Class Chasm

The more I think about Kristol getting a column at the Times, the madder I get. There are several hundred thousand dead Iraqis as a result of the bad information he persistently pushed to the American public, and this is treated as, oh, I don't know, a minor faux pas?

But this is the problem with journalism in general. Thanks to factors like unions (which cement mediocrity in place) and education requirements, they've pretty much scrubbed the corporate media of those who have anything more than a glancing encounter with the policies they so carelessly espouse.

They are oblivious to the effect of their positions on real people, real lives. They don't give a second thought to people who are powerless against the tsunami of their propaganda.

The reason they're so baffled by bloggers is, they don't take public policy any more seriously than a football game. They may root for a team, but really, they're all in the same league. So why do we get so upset?

After all, it's just a game! Rah rah, sis boom bah!

Comments

[TommyMcCarthy]

"This is the problem with journalism in general....thanks to factors like unions....."

This is the problem w Susan Madrak in the specific. Her willingness to take chances, and to make death defying intellecual leaps is what can make her an interesting read. Unfortunately, this same brazenness, this...,th­is,....chu­tzpah!...c­an some times cause her to make the most infuriatin­g,non-sens­eical connections one can imagine.

Susan has a problem w/ Bill Kristol..(as few do not), and believes that he has contributed mightily to the suffering in Iraq (as nobody can deny).

The problem is:

(cue sound effects) ....thump.­..thump...­.thump....­.thump....­..SPROIIIN­GGG!!!....­.....UNION­S!!!.... ta-dahh!!!

Unions?!!.... How she does this stuff without a net is amazing!!!­..........­..........­........tm

[themodernleader]

Transcende­ntobserver­. The aristocratic, plutocratic view that guys like Bill Kristol flood the air waves with drown out any ideas that support the Preamble to our trampled Constitution. The hiring of articulate purveyors of anti-democratic ideologies to permeate a once independent news publication is at the heart of the New York Time's hiring of Kristol.
There is never any serious discussion of economic, monetary issues that relate to deficit--trade and fiscal--, unfair taxation, rampant corruption, public employee salaries and benefits and ability to pay for them and so on.
Our media is becoming the tool of the few rather than an institution of disseminating news from the perspective of "We the people..." The end result of such behavior is the end of honest, democratic governance.

[ljsfolly]

With Kristol at the Times and Rove in Newsweek it just makes less likely for me to support either one. I bypass Newsweek every week and mourn what used to be. I don't judge so much the writer except for the 2 but the mentality of those who own the Times and Newsweek. I am sure my non subscription will hurt neither but its my little boycott.

[savertime]

There is a liberal viewpoint and a conservative viewpoint. Billy Kristol's is neither. If I thought he truly believed his own bullsh?t, I would try to get him help. Psychiatric help.

[Transcendentobserver]

Wow! Did I somehow click onto a totalitarian blog?
I have been laboring under the impression that the great underpinning of liberalism is the free market place of ideas--that when juxtaposed to countervailing opinions, the true, the good, and the beautiful will emerge and prevail. While Kristol's conclusions are generally antithetical to my own. Yes, they are conservative, often reactionary but nearly always articulate, well presented; and he has never feared to defend them against liberal and progressive opinions. History has proven the rationale of political and economic arguments at variance with his, but isn't that the purpose of a liberal press? The posters on this matter seem to reflect the static comfort secured proscribing access to opinions which differ from their own--a position with Cheney and the neocons would loudly applaud.

[Halsey]

Hard to believe this is the same paper that released (under threat) the Pentagon Papers.
Remember 3 Days of the Condor (or 7 if you read the book)..and Robert Redford takes his proof of massive corruption in the CIA to...tah dah...the New York Times...

Rove would bury it.. People CAN and should..talk with their pocket books...refusing to buy at the newstand, or subscribe to the NYT..until Rove is ousted...now THAT they might get...

p.s. I had NO idea there was a journalist union..and agree...that is NOT the place for conformity...

[WorkingClass]

The photo sums up my objection to Kristol. He is a murderer. Isn't that why people shun O.J.?

[themodernleader]

One of the most critical functions of any modern organization is selecting the most competent individuals for the position described to fulfill the mission of the organization.
As prescribed by our Constitution, the mission of the N. Y. Times is to write and interpret the news as objectively as is humanly possible for the benefit of all American citizens.
The n. y. Times chooses to select the most incompetent individual, or at least a common individual to fulfill the role of reporting and interpreting events. This is the hallmark of a traditional organization.
If the n. y. Times doesn't soon obtain top management that provides modern leadership, this organization is headed for the dust bin of history, most likely joined by failing traditional leadership of our forlorn Republic.
The Board of Directors should investigate the criteria and selection process followed for filling the vacancy. Personal considerations will most likely be found to confound the job description criteria. The final decison maker should be privately reprimanded with clear expectations for future behavior. That is the least that must be done. Such a serious transgression of the modern leadership practice of selecting the most capable, competent person available in the universe for the vacancy suggests serious structural degeneration within, what was once the most acclaimed newspaper in the entire world.

[JailNeoconVicts]

How the hell are unions connected to this neocon piece of crap?

I'm a WGA member currently engaged with my union counterparts in a long, hard fight against the corporatist regime Kristol sucks up to. Unions are where ordinary working people find strength in numbers against those who would abuse them. I am second to no one in my contempt for Kristol; but you are WAY off base somehow trying to connect him to the labor movement.

[totalliberal]

I didn't know Kristol was protected by a union.

Nor did I even suspect that: "they've pretty much scrubbed the corporate media of those who have anything more than a glancing encounter with the policies they so carelessly espouse".

Whatever that means.

[Deidroni]

Kristol working for the NYT.

Santorum working for the Phila. Inquirer.

Rove working for Newsweek.

They all should be working for the Prison Press.

[Querent]

The New York Times and William Kristol deserve each other.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Well, what they're unfamiliar with is the sound
of opposing opinions, because for years and
years, 'the media' has been a bunch of one-way
yepyeps. Yepyep, sell that car, yepyep, sell
that house, yepyepyep, sell that washer/dryer
combo, yepyep sell that insurance, yepyepyep,
sell that orange juice/ster­eo/service­/whatever
it is you're selling, all this without apparently ever becoming familiar with a map
and so forth.

One lesson to take away from it all is that you
don't really have to be smart to run a column,
just have a typewriter/word processor/computer/
captive typist etc.

[RagingJerseyBoy]

Kristol is absolutely horrible; the affable neocon berzerker is the epitome of the chickenhawk, safe in his ivory tower, insulated from the effects of the policies that he advocates.

To make an omelet, you have to break some eggs, right? That's essentially how he perceives the thousands of Iraqi civilians and the three thousand American soldiers who have died in Iraq; he dismissed Cindy Sheehan's grief as leftist propoganda. I have no respect for him or for others of his ilk, whose ideology clearly eclipses their humanity. Haven't the neocons done enough harm? What will it take to completely discredit them? The fact that the New York Times will give him column (and probably pay him a lot of money) belies the notion that this is a 'liberal' paper. No, the New York Times is more properly described as an 'establishment' paper. And the establishment likes Bill Kristol.

I will give Kristol credit for one thing: He is a brilliant self promoter and probably a major hit at New York and Washington cocktail parties, where he can hob nob with the elites. Many neocons (think Dick Cheney) are outwardly nasty people; Kristol actually has some social skills, he is very articulate and fashionably dressed, he doesn't lick his comb like Paul Wolfowitz, which makes him a valuable commodity. Those elites at the cocktail parties find him charming and intelligent company, even if they don't quite agree with his ideology. The New York Times' editorial board decides to give him a column, to sort of provoke debate. Whatever.

Take some effort to peer beneath the surface, though, and it is obvious the man is creepy. Kristol is a master hack, an apologist for every excess of Bush's Iraq war and his failed policies. Yet the MSM keeps trotting out Kristol, with his deviant, demonic grin, treating their viewers to a feast of chocolate covered bullshit.

[Merlin7]

Exactly. If there were any justice, all the neocons who urged that worthless invasion would be put on trial. But they just move from one well-paying job to another, like innocent little lambs, while Iraq is soaked with the blood of thousands of children and others who died needlessly because of neocon zealotry.

And now the politicians are making noises as if they want to ramp up the war in Afghanistan -- as if playing Whack-a-Mole on a larger scale, killing still more innocent civilians, will put the terrorism genie back into the bottle. It's disgusting -- and SOP for the U.S. government. Remember LBJ and his callous comments as he killed thousands of civilians in Vietnam? Same thing. And now Hillary and Co. are salivating at the thought of raining more bombs on Afghans so the Dems can look tough and decisive. They never learn.