Letters to the Editor
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Anger? Hate?
Is he as offended by the filth and poison that has been belched by talk radio and conservatives for the past dozen years or so? Mr. Cohen, swallow it.
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Why this man has a job..
I think there are only a few reasons why somebody is given a high profile post on which to write his opinion: he is either representing a specific point of view, is entertaining, or has a propensity for getting people riled up. They aren't mutually exclusive reasons of course but I think that covers it.
Richard Cohen represents a certain point of view. The fact that it just happens to be wrong isn't the issue. Just think about it from his point of view. Here's a guy who can't see the forest for the trees when it comes to Colbert's performance. He doesn't agree with it and can't even admire it for the shear balls it took to do what he did. Why? He's not funny. Right. So he published the first Colbert column and presumably cashed the check from writing it. The rest of the week goes by and he's besieged with e-mails ranging from civilized to obnoxiously-over-the-top that probably compare his mother to various barn yard animals (I'm just guessing) about his Colbert column.
To get that paycheck again he's going to have to write another column. Colbert is hot. Cohen's pissed off because his mom got disrespected (again, just guessing) and so he fires off this new missive wrapped around his own ideology. He gets his check, we look at what he wrote (the goal in the first place, yes?) and fire off more correspondance about what a 'tard he was for advocating the Iraq war.
The circle of life is complete.
I kind of just wish we could ignore idiots who blather on about stupid nonsense. The only reason we don't is because we're engaged in a war of ideas and ideology. As sad as it is that we have to listen to somebody that has credibility and pull in certain circles go through histrionics to write something both topical and appropriate for his readership, such is the price of liberty: eternal vigilance. And that includes taking this guy - who shows himself through his column to be worthy of very little respect - out to the woodshed.
Getting spanked hurts and sometimes people cry when it happens. That this guy would turn his crying into a column says more about him than it does about the people he writes about.
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Cohen's Pretentions...
to being a political analyst! As a WP reader I am familiar with his column and I cannot for the life of me remember one when he has been incisive or shown any inkling of being a particularly perceptive mind. His predictions about the consequences of the "hatred" should be taken accordingly: it is likely nothing else but what is beeing bandied in the exclusive Dc society luncheons and soirees where he and his cohort get their "information".
It should be mentioned that the same day WP printed on the facing page 4 letters sharply critical of Cohen's blast at Colbert. Not a "lynching" but at least an acknowledgement by the paper! Way more than self-righteous Cohen was able to manage!
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Examples, Mr. Cohen?
Cite concrete examples of this widespread "hatred". Otherwise, just like our president, you merely prove yourself to be someone who can't stand to be told when they're wrong.
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Having a hate-driven base hasn't hurt the Republicans much
I read Cohen's column, and I respect his right to have his own opinion about Colbert's presentation. I can understand (just barely) that somebody else might feel that even a president like Bush deserves some respect. And in fact I felt that Colbert's performance was more "righteous" than "funny". I even sympathize with Cohen for having to endure being flamed.
But his premise that this hate-driven base is going to be the ruin of the Democratic Party belies all available evidence. The Republicans have a similar base that is larger and better organized than ours, and has been operating on all cylinders for over a decade--and all they have to show for it is control of the Presidency and both sides of Congress. Oh, and the judicial branch as well.
Even those of us who don't like Hillary (as much for her perceived unelectability as her trimming behavior) are going to hold our nose and vote for her if we have to, just for the pleasure of sticking our ballots up the Repugs' collective ass.
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Digital Lynch Mob
This is a passage from Cohen's latest:
"Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have."
Shoudn't it read "WE all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have"?
Talk about denial! It's as if he wasn't there all along, beating the war drum.
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Cohen isn't all bad
In a column on Feb. 6, 2003, Cohen said that there was no longer any room for argument about Saddam Hussein's WMD. Colin Powell's U.N. presentation had established "without a doubt" that the WMD existed, Cohen said, and "only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise."
Well,yes, he did say this -- and if you were to play fair, Tim, you'd also remind your readers that he's since done his mea culpa, more than once.
Cohen is getting crotchety, but I think he's not alone. The "hot house flower" writers who have had good gigs at the dead tree media are used to letters, not e-mail. They're encountering the feedback loop now. They don't seem to be aware that what's coming into their e-mail like a fire hose these days is pretty much what people would be saying over the breakfast table every morning, internet or no internet.
We're seeing a changing of the guard in journalism.
Cohen is, or used to be, one of the good guys. Let the dust settle before you write him off. A man who can admit his mistakes, as Cohen often does, is not a man to dismiss simply because he's having trouble adjusting to the feedback loop.
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Cohen's Delusion
Funny - it seems to me that general voter hatred and anger has worked really well for the Republicans in the past. Why should it be any different when the miffed masses happen to be Democrats? Mid-term elections, so the punditocracy has been reminding us, ad nauseum, usually hinge on which party feels motivated to go to the polls. This year, I believe it will be bonafide Democrats, with a lot of Republicans who now look at their party and wonder what happened to it. Richard Cohen? He's another irrelevant scribbler who spends way too much time writing about himself, believing he's interesting. He's as deluded about that as he is about Democratic prospects in November.