Superior Genes
When did being a conservative become a vice? How come people like me are treated like an adjective? He is a “conservative”. We read “conservative” publications. We watch “conservative” Fox News. He belongs to a "conservative" think tank. And horrors of horrors, we listen to the dreaded “conservative” talk radio. We are cold, uncaring, money grubbing, probably wealthy but maybe a red neck. Our houses are filled with guns and our women are barefoot, pregnant and subjugated. Most of all, we are morally and intellectually deficient for failing to be sufficiently insightful into the dreadful human condition and how it is aggravated by our economic and political system.
Anna Quindlen, in her Newsweek editorial this week, unwittingly demonstrates the arrogance of those who consider themselves to be liberal. David Halberstam, a Pulitzer prize winning liberal guru, was killed in an automobile accident at the age of 73 several weeks ago. Ms. Quindlen used her editorial entitled “Still the Brightest” to eulogize Mr. Halberstam. A prolific writer, he is best known for his scathing attacks on American policy in Vietnam, and more recently Iraq, but also authored many works relating to civil rights, American democracy, and numerous books on various sports topics (“The Summer of ‘49” recounting the 1949 pennant race between the Red Sox and the Yankees among his most notable). A Harvard graduate and New York Times reporter, this was a smart and talented man, and he will be missed.
Here is what Ms. Quindlen had to say: “We get (great journalism) because there exists a class of people who have intelligent curiosity written into their DNA, who will never stop learning and telling”. She goes on: “At his funeral, the Rev. John F. Smith, the former chaplain at Groton, asked, ‘If his voice is stilled, who will speak?’” Wow!!!!!! He must of have been quite a guy.
Therein lies the root of the problem with American journalism. Modern journalists don’t view themselves as reporters of fact, they view themselves as agents of social change. That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing….so long as they distinguish between reporting and editorializing, and at least make ½ an effort to report both sides of an issue without innuendo.
They cannot do it. Many, if not most, journalists believe they have an innate, dare I say genetic, superiority which gives them insight above the proletarian masses who are the consumers of their work. Maybe that is what they are taught in our colleges… but I suspect it is more a function of them seeing the underbelly of life on a regular basis, and through normal human compassion, wanting to change what may be unchangeable. The guy going to work every day, busting his butt to make ends meet, is not news. The homeless guy is. See enough of it, and the homeless guy is the evil product of our evil society, which is mostly made up of the guys who go to work every day.
I suspect that when William F. Buckley, George Will, or Rush Limbaugh for that matter, pass away, Anna Quindlen won’t write about “intelligent curiosity written into their DNA”. They will be viewed as journalistic anomalies who did their best to defend a morally bankrupt and intellectually inferior society which lacks compassion and understanding. Any intellectual capacity which they possessed failed to move them out of their political malaise. Translated, they aren't journalists at all.
Anna Quindlen, in her Newsweek editorial this week, unwittingly demonstrates the arrogance of those who consider themselves to be liberal. David Halberstam, a Pulitzer prize winning liberal guru, was killed in an automobile accident at the age of 73 several weeks ago. Ms. Quindlen used her editorial entitled “Still the Brightest” to eulogize Mr. Halberstam. A prolific writer, he is best known for his scathing attacks on American policy in Vietnam, and more recently Iraq, but also authored many works relating to civil rights, American democracy, and numerous books on various sports topics (“The Summer of ‘49” recounting the 1949 pennant race between the Red Sox and the Yankees among his most notable). A Harvard graduate and New York Times reporter, this was a smart and talented man, and he will be missed.
Here is what Ms. Quindlen had to say: “We get (great journalism) because there exists a class of people who have intelligent curiosity written into their DNA, who will never stop learning and telling”. She goes on: “At his funeral, the Rev. John F. Smith, the former chaplain at Groton, asked, ‘If his voice is stilled, who will speak?’” Wow!!!!!! He must of have been quite a guy.
Therein lies the root of the problem with American journalism. Modern journalists don’t view themselves as reporters of fact, they view themselves as agents of social change. That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing….so long as they distinguish between reporting and editorializing, and at least make ½ an effort to report both sides of an issue without innuendo.
They cannot do it. Many, if not most, journalists believe they have an innate, dare I say genetic, superiority which gives them insight above the proletarian masses who are the consumers of their work. Maybe that is what they are taught in our colleges… but I suspect it is more a function of them seeing the underbelly of life on a regular basis, and through normal human compassion, wanting to change what may be unchangeable. The guy going to work every day, busting his butt to make ends meet, is not news. The homeless guy is. See enough of it, and the homeless guy is the evil product of our evil society, which is mostly made up of the guys who go to work every day.
I suspect that when William F. Buckley, George Will, or Rush Limbaugh for that matter, pass away, Anna Quindlen won’t write about “intelligent curiosity written into their DNA”. They will be viewed as journalistic anomalies who did their best to defend a morally bankrupt and intellectually inferior society which lacks compassion and understanding. Any intellectual capacity which they possessed failed to move them out of their political malaise. Translated, they aren't journalists at all.
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