Our Deep, Thoughtful Betters
By Mitch Berg
In going through the Daily Caller’s yeoman work in releasing the Journolist archives, I’m struck by nothing so much as what a bunch of intellectual lightweights the “elite” media are.
I read all fifteen pages of the list’s exchange regarding Sarah Palin and the birth of Trig – right at the beginning of the Trigger conspiracy theory – and was appalled by:
- How very very bad at analysis – as in, mathematical and statistical analysis – these people are.
- How very, very hard the women in the discussion – especially the few older ones who’d managed to justify having children – had to work to try to convince the rest of the participants that they were being hypocritical in attacking Palin’s (ostensible?) choice to fly back to Alaska for Trig’s birth
- How very, very difficult it seemed for some of the participants to square their “feminism” and “pro-choice” rhetoric with the idea that Sarah Palin was qualified to choose when and where to have the baby
- What a very, very trite group of people they are. Bob Mackey on who, and why, McCain should have chosen someone else for Vice President: “Libermann [sic] would have been a better choice from that perspective. At least he has experience and can find Eastern Market for Sunday brunch.” That’s right; because the VP is only one omelet away from the presidency? Knowing DC’s social circles is the dispositive criterion for a potential President?
On the one hand, it’s depressing. On the other – the idea that the level of “intellect” among the left’s “elites” is so very, very…er, intellectually attainable is a bit of a kick.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I noticed the same thing. From what has been released so far, I see no evidence of anything like a smart political discussion.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
[…] the idea that the level of “intellect” among the left’s “elites” is so very, very…er, intellectually attainable is a bit of a kick.
No, because you have to actually believe that it’s intellect and not bovine excrement that they’re spouting. Sorry, but that’s not something I’m willing to risk. I’ll take my clinging to guns, religion, science, and mathematical texts, please.
July 26th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
nerdbert;
Don’t forget your angry old white guy racism!
July 26th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Iowahawk had these dweebs pegged just after Weigel’s outing but before the DC’s release. It’s no shock that the Liberals who make up the Liberal Media aren’t very worldy beyond the walls of academia, the media or big government. It is shocking how little they thought of the consequences of colluding with one another in forming lines of attack on Palin, anyone who criticized candidate Obama or wingnuts in general. From now on, right and center-right pols or pundits should ask if their Liberal interlocutor is following a coordinated line of attack or has been scripted prior to the discussion. How many more shots below the waterline can the dominant media culture ship take?
July 26th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
I really would like to see the entire archive. What a bunch of elitist snobs. The only conservative writer mentioned favorably is Douthat, the NY Times sole conservative opinion columnist and a Harvard graduate (cum laude).
July 27th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Every day I hear much more interesting gossip from workers sitting a few feet away from me. The JournoList participants give new meaning to the term “trash talk.”
July 27th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Journalists lay claim to moral superiority because they do not allow their personal prejudices to color their reporting. They do not let The Man tell them what to report. They speak Truth to Power. They are “Objective.” Conservatives fretting about the lock-step uniformity of reporting are paranoid at best, evil at worst.
Then we get stuff like JournoList that basically confirms every suspicion.
So . . . let’s talk definitions. I’ll start. Define ‘Hypocrite.”
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