Posted on 05/01/2008 12:19:56 AM PDT by I_Love_My_Husband
Dear God: If you can't stop Mark Morford, please teach him to use the internet Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:20:20 PM
by Benjamin Wachs
I try not to call Chron columnist Mark Morford out on his stylistic problem as a writer, because who has that kind of time? But as a fellow journalist I feel that research – knowing at least a little about what we’re writing about – is the very least we owe the public.
The very, very least.
So a few months ago I called him out on the sheer ignorance of his attacks against Christianity. Anti-Christian is fine, but hating on anyone from a position of ignorance is not. Today marks yet another Morford column that might not have needed to happen if he’d made a phone call (like journalists do), or checked out Wikipedia for Christ's sake.
Morford’s column… about what a terrible First Lady and human being Laura Bush is … is chock full of logical fallacies. But I’m going to give him a free pass on that: reasonable people can disagree on whether or not we want a First Lady who’s a political dynamo. I loved Hillary Clinton’s health care plan, but it was a disaster precisely because she was an unelected spouse sticking her nose into a democratic government. You could call that “nepotism” or “cronyism” or even “corruption” … but a rose by any other name would still be an unelected spouse sticking her nose into a democratic government.
But as I said, that’s not the problem with Morford’s column.
The problem with Morford’s column is also not that he called billionaire Theresa Heinz Kerry “self-made,” even though he knows full well she inherited her fortune, and all the “acumen” that comes with it. Although I do want to point that out, because it’s particularly stupid.
No, the problem is that the whole column is based on the premsie that Laura Bush has championed no worthy issues in her time in the White House. Said Morford:
“I challenge anyone reading this column right now to name one thing this woman has said or done in the past seven-plus years that shows her using her position as first lady to make any real difference. A single issue. A single notable appearance. A single daring, interesting, engaging ... anything.”
Um … okay. Burma.
Laura Bush has, according to reports, been one of the major impetuses for the U.S. to condemn Burma and attempt to assist its population against the oppressive military regime.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a New York Times article headlined: “First Lady makes Issue of Myanmar’s Junta.” It states:
In a gesture of public policy not normally associated with first ladies, she telephoned the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Friday and called on him to denounce the junta that rules Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma. “I wanted the U.N. to be on record saying, at least, that we know what’s happened in this recent crackdown,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.
Will that do? If not, Laura Bush has also been involved in issues on literacy (which Morfard knows and poo-poos), education and health.
And it’s okay if Morford doesn’t respect that, or Laura Bush. But to base the entire column on a premise that can be disproved by so little research?
Honestly, Morford, if you’re going to write about Laura Bush, couldn’t you at least Google her?
What a great article! I never cease to be staggered by the sheer idiocy of some self-proclaimed “journalists”. This MUST be the only person on the planet who doesn’t recognize the significant things Laura has done.
Oh, by the way, I love mine, too!!
I loved Hillary Clinton’s health care plan
discredits anything else he has to say.
"self made".... only Morford could be that stupid with his description of Theresa.
Mark Morford? He’s still around? I thought he died from AIDS a couple of years ago. (I must be thinking of somebody else. Whatever...) This column is a good response to Morford’s idiocy, I suppose, but why would anybody waste even a second of his life on Mark Morford?
Really? I saved more time than you by stopping here:
Anti-Christian is fine, but hating on anyone from a position of ignorance is not.
Presumably your hatred should be informed. "Researched," that is, "on the internet," which is, of course, the benchmark of reliability being, what, 15 years old yesterday?
So, it's not OK to throw them to lions unless you've done your homework.
There's more to dissect in that one small sentence but "who has the time?"
Even the "moderate" journalists are mentally unbalanced.
SO classic. ;)
Only liberals are allowed to legitimately criticize other liberals, so the author’s liking Hillary’s health care plan actually lends force to his article.
I disagree ... what we have here is a confirmed leftist beating on Miss Morford. That tells us just how far out in left field Morford is.
Mark Morford — aka, “Phantom Vaginal Pains.” He should always be addressed as such here on FR.
In the late sixties and early seventies major lib rags established quotas for so-called aggrieved groups. That meant many mostly unqualified minority, homosexual, and female writers got hired for jobs they weren't qualified for. Think Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, and Morford in no particular order. They wouldn't have gotten jobs as copy boys or girls in the old days.
Thank you!!!! :)
I love us happily married afters!!! True fairy tales that come TRUE in real life! :)
Of course he won’t acknowledge Laura Bush’s literacy efforts ~
he refuses to read!
Mark Morford is simply unreadable. Even if he had something to say, which apparently he does not, he is incapable of saying it.
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