THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2013
The things we care about: Again today, we observe a crushing difference in perspective on opposite sides of the Time op-ed page:
Down the right side of the page, Nicholas Kristof is off in Mali, writing about blindness and leprosy. Kristof tends to be like that.
On the other side of the page, Gail Collins is wasting everyone’s time writing about Liz Cheney. Last Thursday, she wasted everyone’s time writing about Spitzer/Weiner.
Translation: Gail Collins has nothing to say or write about. Then too, Maureen Dowd is still writing from Paris. Yesterday, she wasted everyone’s time writing about the first lady!
About the first lady of France!
Headline: “Can Valerie Seduce The French?” Ooh la la! It was sexy-time in Paris all over again!
In the last fifteen years, we’ve been surprised by several incomparable learnings. One thing we’ve learned is this: It’s hard to get people to focus on the fatuous, throwback values of this addled, upper-class newspaper.
This is especially true with respect to Collins and Dowd, the Times’ two female columnists. Truly, they often seem to think they’re writing for the mid-50s “Women’s Pages.”
It’s very hard to get folk to see this. Perhaps their values are ours.
No, the opinion is shared. My friends and I, women, feel a disdain for Dowd and Collins for the insufferably arrogant, empty and demeaning to women columns they write repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteSomeone reads them, or they wouldn't have jobs. Bob's last sentence captures the essence of things.
DeleteDowd and Collins are wildly anti-feminist, but there are those who have the same values. As for actual journalist-commentary, how could they be more empty? However, I expect the Guardian will be giving the NYTimes fits from here on and that may bring change to the Times.
ReplyDelete"It's vey hard to get folks to see this."
ReplyDeleteCould it be your delivery?
The turgid, bulky prose, and the relentless hissing, hectoring, and name-calling, are slight barriers, I think.
DeleteYes, Bob, from now own try to point out IN A NICE WAY that the millionaires are bullshitting us. That'll go down a treat, I'm sure. Just like I'm sure everyone would've been happy if you explained the failures of the Zimmerman coverage IN A NICE WAY. That's all your commenters have been trying to tell you the last few weeks. [/sarcasm]
DeleteAnonymous, the problem is simply that the writing isn't very good.
DeleteThank you all for proving my point.
DeleteMy my... Where did all the cork-sniffing prose stylists come from?
Deletecacambo: you left out " Volvo-driving, latte sipping, arugala chewing ...."
DeleteDamn liberals.
What's wrong with writing about blindness and leprosy in Mali?
ReplyDeletebased on similar blog posts by somerby, i'm guessing his point is that a column on some far away place about a problem that is not relevant to the lives of readers of an american newspaper serves no purpose other than to make kristof and his readers feel good about "caring" so much. but that's obviously just my best speculation. don't quote me.
DeletePerhaps "a crushing difference in perspective on opposite sides" suggests, here at least, nothing worth commenting on.
DeleteIt's too liberal? Hell, I dunno.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Kristof is wildly hawkish, a "humanitarian" hawk, a war lover's war lover from my perspective, making the writing about Mali and the like seem completely hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteSo he should write about what an awful hypocritical person he is? He's not going to make much money doing that.
DeleteWhere's your common sense?
Anon didn't try to tell Kristoff what to write about -- where's your reading comprehension, or common courtesy?
DeleteI’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
ReplyDeleteOut to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds.
rick
If you read the boogie New York Times and watched the Maoist MSNBC would you be egalitarian?
ReplyDeleteI just read the Gail Collins column which is vacuous as ever, an insult to any serious columnist but that is always the case. Let's all find a Collins joke now.
ReplyDeleteLove Kristof. Can't stand anyone else at the NYT
ReplyDeleteWell, Collins said this:
ReplyDelete"You may be wondering why New Jersey is having a Senate election just a few weeks before everybody there goes to vote for governor. Because Nov. 5 is Chris Christie’s day, that’s why. Keep away from it."
Bob pretends to care about that, but obviously doesn't.
Should op-ed columnists write about actual politicians running for actual offices like the people Collins wrote about or should they write about whatever headlining court case will attract the most hits on the site meter?