“I always thought that Kenny G held the world’s record for longest-sustained musical note but this Reuters item says otherwise. I wonder if the single-sentence rant from Tony Kushner you featured today rant could qualify for some kind of world record, say, longest-sustained paranoid fit or longest-sustained bi-polar rant.” More of the tough crowd’s comments on the Letters Page.
MNOOKIN PUNTS: Newsweek’s Seth Mnookin has been the best reporter on the NYT story for weeks so it was disappointing to read his latest piece which is designed to suck up to his bosses in Manhattan journalism by distancing himself from “right-wing ideologues” who criticized the NYT under Raines. C’mon, Seth. That’s a cheap shot. You made many of the same points as well, as Mickey Kaus points out. Mickey also has the sanest conclusion from the entire episode:
[T]he best we can hope for, I think, is a general toning down of Raines-style activism, even if that’s done in the name of “objectivity” (and therefore has the effect of actually perpetuating the essential “objectivity” fraud). … “Better blatant than latent” is usually a sound rule of thumb. With the NYT, I’ll settle for latent. …
I mean, just look at this piece today on Hillary’s book tour. You’d think there might be one quote from someone skeptical of HRC’s account or simply not an actual paid-up Democratic hack. But nah. Giving the other point of view would simply be appeasing “right-wing ideologues.”
The Dish 