Monday, April 30, 2018

Professionalism and the triumph of surrender

So today the fallout from the mean comedy lady's stand up routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner finds unconditional surrender from spineless professionals masquerading as journalists. Brother Charlie Pierce laid it out: 
Faced with an administration* and a president* dedicated to poisoning both the spirit and the institutions of free government, and faced with an administration* and a president* dedicated only to looting those institutions that it cannot destroy, the representatives of the elite political media, through the woman at the head of their formal association, Margaret Talev, have determined that bowing to the fauxtrage aimed at a comedian on behalf of the administration*’s paid liar is the proper way to respond to the weekend’s festivities. The commitment to a free press is not common to this nation’s people any more, if it ever was, and it damn sure doesn’t have any fans in this administration*. Anyone who thinks that “a vigorous and free press” and “honoring civility” are equally desirable goals doesn’t love the former enough to deserve the latter.
One does not even have to look at alt-twitter and the troll feeds to know that thin-skinned MAGA hats were and are continuing to screech about how horrible, partisan, and completely one-sided Wolf's monologue was... without having watched more than a few seconds of it. Seriously, she went on for almost twenty minutes and Huckleberry Sandbag (h/t Stephanie Miller) was only the butt of a few jokes. Wolf went after Congress, Roy Moore, Pussy Hats, Reince Priebus, "liberal media" orgasms over Russia, the Clinton campaign for "not being in touch with Michigan", and many more before ever getting to SHB. I'll admit that the jokes about lies turned into something called a "smokey eye" fell with kind of a thud, and not simply because the crowd suddenly clutched their pearls for dear life. They weren't that good, but how do you knock one out of the park about a woman who is paid out of our tax dollars to lie... constantly? Wolf then immediately turned to CNN and kicked them square in the nuts. Ed from Gin and Tacos, whom I have yet to discover an adequate nickname for (God Professor perhaps?) did however knock it out of the park with this one:


And this one:


 Let's keep in mind who the offended people are:

At what point will the professional journalist class realize they are in danger? The re-programmable meat-bags that have been conditioned all these years by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the entire wingnut propaganda complex aren't kidding. Charlie Pierce alluded to an earlier time when journalists were not afraid to take a stand against evil by quoting the radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in defense of the First Amendment. In another time of repression and conspiracy Edward R. Murrow had the courage to stand up to the bully Joe McCarthy. Walter Cronkite was unafraid to speak out on the quagmire of Vietnam. Woodward and Bernstein followed the money to unravel Nixon's corruption and abuse of power.

But in this time of darkness... we have professional detachment decrying anything that "divides" Americans. America stands as a one party state in 2018, and that party hates anything that does not serve or flatter it. Now is the time to speak truth to that kakistocracy, now cower behind some ephemeral concept of "civility". Look at those pictures above again. Now add 62 million more. Do you honestly think they give a damn about your principles? Has the MAGA hat mob ever shown anything approaching "civility"?

I have been wrong all these years on two counts. This is not a war. A war is when two sides fight. Unilateral disarmament doesn't cut it either. Brother Charlie calls the statement by WHCA president Margaret Talev to be articles of surrender. I am not one to quibble with Brother Charlie's judgment but this event leads me to a conclusion that I dread. This is the second count.

Thomas Frank was right. It is not easy to swallow what tiny amount of pride I possess and go back on what I once stated, but there it is. The most obvious supporting evidence of Dr. Frank's thesis in Listen Liberal. Professionalism has hijacked liberalism. The values he laid out that are shared by professionals and establishment liberals, the examples he gave, the repercussions it has led to, and especially his tale of how the DC press corps finger-wagged the Democratic Party into abandoning the New Deal. I was in denial, well maybe not but I wasn't exactly open to the thesis. My tone did not appreciably change about the book from before to after the election (was stolen). But this was my hero talking and I was far beyond the young radical I once was. The guy who couldn't stand Al Gore in 2000 couldn't wait to get Hillary Clinton in office and get back to the real work.

The real work involves deprogramming enough of the meatbag republicans to defuse the overwhelming authoritarianism driving the republican party. The "professionals" in the WHCA have set that back considerably. First with the supine obeisance to corrupt liars. Now with throwing the entertainer that they invited to their own event under the bus for... words. "Fuck your feelings" has really come of age hasn't it?

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