One of Cooper's reading preferences...

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

...struck us as possibly odd: Back in March, the New York Times profiled Don Lemon's reading habits.

This profile appeared in the Sunday's magazine's weekly "By The Book" feature. The headline on the feature said this:

Don Lemon Organizes His Books by Color

Yesterday, it was Anderson Cooper's turn.

Cooper is very involved in the history of his family. (There's no reason why he shouldn't be.) The family is very famous on his mother's side.

Yesterday's feature was tied to the publication of his latest book on this general topic, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, written with Katherine Howe.

How deeply is Cooper tied to his ancestry? This was yesterday's initial Q-and-A:

NEW YORK TIMES (9/19/21): What books are on your night stand?

On my night stand are two small, very fragile books that belonged to my grandfather Reginald Vanderbilt, who died in 1925. One is a Book of Common Prayer. The other is “The Gate to Caesar,” written in Latin by William C. Collar. My grandfather was 14 when he got the books. He wrote his name in them and the year 1894. He also doodled in them (he was not exactly a great student). They sit on top of a biography of Napoleon by Emil Ludwig published in 1926. It belonged to my mom’s maternal grandmother, Laura Kilpatrick Morgan, who was, in my mom’s words, “really kind of crazy.” She worshiped Napoleon and patterned herself after him. She always kept this biography by her bedside and underlined passages that were important to her. I didn’t know her or my grandfather but having these books, with their notes and scribbles, makes me feel connected to them and to all those in my family who came before me.

There's nothing "wrong" with any of that, though that isn't what the Times is typically looking for when it asks that question. 

Four other questions produced responses involving family members. One such exchange is shown here:

NEW YORK TIMES: You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

COOPER: I would ask my mom and dad and my brother, Carter. I know it’s not a very clever answer, but it’s the truth. Carter was an editor at American Heritage magazine and wrote book reviews for Commentary, and I think he would have become a writer full time if he had lived. It would just be us four for dinner, and it would be a long one. Maybe at some point I would invite Truman Capote to stop by. Truman and my parents were once very close, and I remember him very well, but they stopped speaking to him after he wrote some pretty cruel stuff about my mom in a story published in Esquire in 1975. I wouldn’t want Truman to stay very long though, and he couldn’t have any alcohol. Actually let’s make it Truman circa 1966, not the bloated Truman of 1975.

We humans tend to be strongly connected to our family histories. There's nothing "wrong" with any of Cooper's answers along these lines, though they're unusual by the norms of this weekly feature.

One of Cooper's statements did strike us as possibly odd. Here's the full exchange:

NEW YORK TIMES: Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?

COOPER: I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, except if it’s something someone has recommended to me, but when I find a great novel I love nothing more than just losing myself in it.

In theory, Cooper discusses national and world news for an hour or two on CNN every weekday night. Wouldn't you think that a person like that might be partial to works of nonfiction, seeing them as possible sources of wider comprehension?  (There's no "correct" answer to that.)

For ourselves, we lost confidence in Cooper's work some time ago, though we'd say that others can be much, much worse. That said, it's almost impossible to capture the intellectual squalor which pervades the work of our upper-end press corps as it delivers "the news."

Shaky data, shakily construed in support of preferred Storyline? Sweeping generalizations about the undesirable qualities of The Others?

If it weren't for analyses of these types, would we have any analyses in our discourse at all? We'll try to give you samples this week, but we'll start by admitting defeat:

It's hard to convey the relentless D-minus performance of our upper-end press corps. On average, the group's skill levels are stunningly low. Storyline tends to be all.

We'll plan to offer examples this week, but such examples rarely undermine the general assumption of competence. Deference to authority tends to keep us from seeing this sorry situation as it actually is, or so major experts keep telling us, tearing their hair as they do.

Full disclosure: Until we read that first Q-and-A, it had never occurred to us:

One of Jackie Gleason's comic characters, Reginald Van Gleason III, may have been patterned on the grandfather of one of our cable news stars!


19 comments:

  1. Vanderbilt, wow. We've seen their palace in Newport once; impressive. American aristocracy is alive and well, apparently. Talk about 'privilege'...

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  2. "In theory, Cooper discusses national and world news for an hour or two on CNN every weekday night. Wouldn't you think that a person like that might be partial to works of nonfiction, seeing them as possible sources of wider comprehension? (There's no "correct" answer to that.)"

    Cooper was asked which genres he especially enjoyed. It is wrong to assume that he doesn't read any nonfiction. And there is no reason to assume that what someone reads for pleasure should have anything to do with their day job.

    I was a psychologist (now retired) but I never read psychology books outside of my work. I read mysteries or history. Historians most likely read other sorts of books in their spare time. A change is relaxing. Reading within your field is more work and sometimes you want to turn tour mind off of the things you think about all say.

    But Somerby doesn't have the kind of occupation where you read for work, so perhaps that is why this seems odd to him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
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      Delete
  3. “On average, the group's skill levels are stunningly low.”

    Boy howdy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "You may find this hard to believe, but it [boy howdy] has it's origin with the TV show “Howdy Doody”, a 1950s kiddies program which featured Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle the clown. Actually “Howdy Doody” and “Boy Howdy” are related."

      When Cecelia uses it, the term is an affectation intended to performatively display unity with the rural right wing (where no one uses the term at all).

      What a maroon! That term has its origin as follows:

      "
      Image result for what a maroon origin
      The American Spanish word cimarrĂ³n is often given as the source of the English word maroon, used to describe the runaway slave communities in Florida, in the Great Dismal Swamp on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and in other parts of the New World."

      But it was popularized by Bugs Bunny.

      Your schtick is getting old Cecelia.

      Delete
  4. “There's nothing "wrong" with any of Cooper's answers”

    “Wouldn't you think that a person like that might be partial to works of nonfiction, seeing them as possible sources of wider comprehension?  (There's no "correct" answer to that.)”

    If there’s nothing wrong with Cooper’s answers, and there’s no correct answer to that specific question, what does Somerby suppose is to be gained by printing them here? Their inclusion in a post that accuses the press corps of “intellectual squalor” would seem to be a non sequitur, unless Somerby wishes to insinuate that there is indeed a correct answer to that question.

    It isn’t clear anyway how a person’s reading preferences relate to his or her abilities in their profession. Wittgenstein was addicted to American pulp detective magazines.

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  5. Are you and Somerby feeling charitable today? Do you feel that Tucker Carlson, to take an example of a right-wing media figure, doesn’t know what he is doing? Or do you believe he is indeed using his skills, which do not happen to extend to “reporting the news”, but rather involve “promoting an agenda?”

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  6. I feel that you don’t see any difference between Tucker Carlson and Jake Tapper and that this is very observant of you.

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  7. "Storyline tends to be all."

    Storyline is the heart of narrative. News reports are about things that have happened, current events. Of course they take narrative form and have a storyline. Further, that is the most natural way for people to consume information, in chronological order with a theme conveyed at the beginning and a conclusion at the end.

    Somerby seems to think that if he calls something storyline that he has found a flaw and is condemning it. But that is far from true. Somerby can ony say this shit because he knows nothing at all about: (1) journalism, (2) good writing, (3) how the mind works. ALL writers use storyline and narrative, for both fiction ans nonfiction. Sometimes they manipulate the expectations of readers, but to the extend that they engage in flashbacks or present material out of order, they annoy readers and interfere with comprehension.

    Somerby is a goon who rarely knows what he is talking about these days. And Cecelia falls right in line because she recognizes how hard Somerby is working to attack the press and liberals on behalf of conservatives.

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    1. Thank you for belying your obtuse little lecture on what constitutes a narrative and your instructions on how the term is to be used, by inadvertently illustrating that there is, indeed, another context which applies to the term.

      Delete
    2. Somerby attacks Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Rachel Maddow, over and over, because they are gay. This is obvious to anyone paying attention, except you Cecelia.

      Delete
  8. Another non sequitur. What does Tapper have to do with anything?

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It’s not a non-sequitur to say that there is little difference between punditry and straight news reporting or that our media bigwigs are driven by a political agenda and are none too bright or honest.

    This blog has been pointing that out about the media for years. What’s irrelevant is that you think that charge should only go one way.

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  11. Our media bigwigs are Right-wingers. Hence the political agenda they push, and their lack of honesty.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 'For ourselves, we lost confidence in Cooper's work some time ago, though we'd say that others can be much, much worse. That said, it's almost impossible to capture the intellectual squalor which pervades the work of our upper-end press corps as it delivers "the news."'

    Certainly since Somerby wishes the press corps devoted itself to his particular preferences -- Defending Trump, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Devin Nunes and Matt Gaetz. Complaining about stats, while being too dumb to understand them. Complaining about relativity, which he's too dumb to understand.

    In short, Somerby is upset that the press is not full of lying Trumptards like himself.

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  13. Cecelia thinks Anderson Cooper is a media bigwig? He's a hired hand.

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  14. How's this for a narrative storyline?

    Tucker Carlson: "Said Carlson: “The point of mandatory vaccination is to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the free thinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anyone else who doesn’t love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately. It’s a takeover of the U.S. military!”

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete