[Iris7]

Mencken was an excellent writer. A fine exemplar.

[Celtman]

My favorite quote from H. L. Mencken:

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. "

[KeyBored]

"Modern corporate journalism -- I beg leave to generalize Menckenesquely -- distrusts ideas. The one idea it trusts devoutly is that of profit, coupled with the ideal of customer retention. No intellectual bloodlettings, please! Someone might take offense. Oh, boo hoo."

Good article - but I kinda disagree with the above statement.

If "the one idea [corporate journalism] trusts devoutly is that of profit", how does one explain the fact that most major liberal leaning media outlets are losing money?

Even a first year economics student can see that if CBSNBCABCCNN and the comPost and the SLIMES were ever to present a BALANCED view, their financial situation would improve. Look no further than Fox News and the Washington Times for proof.

No, in the case of "corporate journalism" today, AGENDA trumps everything else - including profit. And a "passionate" writer like Mencken would be tolerated only to the extent that he towed the "liberal" line.

[driftless]

I plan to read this book. I've never read a whole book by him or about him only select passages. From what I've read, he seems to be the ultimate cynic. Which asks the question would you rather have a cynic like Mencken, who ridiculed everybody, for a columnist or a lap-dog? I think the public is better served by a cynical scribe than a fawning rearend-kisser. Even if he or she slams your boy or girl in office.

[Pilsner]

"A foolish consistentcy is the hobgoblin of a small mind."

I think about that quote everytime I suffer through or see some piece of stupidity by a beaurucrat so devoted to the "rules are rules" mindset that he or she cannot fathom that they are doing something completely unjustifiable.

[DumpsterDiver]

I don't know the context in which this was made, but it's one of my favorite Mencken quotes:

If Los Angeles is not the one authentic rectum of civilization, then I am no anatomist. Any time you want to go out again and burn it down, count me in.

[ricpic]

Mencken on Coolidge: "What enlightened American, having to choose between any of them [ world savers - Wilson, Hoover ] and another Coolidge, would hesitate for a minute?"

---

Nowadays, another Coolidge wouldn't stand a chance.

[Theophilus]

I have been teaching Mencken...

Mencken was not too easy on teachers either: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." :-)

[Ohioan]

While Mencken may have had a bit of the bully in him--he jumped all over the hapless;--he also took on the bullies on the Left and kicked them out of credibility. I do not agree that he was more style than ideology. And while I do not have anything at all against Methodists, Rotarians or anyone else, except those Leftist bullies, I am very glad that we had Mencken for a time in America, and have one of his essays posted at the web site. (It is his tribute to James A. Reed, the one politician whom Mencken really did admire, and whose own essay in Mencken's magazine, as well as several of his speeches are used to illustrate effective argument. For our sample of Mencken see Own Man.

I also commend the writer of the essay, you reproduce, for using James Jackson Kilpatrick as a model. When Kilpatrick was Editor of The Richmond News Leader in the 1950s and early 1960s, he had the most sparkling editorial page in American journalism. He lost a little of his marching rhetoric after he became a Nationally syndicated columnist. But in Richmond he was really a great writer.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[AshleyMontagu]

It's good to see Mencken coming back into popularity. He used to be quoted regularly until about 15 years ago when it was discovered that he was one of them there anti-Semites. It was funny that the pundits loved his anti-Christian iconoclasm but shunned him when they found out he wasn't too fond of Jews either.