BLAIR, HUTTON, US

AS.com ^ | 2-3-04 | Andrew Sullivan

[swilhelm73]

 
A NEW LOW: Tony Kushner "bravely" takes on Laura Bush in - shock, horror - Cambridge, Massachusetts. What a hero of pushing the envelope! What daring! What artistic courage! Here's how Alex Beam puts it:

Welcome to Kushnerworld - Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angels in America" Kushnerworld - where heterosexuals are repressed homosexuals trapped in loveless relationships, gays are generally noble and capable of spiritual enlightenment, religion is soul-suffocating bunkum, and Republicans occupy a moral plane similar to that of the Nazis. "You're nice. I can't believe you voted for Reagan," Louis tells Joe, the repressed Mormon gay man in "Angels."
The men and women who glean their news from NPR and the Guardian newspaper are always startled to learn that 48 million Americans voted for Reagan. Many of them must be the same yahoos and rubes who - gosh - voted for George Bush in 2000.

You can hear more Pulitzers coming down the pike for this one, can't you?

- 1:28:17 PM

 
LOOKING BACKWARD: That's looking like the Bush campaign's strategy this year. I feared as much.

SPENT ARGUMENT: David Frum protests too much in his excuses for George W. Bush's failings.
- 1:14:48 PM

 
DEAN OVER KERRY: Whom I'd support if I were a Democrat.

BLAIR, HUTTON, US: I cannot recommend this piece by Martyn Kettle in the Guardian too highly. There's a phrase in it that rings in my ears - and not always too comfortingly. He quotes a former collague's reminiscence about one Rod Liddle, the man who hired the infamous Andrew Gilligan at the BBC:

"Rob didn't want conventional stories. He wanted sexy exclusives ... I remember Rod once at a programme meeting saying 'Andrew gets great stories and some of them are even true' ... He was bored by standard BBC reporting."

I must say I've had my own Brit-glib moments in journalism, when I've too easily disparaged worthy, accurate but "boring" reporting or commentary. Being boring in journalism is not a good thing; but not being boring isn't always a good thing either. The need to be fresh can lead to cheap shots or sloppy research. These are forgivable. But what isn't forgivable is the slow and insidious slide into media arrogance and cynicism. London's media can at times represent the worst of this. In this country, we're not much better. It is hard, for example, to make the case that the Bush administration made honest but real mistakes about intelligence from Saddam's Iraq. One side adamantly wants to believe that the Bushies lied; the other side wants to believe that there were no mistakes. In a completely cynical, polarized culture, it's hard to break out of this cycle. I'm particularly concerned about the use of the term "lying." I cannot claim total innocence in this, and every now and again, it may even be an accusation that's merited. But these days, every mistake people make is immediately denounced as a matter of bad faith. When that happens routinely, political discourse simply cannot operate civilly. Gilligan accused Blair of lying. That's different than claiming Blair was wrong. When we have lost that distinction, democratic debate is over. Which is why I get this horrible feeling that debate in this country has morphed into a kind of cultural warfare that will at some point devour us all.
- 1:20:46 AM

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Someone has to change his mind. Someone has to say, now and then, My heavens, I voted for the wrong man; I am sorry that I did.
The team player cannot change his mind, because his mind is the collective mind of the team, and he obeys it. He obeys it the way a good football player obeys his coach -- because this is what he must do in order to be a member in good standing of his team. You cannot remain on the team, and cheer for your team's opponents.
That is why God, in carefully weighing out the proper amount of conservatives and the proportionate amount of liberals, also factored in a not insignificant dose of independents. They are a necessary ingredient in the complex American civil ecology, just as a nauseatingly repulsive form of algae may turn out to be an indispensable agent in the harmonious ecology of a beautiful forest pond.
In short, I have a right to exist - but not to set a trend." - Lee Harris, on the joys of being an independent voter.

CLEAR SKIES HUMBUG: Why has the media ignored a new study by the National Research Council on how to reduce air pollution? Because it supports the Bush administration's Clear Skies initiative. Easterblogg has details.

NANNY WATCH: "In his bloated budget for 2005, the president seeks funds to keep marriages intact, to prevent overeating, to encourage teenagers not to have sex, and to help give Americans the willpower to stop smoking. Should it bother us that both parties have bought into the belief that government now needs a federal program, bureau, agency, or grant contract to deal with every conceivable human need? An indoor rainforest in Iowa? Arts festivals in Alaska? Swimming pools in New York? What's next, my teenager's right cheek gets a relief from acne?" - Stephen Moore, National Review Online.
- 1:20:22 AM

[swilhelm73]

I'm especially bemused by the quote from the Guardian;

I cannot recommend this piece by Martyn Kettle in the Guardian too highly. There's a phrase in it that rings in my ears - and not always too comfortingly. He quotes a former collague's reminiscence about one Rod Liddle, the man who hired the infamous Andrew Gilligan at the BBC:

"Rob didn't want conventional stories. He wanted sexy exclusives ... I remember Rod once at a programme meeting saying 'Andrew gets great stories and some of them are even true' ... He was bored by standard BBC reporting."