Letters to the Editor
GlennGreenwald
Published Letters: 2095 Editor's Choice: 18
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JimC
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]New rule, Glenn: Once you get a gig where people pay to see what you write, you can't write about other journalists. You have to cover the news and/or analyze events, not coverage of events. . . .
No, I'm talking about a world that never existed. But if you want me to believe bloggers are adding value to the political discussion, well, add value to the political discussion.
I honestly don't know what led you to fantasize that I "want [you] to believe bloggers are adding value to the political discussion," and that this desire that you attributed to me entitles you to come here and promulgate "rules" about what I can write about and not write about. Whatever it is that led you to that world, your premises and conclusions are wildly wrong.
I strongly suggest that if you dislike reading about media coverage and related issues that you not come here any more. That would be a much more constructive use of your time and energy than coming here and trying to tell me what to write about.
Bizarre. I'm seriously interested in what goes through your mind when you come here and leave a comment like that. Do you really expect that it's going to affect what is written? What do you tell yourself to convince yourself of that?
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L.W.M
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That Shooter is now defending members of a class of journalists he and Bart and their ilk typically and derisively referred to as the "Donkey Media" when they were not calling them traitors and suggesting that they should be arrested or even hanged. Odd, isn't it?
It's amazing how often that happens these days - how continuously Bush followers defend the "MSM". People like Kathryn Jean Lopez and Glenn Reynolds constantly praise Fred Hiatt and David Broder.
It if werent's such an Article of Faith that the "MSM is Liberal," and if they weren't so addicted to their victim/persecution status, they would look around and say to themselves: "Hey, wait a minute -- all of the media controversies are ones where the press was too uncritical of the Bush administration -- and right-wing hack Matt Drudge rules the media world, as even the MSM admits -- and I am constantly in the position of defending the MSM. Maybe the MSM isn't so liberal after all."
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Desert Sun:
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wasn't aware that Glenn had ever asked for feedback.
Honestly, I'm trying to remember a time when he ever asked for feedback.
I actually like feedback and find that it's one of the great advantages of blogging - it's a form of course correction, thinking about new approaches, etc.
I spend a lot of time answering e-mail from people asking why I spend time on Topic X, why I don't spend more time on Topic Y. Thinking about those things and talking about them with people who disagree about those choices clarifies thinking about them. And it was either yesterday or the day before where I wrote a fairly long comment about why I think it's so important to focus on media issues (in response to someone who asked why that's become such a focus here).
So I like feedback, including on topic choice. But there is feedback - and then there is whiny, complaining, self-centered demands. What was grating about Jim's comment was the imperious tone -- the first words were "New Rule." It didn't make arguments about why a focus on one type of topic was not constructive. It just demanded adherence to his preferences based on some belief that the goal is to satisfy or entertain him.
My response was certainly due in part to irritation, but also a genuine desire to know what he was thinking when he wrote that. I see comments/emails like that periodically and I always wonder what leads someone to think that way.
His subsequent comments have been more reasonable and substantive and had the first comment been of that type, I wouldn't have responded as I did.
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SonOfABastard
[Read the article: Answers for Joe Klein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jonathan Alter just posted about the incident that started all of this on Huffington Post.
Wow. There were a couple of other things I was planning on writing about tomorrow, but I'm positive I won't be able to resist that.
This is what the Huffington Post is going to now churn out?
I'm also glad to see the magazine Radar sending young reporters like Jebediah Reed out to cover politics. The more the merrier. Unfortunately, Reed is a bad reporter . . .
The same goes for reading me or Tom Edsall or others who happen to have worked at first-rate news organizations. But our batting averages--and David Broder's--are a helluva lot higher than the Jebidiah Reeds of the world, which is only one of the reasons why the readers of Huffington Post are lucky to have Edsall aboard.
He attacks and insults Reed without claiming that there is a single inaccuracy in what he wrote. It's just all lip-curling anger. Weird.
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J.M. Greskey:
[Read the article: A beautiful mosaic of anti-blogger hatred]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gawd, what a needy bunch bloggers can be. Why do you want MSM's love and approval? There is a secret desire to be one of them, of course. A story old as time.
Yep. I think if there is one thing that's clear, it's that bloggers are trying to win the approval and affection of the national media. Nothing could be clearer than that.