity of the theater community and declared in an essay in the Village Voice that he was “no longer a brain-dead liberal.” He followed this up in 2012 with a book entitled The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, which was nothing less than a conservative manifesto.

[onyx]

Didn’t know that “Phil Spector” was his work.
I watched that HBO film when I got free HBO a few weeks back.

[Jonty30]

That’s what it takes to make a liberal into a conservative, drop a few bombs.

[FDNYRHEROES]

"...such as its lack of full reporting on the Obama administration’s fatal acts of malfeasance and dishonesty in, say, the Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals)."...

There really is no connection between the 2 scandals...The Benghazi thing concerned running guns and weapons to the the Syrian Rebels, whereas the Fast & Furious thing involved Mexican Drug Cartels... /s

[KC Burke]

I read The Secret Knowledge last year. It was great.

[Rocky]

outright lies (such as the paper’s recent distortion of a police bias trial to make the NYPD appear racist),

the lies of omission (such as its lack of full reporting on the Obama administration’s fatal acts of malfeasance and dishonesty in, say, the Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals),

and the atmospheric lies (such as its rose-colored reporting on the disastrous economy in bluer-than-blue California).

It's lies all the way down.

[SoFloFreeper]

I have read some of Mamet’s “post-conversion” stuff. He really underwent (is that a word?) a sea change.

[miss marmelstein]

Sorry I didn’t get to see “The Anarchist.” Guess I’ll buy the play. I love Mamet and knew his career was on the skids once he came out as a conservative. I will also say, his last two plays which were on B’way “Race” and a farce called “Keep Your Pantheons” were not his best. But his “November” starring Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane was brilliant! Amazing playwright but the knives are out for him.