The Post recalls John Wilkes Booth: If it’s good solid clowning you enjoy, you have to hand it to Lawrence.
Last night, he found a way to keep the tale of the family feud alive. Maybe the Cheney sisters are faking their hair-pulling family feud!
So Lawrence thoughtfully mused.
He teased the notion early and often. Finally, at the end of the program, he made poor Jason Zengerle sit through a short segment about this improbable premise.
Politely, Zengerle refrained from telling Lawrence that he’s visibly nuts.
On Sunday, the Washington Post really pimped the feud. On page one, the paper ran a full news report on the topic, live and direct from Cheyenne.
But it was in the Outlook section where the great paper jumped the shark.
Outlook is a high-profile Sunday section. Page B3 was almost completely consumed by the photo-festooned report about sibling warfare down through the various centuries.
“Brothers and sisters in arms,” the headline screamed. “The Post’s Lisa Bonos on sibling rivalries through the ages.”
Sure enough! Liz and Mary Cheney’s feud had set Bonos’ mind a-whirring. She offered four examples of sibling feuds, dating to the 15th century. At the top of the page, her piece ran beneath a photo of Edwin and John Wilkes Booth!
Was Liz Cheney on the grassy knoll? Everything is possible!
As that commenter wrote in the New York Times, “Schadenfreude is a dish best served en masse.” Last night, Lawrence found an inventive way to keep schadenfreude alive.
Concerning that news report: On page one, the Post had two reporters working the Dawson-inspired beat. We congratulate the pair for flipping the standard narrative:
SULLIVAN AND TUMULTY (11/24/13): Along with the autumn snow flurries, there is a certain touchiness in the Wyoming air among the state’s Republican establishment.Say what? In standard format, you’re supposed to say that Liz Cheney did something extremely strange, thus precipitating the family feud.
“It’s bruising people,” former senator Alan K. Simpson says of the topic of pretty much everyone’s conversations these days. “When you get a call from Dick or Lynne, and you love them, you don’t want to say no. It’s got Wyoming in a turmoil.
Dick and Lynne, of course, are the Cheneys, the former vice president and his wife, who are political royalty in Wyoming. And the “it” in question is their daughter Liz’s audacious Republican primary challenge of incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi—which took a painful turn in recent days when Liz’s lesbian sibling, Mary, ramped up her public criticism of her older sister’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
Sullivan and Tumulty broke from that format. Can major reporters do that?
"Politely, Zengerle refrained from telling Lawrence that he’s visibly nuts."
ReplyDeleteBone-gnawer has to resort to mind-dreading for that particular bit of mudslinging against a successful liberal commentator.
Ho hum. Slow news day. Bone-gnawer has disgraced himself too much over Zimmerman - so - "the war against Gore" is due for a re-run.
That should be mind-reading.
DeleteNuts is as nuts does. You should take that to heart.
DeleteDisgusting, degenerate troll, needs to be banned.
DeleteAn ordinary disagreement is not a "feud". The definition is
ReplyDelete1. Also called blood feud. a bitter, continuous hostility, especially between two families, clans, etc., often lasting for many years or generations.
2. a bitter quarrel or contention: a feud between labor and management.
Obviously #1 doesn't apply to the sisters. It's not even clear to me that #2 applies. That is, I don't know that the difference of opinion is bitter. The media are using overblown language to make this unimportant story sexier.
The media are using
Schadenfreude is a word selectively applied, and suspiciously popularized
ReplyDeleteAFTER the Monica Lewinsky scandal. People on the right and in the media enjoyed the Clinton's public embarrassment with a Sadism out of "Salo." Few noticed or cared.