Supplemental: Do you believe this story or claim?

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014

Lawrence O’Donnell edition:
Lawrence O’Donnell knows bouncers. For our money, he proved that last night as he discussed the recent White House break-in:
O’DONNELL (10/1/14): Susan Crabtree, what I’m hearing about this is a Washington reaction. This is a pure Washington reaction where you get the resignation or you fire the boss of the agency.

The failures, the people who individually failed in their jobs on the patrol of the front of the White House there, they’re not supposed to be examined in any way at this stage. We’re supposed to just assume that there’s something, you know, complicated about that that we might not understand.

The agent sitting at the front door gets overwhelmed? That agent clearly is incapable of doing that job.

Come to New York City. Take a look at the bouncers they have out in front of the nightclubs, OK? Try to get by one of them, OK? It isn’t possible. But you can run right over a Secret Service officer sitting at the front door of the White House and Washington says, “Oh, we must not judge that.”
Has someone or something called “Washington” said, “Oh, we must not judge that?”

The claim seems unlikely to us. That said, we do take Lawrence’s point about bouncers.

Recently, O’Donnell did a segment on his show which involved a claim we found a bit hard to believe. The claim was part of a larger portrait we find very hard to believe.

The segment was a tribute to the insightful admissions officer who admitted O’Donnell to Harvard. Below, you see was the start of O’Donnell’s tribute to the late Chase Peterson, the first Mormon he ever knew.

To watch the whole segment, click this:
O’DONNELL (9/15/14): The first Harvard graduate I ever met was Chase Peterson, who as it happens was also the first Mormon I ever met. In fact, he was one of the very first non-Catholics that I ever met. I grew up in an entirely Catholic neighborhood of Boston, where the word “Harvard” was mentioned only as the final stop at the end of the subway.

Chase Peterson changed that for me...
Already, we were puzzled. Is it really possible that Peterson “was one of the very first non-Catholics” O’Donnell ever met?

We don’t know the answer to that, though we find that claim a bit implausible. As O’Donnell continued, we were struck by the larger portrait he drew of his feral youth:
O’DONNELL (continuing directly): Chase Peterson changed that for me. He was the Dean of admissions of Harvard College when I was a senior in high school and he conducted my admissions interview and decided to admit me.

Most of the good things that have happened to me in some way trace back to Harvard, which opened opportunities that no one else in my family or neighborhood ever had. I’ve never forgotten that I have Chase Peterson to thank for that. And I’m not the only one.

Since pretty much everyone on the Harvard faculty has a Ph.D., only the medical doctors are called doctors. And Dr. Chase Peterson was not just a graduate of Harvard College, he was a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He became the dean of admissions of Harvard College in 1967, and he immediately hired Harvard’s first African-American admissions staff member, John S. Harwell.

Chase Peterson made it the business then of the Harvard admissions committee to reach out to minority communities where admission to Harvard was as unheard of as it was in my neighborhood. And he offered a surprisingly warm welcome to highly talented students who otherwise would not have applied to Harvard.

[...]

Yesterday in Salt Lake City, Chase Peterson died at the age of 84. I’m returning to Harvard this weekend for my class reunion, a class admitted by Chase Peterson. He will be remembered by us all as a man of dignity, grace, and wisdom steeped in high academic achievement and unerring modesty. We will talk about him with affection and gratitude, and in my case, with awe.
Did O’Donnell just describe himself as a “highly talented student who otherwise would not have applied to Harvard?” We’re not sure, but we’ve long been puzzled by the way O’Donnell portrays his youth.

Here’s why:

O’Donnell was not raised by wolves. According to standard profiles, his father was a very impressive, self-made man who rose from working-class origins in the Depression.

But he was already a lawyer by the time O’Donnell was born in 1951. It sounds like he had become a fairly well-known lawyer in Boston as of 1956.

O’Donnell often talks about growing up in the Boston neighborhood called Dorchester. In the 1950s, it was largely or wholly Irish-American. (Our aunt Claire lived there, with two of our cousins.) But according to the Boston Globe, “As [O’Donnell Senior’s] law practice prospered, the family moved to Quincy and bought a second home in Falmouth, in the early 1960s.”

Quincy is a Boston suburb. Just to give you a rough idea, Lee Remick grew up in Quincy, before moving on to Barnard and the Actors Studio.

Falmouth is on Cape Cod. The second home there would have been a summer home, as some profiles explicitly note.

As for O’Donnell himself, he graduated from Saint Sebastian's School, “an independent, all-boys Catholic secondary school located in Needham, Massachusetts on 26 acres.” At the time, Needham was a fairly upscale western suburb of Boston. Peterson didn’t have to risk his life to interview O’Donnell there.

Did Harvard “open opportunities [for O’Donnell] that no one else in my family or neighborhood ever had?” We’ll assume that those claims could be technically accurate. In Washington and Hollywood, O’Donnell has had opportunities that very few people anywhere ever have.

But just for the record, O’Donnell is the youngest of five siblings. All the other siblings are lawyers, as was their admirable father. He may have been the first to go to Harvard. But his older cousin, the late and widely-esteemed Kirk O’Donnell, had already graduated from Brown by the time O’Donnell emerged from the offal-strewn den where he was being nursed by hyenas preparatory to going off to get himself salvaged in Cambridge.

Just a guess: Plenty of people from Quincy and Falmouth showed up at Harvard before him. We’d have to guess that Saint Sebastian’s sent lots of people to college too.

It’s nice to see Lawrence say something nice about a Mormon for once. That said, do you believe that other claim? Do you believe that Peterson was “one of the very first non-Catholics” O’Donnell ever met?

To us, that sounds highly implausible. But the portrait of his feral youth seems especially strange.

For a remembrance of O'Donnell’s admirable mother, you should just click this.

Is this a version of Russertism? Nothing really turns on this sort of thing, of course. But it seems to us that we’re hearing a lot of stories and claims from journalists which seem implausible on their face.

Everybody loves a good tale. Shouldn’t we leave them to novelists?

15 comments:

  1. I think Larry's basic (only?) point may be fairly sound. The TV News culture forces us to "Fire the Person at the Top" rush to judgement (except when we don't) and the actual person who was supposed to be guarding the door escapes our attention. Maybe they are dealt with appropriately or maybe not, but by then we have forgotten about the whole thing. We might ask, "what does Larry want, to see some lower case person humiliated?"

    As to the rest, you Irish Catholics sort it out for yourselves....

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    1. You can't seriously suggest that the public should micromanage how lower level employees are disciplined? The person at the top is fired or resigns because it was their responsibility to ensure the bottom level people were properly trained and did their jobs well. It doesn't matter why the failure might occur. There are some jobs where there is zero tolerance for incompetence and the top guy pays the price for failure.

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    2. I was having serious relationship problems with my boyfriend and it had resulted in him moving out to his friend’s apartment. Everything got worse because he started going to bars and strip clubs frequently with his friend, getting drunk and passing out. He always threatens me on phone whenever I call him because of all the bad advises that his friend has given him. I really love him and we had been dating for 6 years which gave us a beautiful daughter. I had also lost a lot of money on therapists until I was introduced to Dr. Okaya by a friend whom he helped to marry her childhood boyfriend; this gave me total confidence and strength to get him back. I did all he asked and after 48 hours my boyfriend called me and rushed back home, things just changed between us emotionally. He has a job and stopped drinking and keeping irrelevant friends. It’s a miracle I never believed was possible because I had lost all hope until I found Dr.Okaya. So that’s why I promised to share my testimony all over the universe. All thanks goes to Dr.Okaya for the excessive work that he has done for me. Below is the email address in situation you are undergoing a heart break, and I assure you that as he has done mine for me, he will definitely help you too. OKAYASPELLHELP@GMAIL.COM call/Whatsapp +27814506790

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  2. I am Miss speck from USA, I promise to share this testimony all over the world once my boyfriend return back to me, and today with all due respect i want to thank DR ozala for bringing joy and happiness to my relationship and my family. I want to inform you all that there is a spell caster that is real and genuine. I never believed in any of these things until i loosed my boyfriend, I required help until i found drozalaspelltemple@gmail.com a grate spell caster, And he cast a love spell for me, and he assured me that I will get my boyfriend back in two days after the spell has been cast. two days later, my phone rang, and so shockingly, it was my boyfriend who has not called me for past 3 years now, and made an apology for the heart break, and told me that he is ready to be my back bone till the rest of his life with me. DR ozala released him up to know how much i loved and wanted him. And opened his eyes to picture how much we have share together. As I’m writing this testimony right now I’m the most happiest girl on earth and me and my fiance is living a happy life and our love is now stronger than how it were even before our break up. So that’s why I promised to share my testimony all over the universe.All thanks goes to DR ozala for the excessive work that he has done for me. Below is the email address in situation you are undergoing a heart break, and I assure you that as he has done mine for me, he will definitely help you too. drozalaspelltemple@gmail.com

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    1. I want to give an unlimited thanks to this Great man Called Dr. Okaya. I am happy today because my husband is now back with full of love, My husband left me for another woman,just because we had a little misunderstanding. he left me and promise he will never come back to me again. i cry all day looking for a solution to help me bring him back. Then i saw a testimony share on the internet by client. i email him and tell him my problems with my ex husband, and he promise to bring him back home within 2 days. indeed he is wonderful he help me to get my husband back within 2days which he promise and my husband return to me and promise to love me forever and beg me for the pain he caused me. I will forever be grateful to you Dr and i will not stop to publish your name on the internet for people to see how truthful you are. And I want to say to everyone on this site that I will always remain thankful to this man Dr. Okaya for all he has done for me,My husband is back with love,caring,truthful and he promise to love me forever.I have made a promise that every body I know will never have a relationship problem, via email (OKAYASPELLHELP@GMAIL.COM Or call/Whatsapp +27814506790

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  3. My name is Nancy Laura from USA. I never believed in love spells or magic until i met this spell caster once when i went to Africa in February this year on a business summit. I meant a man whos name is DR.omamen he is really powerful and could help cast spells to bring back ones gone, lost, misbehaving lover and magic money spell or spell for a good job or luck spell .Im now happy & a living testimony cos the man i had wanted to marry left me 3 weeks before our wedding and my life was upside down cos our relationship has been on for 3years. I really loved him, but his mother was against us and he had no good paying job. So when i met this spell caster, i told him what happened and explained the situation of things to him. At first i was undecided, skeptical and doubtful, but i just gave it a try. And in 7 days when i returned to USA, my boyfriend (now husband) called me by himself and came to me apologizing that everything had been settled with his mom and family and he got a new job interview so we should get married. I didnt believe it cos the spell caster only asked for my name and my boyfriends name and all i wanted him to do. Well we are happily married now and we are expecting our little kid, and my husband also got the new job and our lives became much better. His email is omamenspiritultemple@gmail.com.

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  4. Mrs O'Donnell got her husband and all their kids through law school. And he dumped her! Or did she dump him?

    Lawrence Jr is a stinky poophead.

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    1. On the scale of the Reign of Nazi Death Camps to the Rise of ISIS, I'd have to give that piece of snark a 3.5 on the scale of scaring non believers away.

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    2. You propose a scale consisting of two things nearly equal, a scale from 1 to 2. You can't give a 3.5.

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  8. I lost my 10 years relationship during April. My ex left me with so much pains and since then i have been heart broken and shattered. I have contact 15 spell casters and 10 of them has rip me off my money without any result. I have visited so many sites online looking for a good spell caster till i was directed by a 16 years old girl to highpriestozigididon@gmail.com with website: highpriestozigididon@gmail.com At first i never believed him because he was requesting for some amount of money to buy items, it took him three weeks to convince me and something occur to mind and i said let me give him a trial.

    ReplyDelete

  9. I was having serious relationship problems with my boyfriend and it had resulted in him moving out to his friend’s apartment. Everything got worse because he started going to bars and strip clubs frequently with his friend, getting drunk and passing out. He always threatens me on phone whenever I call him because of all the bad advises that his friend has given him. I really love him and we had been dating for 6 years which gave us a beautiful daughter. I had also lost a lot of money on therapists until I was introduced to Dr. Okaya by a friend whom he helped to marry her childhood boyfriend; this gave me total confidence and strength to get him back. I did all he asked and after 48 hours my boyfriend called me and rushed back home, things just changed between us emotionally. He has a job and stopped drinking and keeping irrelevant friends. It’s a miracle I never believed was possible because I had lost all hope until I found Dr.Okaya. So that’s why I promised to share my testimony all over the universe. All thanks goes to Dr.Okaya for the excessive work that he has done for me. Below is the email address in situation you are undergoing a heart break, and I assure you that as he has done mine for me, he will definitely help you too. OKAYASPELLHELP@GMAIL.COM call/Whatsapp +27814506790

    ReplyDelete