![]() UP FROM KNAVERY! You can read the truth about Matthews—but only in readers comments: // link // print // previous // next //
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2008 DOWD HEARS A JOKE: Mental illness causes great suffering. Ideally, it shouldnt be joked about. It shouldnt be flippantly diagnosed as part of our public discourse. But when the Times leaves Maureen Dowd in print, its hard to avoid such talk. Heres why we had that reaction to her current column: Like you, we did a double-take at the start of this piece. Was she serious? Dowd seemed to be writing about the problem of misogyny in the coverage of Hillary Clinton! In fact, no one has done more than Dowd to introduce various forms of gender-loathing into our political discourse. For that reason, we were surprised by her choice of topics. But we thought, once again, of mental disorder when she offered this clownish account of this vexing problem:
Too funny! Dowd goes out of her way to pretend that the problem belongs to male journalists. We thought of five-year-old children who cover their eyes, pretending the world cant see them. Dowd, of course, isnt five years old, and so we marveled at the childish way she tried to misdirect us. And sure enough! It wasnt long till a certain female pundit played a new gender card:
Hiss! Hiss-spit! Hiss-spit!! Mee-ow!! For a decade, Dowd has played her thick deck of (crackpot) gender cards against Major Dems, both female and male. Here, once again, she hissed and spat about the Big Dem girl who cried. The Times should gently lead her away. But dont worry—the Times never will. At any rate: Once shed gotten her hiss-spitting in, the Crackpot Coquette had some good solid fun with her own unique version of logic. Our question: In a nation of three hundred million souls, how can someone so vastly dumb be splayed at the top of our discourse?
God, thats stupid! Until the perfect female candidate runs, well never know how to rate the backlash—the misogyny aimed against her. Translation: Theres no way to know if Dowds moron friend will tell this same joke the next time:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Readers, male comedians are telling naughty jokes about Clinton! And Dowd is quick to repeat them, of course—and to suggest we cant fully assess Jillette because of Clintons imperfect profile. [E]ven Jillette admits its offensive, Dowd says, speaking of her moronic friends sally. But we cant quite criticize males like Jillette until the best test case comes along! Until we get a candidate who lacks the ick factor—as a five-year-old might have said. Until then, well just have to repeat Gillettes joke, and wonder whats really involved here. Rightly or wrongly, we thought again of mental illness when Dowd referred to those male malefactors. Her attempt to misdirect was so transparent, we found ourselves thinking of five-year-old kids who cover their eyes as a way to hide. But by the end, Dowd drops her hands. It isnt about male pundits now; its also all about her, she admits. But before she copped, we noticed how easy a females life can be at the glorious Times:
Life for a pundit is very easy—when she can simply assert her facts without explanation or argument. Clintons judgment was poor on issue after issue, Dowd says—without saying what issues she means. And her vote on Iraq was about her political viability, she asserts, without qualification. But at the end, Dowd drops her hands—stops pretending she can hide. You see it in her final word—ours. It isnt about male pundits any more. Dont blame Clintons loss on me, the worlds biggest gender-nut tells us. A CERTAIN FEMALES ICK FACTOR: Dowd has played her thick deck of gender cards against Major Dems for many years. Just to help you understand how your nation found its way to Iraq, please understand: This is how Dowd began her column two days before we went to the polls to choose between Bush and Gore. This is how her column began on Sunday, November 5. No, we didnt invent this:
That was girly-man Gore, of course; in Dowds column, he was standing before his mirror, telling himself how pretty he felt. And the Spot, of course, was Gores bald spot. For the record, this was the sixth column Dowd had written in which Gore was placed before a mirror, talking to himself about the Spot (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/21/07). But then, Gore was so feminized he was practically lactating, as Dowd had already explained.
(Six years later, Frank Rich was still insisting that Gore was a fearmonger, just like Bush, because of what hed said in his high school movie. If you want the bumper-sticker: These people are baldly disturbed.) Dowd is powerful, as is the Times. In the face of that, you can go hang. (The dead of Iraq can go hang with you.) You see, your leaders want to write for the Times. And they want to hang at nice parties. QUESTIONS RE KRUGMAN: Several readers have complained about Paul Krugmans last column—a column we praised. They focused on what Krugman said about Obama supporters. We focused on what Krugman said about the press corps Clinton rules. Since theyve asked, well answer. In our view, Krugman has been a bit shrill on Obama, although he has often made valid points about various stands the hopeful has taken. Was he shrill about Obamas supporters? Our incomparable views: Like Krugman, weve been stunned and saddened at the Dem-on-Dem hatred displayed in comments around the web. (Our reaction to the South Carolina debate: Those are the three best candidates weve ever seen in a three-candidate forum.) We wouldnt know how to quantify this. But, like Krugman, its our impression that more of this comes from Obama supporters. We can think of an obvious reason for that: Theres a sixteen-year catalogue of demonology to access about Candidate Clinton. For our money, its sad to see how many Democrats have purchased this RNC-inspired, MSM-driven package. But its understandable that this has occurred. To amplify something Krugman said: Many Democrats also believed that Al Gore said he invented the Internet. Indeed, why wouldnt they have purchased that tale, and so many others like it? They heard these tales a thousand times. They rarely heard them contradicted. For our money, Krugman has been a bit shrill about Obama. (Thats a subjective assessment, of course.) On the other hand, the Obama campaign has sometimes sought to ride this old wave of Clinton-hatred. We think thats a very bad thing to have done—but sadly, its a part of our politics. (Bradley did it too, against Gore.) And oh yes! Youll never hear a word about it in the mainstream press. The silence theyve maintained about this is part of the Clinton rules, too. Indeed, the Times has published nine letters today about Krugmans column. All nine concern the Dem-on-Dem hatred. None (zero) concern what Krugman said about the noxious Clinton rules long employed by the mainstream press. But then, its just as we have told you: When you discuss the mainstream press, what you say will be disappeared. Thats the way this cohort plays it—much like a small, stupid mafia.
FRANKLY, WHAT ABOUT RICH: We expect to continue tomorrow. Theres one more point to be made. PART 3—UP FROM KNAVERY: In our view, Salons Joan Walsh makes some very good points in this post about David Shuster. Has Shuster become a scapegoat at MSNBC? On the one hand, you could think so. Over time, Chris Matthews conduct has been much more egregious, but only Shuster has been suspended. But when Matthews was forced to apologize for his endless gender-trashing, Shuster rushed to say how outrageous it was that Poor Brilliant Chris could have been so abused. And then, even after Matthews tumble, Shuster continued his nets stupid conduct—then wildly misstated some basic facts when he delivered his own apologia. Chronology plays a part here too; quite commonly, lesser offenses receive harsher treatment as the offenses keep piling up. For the record, weve met David a time or two in the past, and consider him to be a very nice person (most people are); beyond that, we have a dear mutual friend. But MSNBC has engaged in endless gender-trashing ever since the Clinton campaign began—and this conduct is layered atop a decade of destructive Clinton/Gore-hatred. When the channel keeps failing to get its act straight, Dems should keep pushing—that much harder. Joan makes several good points in her piece, but we think one point is somewhat off base. Were sure that people say this to Joan, but we think it misses the point:
We agree. (Except for the final words. of late. Matthews has been blatantly rude to liberal women going back to the 1990s.) Theres no reason why Joan, or anyone else, should refuse to appear on MSNBC (although the need to self-edit can be a problem). But we think weve asked a more salient question: When will journals like Salon start printing frank profiles of Matthews? This brings us back to the recent profile of Matthews in the New York Observer—and to the comments it produced. As we noted yesterday (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/12/08), the Observers Felix Gillette followed Matthews around on Super Tuesday; his profile certainly wasnt a hit piece, but it did begin to give us a look at Matthews loud grandiosity—and at his obvious, outsized biases regarding the current Dem candidates. (At least he didnt say of Clinton, I hate her. I hate her. I hate all that she stands for, as the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted him saying in 2002. Just click here.) But we were struck by something else about Gillettes profile; we were struck by the well-informed comments it drew. These comments were written by the Observers readers—by the great unwashed, by the person in the street. But omigod! Many of these comments were much better-informed about Matthews and the work of the press corps than anything weve read in our fiery liberal journals. To this day, you cant get this news from your liberal journals. But it has started to bubble up from below. For what its worth, we noticed the very same thing when we read the readers comments to Frank Richs noxious column this Sunday. Many readers had lots of knowledge about Richs noxious history. Why do we never read such things in our fiery liberal journals? Felix Gillette did a pretty good job with his profile of Matthews, although he had a limited assignment. But his readers seemed to know a great deal about the history of the past dozen years. Our question: When will The Nation, The New Republic, the Prospect, the Monthly finally get off their fat perfumed asses and offer this basic news to their readers? Were fine with Joan Walsh playing Hardball (and we think her posts have been excellent lately). But: When will Salon publish the history of the endless harm done by this man?
He was made a multimillionaire—by Jack Welch, for crying out loud! When will Salons readers get to read it? When will liberals get to stop combing through readers comments in search of the news of this world? |