SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2014
Colbert King's column inside: Atop the front page of the Washington Post, Anthony Faiola offers a powerful portrait of growing anti-Semitism in France. We strongly recommend it.
(First point of weirdness: Faiola’s impressive piece dominates the front page of the hard-copy Post. But go figure! As we write, his report isn’t cited anywhere on the front page of the Post’s web site. It isn’t linked there at all.)
Faiola builds his portrait around the work of the demented French “comedian,” Dieudonné M’bala M’bala. We’ll admit that several uncharitable connections briefly flashed through our heads.
(One connection: We flashed on the silence which greeted the recent testimony of Beatriz Vergara and Elizabeth Vergara, two Los Angeles high school students who have had sleepy teachers. We especially refer to the silence and dismissiveness from “the left.” We’ll have more on that topic next week.)
We recommend Faiola’s front-page report. But alas! As we read it, we flashed on this remarkable column by Colbert King—a column we had just finished reading on the Post’s op-ed page.
For the record, we have long admired substantial parts of King’s work. On the downside, King has been a reliable dead-ender in the journalistic world of viral anti-Clintonism, dating back to the 1990s and even to the closing days of Campaign 2000.
King’s new column suggests the intellectual illness of this weirdly hate-filled world—the highly irrational world of anti-Clinton/Gore-ism.
King’s constructions today are quite slippery. Sadly, they mimic the way that French “comedian” has been forced to disguise the obvious thrust of his work, according to Faiola’s account.
We’ve sworn off these topics in recent weeks. We plan to return to them shortly, in an award-winning series, “Anthropology Lessons.”
That said, we want to continue our fast today. For that reason, we’ll restrict ourselves to this observation:
King is very slippery today, in the manner of that French funnyman. Alas! It’s a large part of our human condition:
Each fellow hears voices (King’s “words”) in his head. The voices demand to get out.
"We flashed on the silence which greeted the recent testimony of Beatriz Vergara and Elizabeth Vergara, two Los Angeles high school students who have had sleepy teachers. We especially refer to the silence and dismissiveness from..." Somerby readers.
ReplyDeleteHe won't have more on that topic next week. He doesn't know they are silent. He doesn't read the rubes who read and respond to his writing. Or so his defenders say.
"Beatriz Vergara and Elizabeth Vergara"
DeleteThese 2 students are both in a special public school at which teachers work according to the judgement of the principal on effectiveness. As far as I can tell the case was brought simply to undermine the positions of teachers.
Does Bob know that the organization that brought the sisters into the suit, is just a front for a very rich guy, a la Gates, with some rather toxic ideas for school reform. Think Michelle Rhee with a huge check book. It's a hoot that Bob picks this case, a bit of plutocrat funded advocacy, to hang his liberal bashing hammer.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hoot that they testified in February, and Bob, covering it well after a decision is reached months later, chastizes others for something he is just now getting around to mentioning.
DeleteYou may not visit this blog often and thus may not know that it was the NY Times that just got around to reporting this issue and that this is a media blog not an education blog per se. Hoot back at ya.
DeleteSince the decision was not announced in 2/1 (the date of your linked article) what does it have to do with Somerby's complaint that it was misreported?
DeleteYou are looking for a spot on the short side of Somerby's achievement gap, perhaps? Hopefully not.
DeleteIt has nothing to do with Somerby's complaint about misreporting, which came in a different post. It has to do with some idiot (we hope it was not you) at 1:58 responding that the New York Times just got around to reporting this issue. And that piece of idiocy was in defense of Somerby stating "the left" had not covered this issue. A commenter had the temerity to note that, before Friday, Bob had not either though the case is quite old.
Bob's critcism, as you can see from links provided in comments below, is yet another false bit of the propaganda he spreads over rubes who read him.
We hope this enlightens you. Thanks for asking.
So, again, if Somerby and this blog is so crappy why don't you spend your time somewhere else?
Delete7:38 you make a demonstrably boneheaded comment then want to suggest what others should do with their time?
DeleteI was correcting a boneheaded comment.
DeleteWhich one? What were your corrections? Did you contribute earlier in the thread?
DeleteBreaking the silence?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/19/arent-california-tenure-policies-in-fact-unreasonable-plus-4-more-vergara-questions-asked-and-answered/
I did not know about this case, and have not seen in discussed in liberal blogs or magazines.
Do you see it discussed in a lot of conservative blogs?
DeleteI typically do not read conservative blogs. I subscribe to the rss feeds of several blogs, including several prominent ones associated with liberal/left opinion magazines. I only look at the HuffPo's frontpage, because most of its content is junk (the same can be said of DailyKos). I had never heard of this before Bob mentioned it, but thank you for the other stories.
DeleteThe linked WaPo article focuses more on verbal attacks than on physical attacks. It leads with Dieudonné's words. giving less attention to the murders of Jews. The murders and other acts of violence were pretty much all committed by Muslims. Yes, anti-Semitic speech is a problem, but violent anti-Semitic actions by Muslims is really a separate problem, and IMHO a larger one.
ReplyDeleteSo anti-semitism, the scourge of Europe and parts of America for the first half of the twentieth century, in on the rise.
ReplyDeleteNo need to worry about trends like resegregation in America though.
And stop dropping those "R" bombs you career liberals and covering the history of the Civil Rights movement like it has any relevance. OK?
Can we talk? Dropping the A-S bomb is what career liberals do to advance corporate interests in France . Does Bob think dropping A-S bombs is the way to get the far right in France to participate in joint ventures to solve common problems? For ourselves, we don't know.
ReplyDeleteCommon problems like eradicating Jews?
DeleteWhat did France ever do to deserve a permanenet seat on the UN Security Council?
ReplyDeleteI see you are a history buff.
DeleteJ'ai remise.
Delete