Contemporary Journalism
[ed: I can't get the jerk to get his own blog, so I'm pretty much going to run his stuff here.]
"I was watching The Magnificent Seven last night and heard a line which perfectly expresses the attitude of the North American press toward the cartoon controversy. A travelling salesman is trying to convince an undertaker to accept $20 to bury an Indian in Boot Hill, the local cemetary. The undertaker admits that it's only fear of local prejudice that keeps him from interring an Indian amidst the "murderers, cut-throats, and derelict old barflies" that are already there, but he adds that regardless of his own opinions on the matter, there's no hope of convincing his driver to make the journey. The salesman asks, "So, he's prejudiced too, uh?" To which the undertaker replies, "Prejudiced? When it comes to a chance of his head getting blown off, he's downright *bigoted*."
The analogue for the members of our irreverent and frequently viciously and aggressively secular media: "Sensitive to religious interests? When it comes to a chance of being beheaded, we're downright *devout*."
This wouldn't be so offensive if a) they'd admit that they're motivated simply by fear; b) I could be assured that we'd never be subjected again to any sanctimonious rhetoric about the sacred obligations and privileges of the journalistic profession. The heiratical affectations of a class of professionals whose work in most cases requires no more than an average amount of either courage or talent have long bordered on nauseating: even describing Woodward and Bernstein as "heroic" was a gross insult to anyone who actually displayed that quality in a meaningful way, but when vapid nincompoops like Anderson Cooper are lauded for "speaking truth to power," the media's disappearance into a bizarre parallel world of compulsive auto-eroticism is irreparably complete.
As Colby Cosh noted, the "blogosphere" is now the last preserve of true journalistic ethics, far closer to the mores of boozing, misanthropic iconoclasts like H.L. Mencken and Ambrose Bierce than are the effete, timorous professionals who inhabit Offices of Appeasement such as the NYT."
Blogging | By Josiah Roe | 11:00 AM
Comments
I suggest that the man in question adopt the tradition of others in American political letters and write under a pen name. No responsibility, no power except that which arises in the words themselves. Booze and misanthrop all you bloody want. And it's not lame because other greats have done it, and we don't look down on them too much for it. A vodkapundit-esque savant from the great white north. May I propose the nom-de-plume "Red".
I'm only 40% joking.
Posted by: Noel at February 13, 2006 10:13 PM
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