Daily Howler's daily skewering: Slate's Weisberg, Plotz and Suellentrop

[BurtWorm]

Hilarious! And these guys are the creme de la creme!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=132

Poor Weisberg! During previous Granite State primaries, he was forced to enjoy his beloved cross-country skiing only "surreptitiously." This time, though, the scribe is in charge, and he's planned a more leisurely week. "This time, with others doing the serious coverage for Slate, I'm mixing skiing and politics openly," he writes, "partly in the spirit of multitasking and partly just to see if anything interesting happens when you bring these two unrelated activities into juxtaposition." Weisberg fails to say just who at Slate is providing the "serious" coverage he describes (note below). But soon, we see Weisberg as he plays country gentleman; he enjoys a long, thoughtful schuss through the woods, engaged in some brilliant discussion. He glides along with David Plotz, a writer now on leave from Slate. "The definition of a good sport, David drove all the way from Hampton on the seacoast to freeze his ass off keeping me company," Weisberg writes. "As we propelled ourselves along the slick, grooved tracks, we talked politics." Readers, "slick" and "grooved" would be our words too! Let's recall that this isn't a parody as Jake lets us in on the chatter:

WEISBERG: David's view of the race is that each party has an entrenched base of 43 percent or 45 percent that is largely unconvertible. The election will be decided by the 10 percent-15 percent of voters in the swayable middle . Given that reality, it would be insane for the Democrats to nominate Howard Dean, who is unlikely to win swing voters over with centrist positions or an easygoing personality, neither of which he has.

Let's see if we have this straight! After years of calculations, Plotz has come to believe that there is a large group of Democrats; a large group of Republicans; and a smaller group that is found in the middle! Readers will wonder how someone like Weisberg can ski and think such deep thoughts at the same time! But similar piffle seems to engage our country gentleman all through the week....

...

Good God! What in the world has become of Jake Weisberg? As he glissades on the Granite State's trails, his thoughts still turn to Naomi Wolf, and he still offers dumb, scripted shots about Gore. His judgments are based on <Lieberman's> pastels and <Clark's> long lashes. But then, the leisure class has always been empty, and Weisberg--four years into retyping Bush quotes--gives the rest of us cause to shudder as we think of who's writing our history.

SWEATER BOYS: Just who is providing Slate's "serious coverage?" In the first three days of his diary, Weisberg links to one Slate report from New Hampshire. It?s a Chris Suellentrop article written last week. Suellentrop spent his entire report describing Clark buying a sweater.

...

[redqueen]

1. LMAO - "But then, the leisure class has always been empty"

Bob rocks. :D

Thanks so much for posting this... MUCH needed comic relief. (Scary too, actually.)

[BurtWorm]

2. My favorite Somerby phrase, of all time.

The clowning clowns of clownistry. I like that as a putdown of American journalists better than media whores.

[redqueen]

3. It's good

But IMO lacks the seriousness of what we're dealing with. He sees them as not taking their jobs seriously.

I see them as covering their asses so they can keep collecting fat checks. Journalists who get too serious don't last long in the biz.

So, needless to say, I would probably prefer 'whoring (traitorous) whores of whoredom'. :)