Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler begins a series this week, sparked by Clark Hoyt's smackdown of Maureen Dowd's viciously sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton (and fellow Democrats--no pun intended), analyzing the Irish Catholic mob he sees controlling so much of the public debate on politics, especially on NBC and its affiliated cable networks. Somerby, who is of Irish heritage himself, is very interesting on the subject. Should be a fascinating week in Howlerville. The whole DH today is an excellent read. You're bound to enjoy it if you think Dowd is overdue for a public shaming. Stay tuned:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh062308.shtml...
Again, we strongly commend Clark Hoyt for his column. It’s rare to see a “journalist” of Dowd’s celebrity described so frankly within her own news org. Dowd’s coverage of Clinton was a rolling disgrace. And that’s pretty much what Hoyt said.
Beyond that, we strongly recommend Digby’s post—every word. But we do make one small complaint.
The time has come to describe Dowd’s lunacy for what it actually is. It’s awkward to do so; we’d all rather not. But as we’ll continue to show you this week, these virulent forms of lunacy have assaulted our culture for many years now. This lunacy has been an illness—a plague. It does explain why we’re now in Iraq. It’s time to say what it actually is—where it actually comes from.
If we don’t explain what it is, many voters will be inclined to assume that it makes basic sense.
Awkward though it may be to say so, Dowd’s lunacy is the expression of a particular culture—a throwback form of Irish Catholic culture which most Irish Catholics have had the good sense to move far away from, long ago. But Dowd, and Matthews, and many others, have propagated this viral illness as it has damaged our public discourse over the past many years. We Irish! We sat on TV all last week and proclaimed how much we love the truth—how superior we are in that regard, thanks to our days with the nuns and the Jesuits. Tomorrow, we’ll start to revisit “four days in the life” to show you what was being said at NBC’s cable arm all the way back in December 1999. This lunatic loathing has gone on for years—sometimes in gender-based forms, sometimes not. It’s an illness—a plague on Oran. It’s time to discuss it a bit more frankly, as we do with other religious cultures which play key roles in American politics. Yes, it’s awkward to do so. But unless we want this plague to last forever, we actually need to start doing this.
...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
