I see with pleasure that my brother has started blogging more than once a quarter. And his latest post is a screed against the media; hopefully his recent visit to New York has led to this new found energy in the internets.
He pretty much nails this rending of garments media orgy covering the latest literary scandal du jour – the fake memoir of ‘A Million Little Pieces.’ Unlike Mike, I have never read it (contemporary memoirs of angst filled lives and resulting lessons learned tend to leave me with a bad case of hives.) But I’m certain that the publisher, Anchor, is laughing all the way to the bank with the kind of coverage that money can’t buy, even after a stint on Oprah’s book club.
I hope he girds his loins if he decides to delve deeper into the cesspit of our media industry, however. Book scandals ain’t nothin’. Lord knows, a scandal such as this wouldn’t get a fraction of the coverage during the heady shark-infested days of summer, but as the stakes get higher, the stench grows, sending even sharks scurrying away in search of fresher chum.
As shark repellent, James Wolcott is on fire today – his blog is a must read for continuing snarky coverage of the various media offenses against out citizenry. Smelling salts for when you get the vapors watching as the media coverage of events in our nation’s capitol resemble a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football. To wit:
…This is the sort of idiot we're inflicted with, the perfect representative of the Beltway Democrat who cautions against politicizing anything remotely political for fear it might give David Broder a spot of indigestion. Imagine what the Newt Gingrich of the early nineties would have done if he had had something like this handed to him on a platter--he wouldn't have sent it back to the kitchen. He would have worked it for everything it was worth, and more. But Beltway weenies are too timid and prissy to exploit a golden opportunity. Everyone knows the Abramoff scandal has "Republican" stencilled on every side of it and if you won't/can't use it to jump all over the Republican Party and the DeLay machine, what the hell are you even doing in the Democratic Party? As more details surface, the Abramoff cesspool is going to make the K-Street crowd and their Republicans on retainer look even worse than they do now, and here's Davis waving the white cocktail napkin of surrender and urging preemptive pullback. Beltway Dems like Davis and the DLC crowd don't want to politicize the Iraq war, or the Alito hearings, or the Katrina clusterfuck, or the NSA spying scandal; they shy away from every prospective fight and prevent any ongoing debate or controversy from gaining traction. Just as Jack Murtha's bombshell was gaining momentum, in droops Joe Lieberman to back up the president with a gift-wrapped testimonial…
Go read. There’s a reason I link to him on the right.
