McGreevey, Foley, Ryan, and Wolfowitz

Newsbusters has a good entry on the AP’s PR effort on behalf of former governor Jim McGreevey (D-NJ).

The coverage of McGreevey is interesting when it is compared to the treatment of three Republicans.

Last year, the press insisted that they did not care that Mark Foley was gay; the real issue was his dirty talk with former pages. But with McGreevey, they mostly ignore the corruption and concentrate on his new life as a “gay American.”

In 2004, the press was eager to see the sealed divorce records of Jack and Jeri Ryan. They breathlessly reported on the salacious bits. The disclosures torpedoed Ryan’s campaign for the U.S. Senate and opened the door for Obama. Yet today the MSM is relatively unconcerned about McGreevey’s divorce or his wife’s side of the story.

For months, we have seen news stories about Wolfowitz, his girlfriend, and the World Bank where they both work. This, without a doubt, is a legitimate story. When it comes to McGreevey, however, his comparable scandal gets far less attention. The biggest outrage ends up as a footnote. As Newsbusters points out, McGreevey’s greatest lapse as governor was not being in the closet; it was putting his boy toy on the state payroll in a highly sensitive position. The Democratic wunderkind appointed “a foreign national to a homeland security position, despite a lack of basic experience. McGreevey hired Israeli citizen Golan Cipel to the post, even though not having an adequate security clearance prevented him from attending all of the meetings and briefings for this $110,000 a year post.”

Let's not forget that Oprahfying the McGreevey story has a big upside for one political party.

Bill Whittle takes on conspiracy thinking

SEEING THE UNSEEN, Part 2

It’s called Occam’s Razor, and not Occam’s Hypothesis, or Occam’s Theorem, or Occam’s Bit of Useful Advice, because it is a razor it cuts cleanly and with great efficiency.

And though it pains me to say so, this culture is in desperate need of a shave.

It deserves to be read in full.

I think that he nails the personality of the average Grassy Knoller

I’ll tell you something. These conspiracy theorists that ignore that miserable, pathetic, self-aggrandizing egomaniac named Lee Harvey Oswald, or glorify him as a patsy and a hero, do so because deep down inside they realize something unpleasant about Lee Harvey Oswald and themselves.

They are Oswald.

Whittle knows his conspiracy theories and he understands the importance of critical thinking.

Heinlein said something important on the latter point:

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.

Loony literature can look very scholarly with hundreds of footnotes and long appendices. It is the logic and critical thinking that is missing. Sometimes, basic honesty in handling the sources is a little scarce as well.

The sad thing is that the same weakness shows up in many respectable academic departments. How many trees have died so that historians could argue that Stalin was not a mass murderer or that Alger Hiss was a victim of anti-Communist paranoia?

It happens right before our eyes in the blogosphere. There are plenty of blogs that refuse to believe the NC Attorney General in the Duke lacrosse case. They ignore the evidence and write of dark, formless conspiracies. Or, they ignore most of the evidence and twist a few points to create the shadow of a hint of a doubt that maybe something illegal happened. They sound like Birchers and are too far gone to realize it.

Whittle is right that such thinking usually grows out of the limited mind and stunted personality of the conspiracist. The possession of dangerous, secret knowledge is intoxicating and gives meaning to those whose achievements fall short of their self-esteem.

The late Michael Kelly touched on another part of the appeal. Knowingness is an attribute that is easy to acquire. Knowledge requires hard study and hard thinking. Knowingness is the lazy way out.

Photon Courier discusses this as it applies to academia.

THE DICTATORSHIP OF THEORY

This is especially apt:

Why is theory (which would often more accurately be called meta-theory) so attractive to so many denizens of university humanities departments? To some extent, the explanation lies in simple intellectual fad-following. But I think there is a deeper reason. Becoming an alcolyte of some all-encompassing theory can spare you from the effort of learning about anything else. For example: if everything is about (for example) power relationships--all literature, all history, all science, even all mathematics--you don't need to actually learn much about medieval poetry, or about the Second Law of thermodynamics, or about isolationism in the 1930s. You can look smugly down on those poor drudges who do study such things, while enjoying "that intellectual sweep of comprehension known only to adolescents, psychopaths and college professors" (the phrase is from Andrew Klavan's unusual novel True Crime.)

To go back to Heinlein and the academy, i've come to believe that the really fuzzy fields like sociology use scholarship and theory to avoid both logic and data.

Ideological commitment plays a role, too. Oswald was inconvenient for the Left. If JFK was murdered by a right-winger in a right-wing city, it confirms the Left's view of the world. But if he died at the hands of a communist revolutionary wannabe, then things get messy. It is no wonder that so manny tried to remove Oswald from the picture. (It is worth noting that the first attempts to paint Oswald as a patsy came from Communist propagandist here and in Western Europe.)

Lastly, we the problem that Howard Gardner identified: it is hard to change our minds once we have taken a position in public. Many find it easier to invent conspiracies than to admit that they were wrong.

John Feinstein defies description

Check out this report on his latest eruption.

How does a man like this become a respected sport pundit? From beginning to end his commentary has been ignorant and mean-spirited. He fails the acid test and lacks standing to criticize the lacrosse team. Based only on Feinstein's work, the Post continues to challenge the New York Times for worst paper not in Durham when it comes to this travesty.

Duke lacrosse: Brad Bannon

KC Johnson posts an interview/profile with one of the lawyers who defended Dave Evans.

Bannon makes a point that deserves more attention:

So you can see that North Carolina as a whole has acted progressively and consistently over the last several years on many fronts to improve the fairness of the criminal justice system and has, in fact, been a nationwide leader in some of those efforts. You can also see that defense lawyers in the Duke lacrosse case have been actively involved in those reforms.

Many of the defenders of the lax players write as though the events in Durham prove that North Carolina is especially backward on criminal justice reform. The truth is quite different as Bannon makes clear.

Weeb Ewbank

Cold Hard Football Facts has a nice appreciation of Weeb Ewbank

Weeb Ewbank's legacy is unmatched.
His name is unknown.

I wrote about Ewbank here.

Defending the almost indefensible

True crime buffs and true crime writers can be pretty defensive about their genre. Periodically, they set out to justify their interest in murder and mayhem.

The latest apologia appears over at Crime Rant, a blog run by two TC writers. It is a guest post by Laura James who runs her own TC blog.

In Defense of True Crime

In truth, the 500-year-old true crime genre is absolutely essential to an informed society. Crime impacts everyone. Politicians and the public respond with changes in our laws, policies, and budget priorities. Unless a full account of a high-impact case is developed, there is no complete factual basis on which to decide whether changes are necessary and what those changes should be.

Hard to argue with that. In fact, I agree. When I wrote this post about civilians and mass murders I relied heavily on two true crime books: Peter Hernon’s A Terrible Thunder and A Sniper in the Tower by Gary M. Lavergne

Nonetheless, you cannot judge a genre by the role it might play. Nor can you judge it solely by its best esamples. Sometimes you have to look at what is typical.

It is hard to see any high-minded purpose behind the dreck that sits on the shelves at Wal-mart or in the true crime section at Waldenbooks. Writers with little talent or industry (and even less intellect) grind out shallow retellings of murder. Serial killers find a ready market; domestic murder has its devoted fans.

(True crime fans mirror Law and Order writers in their perception that murder in America is the exclusive preserve of middle class white people.)

This passage is just laughable:

A true crime author recently remarked that he thinks every young woman in America should read “The Stranger Beside Me” by Ann Rule, the classic crime story of Ted Bundy. Any woman who followed that advice and read the tale of the handsome, charming exterior that hid a sadistic predator would indeed be better armed for it, better able to recognize snakes in the grass like Bundy.

Rule was already an established crime writer when she met and was taken in by Bundy. If studying and writing about criminals did not prepare her, how can reading one book help other women? As I noted before:

What i find funny (in both a sick and in a 'ha-ha' kind of way) is that Rule gained her fame not because she was psychologically acute, but because she was obtuse. Her book on Ted Bundy was notable because she knew Bundy and never suspected him until he was arrested.

One of her blog hosts provides a similar example. In January, when the frame-up was plainly obvious, he provided this gem of wisdom on the Duke lacrosse case:

That all said, I am also for justice and a fair trial. And here’s the thing: looking at all the evidence that’s been made available and judging this thing as an outsider, I’d say some of it points to guilt.

When a lauded author in a genre can be so obtuse, what benefit comes from reading it?

Actually, we have a pretty good laboratory to see how TC fans put their “learning” to work. Court TV runs an active board that covers the full range of crime stories. Anyone who followed the Duke case there knows just how irrational and ill-informed the majority of long-time posters were. (CTV, for some reason, has deleted most of their threads on the case.)

James points to the Virginia Tech murders as an example where policy debates need to be informed by the knowledge that TC readers bring to the table. Yet, at CTV, the VT threads are almost dormant. TV fans are much more interested in (obsessed with might be more correct) Ana Nicole Smith, Scott Peterson, child predators in the bushes, the next Scott Peterson, and Natalie Holloway. Far from bringing critical insights to important matters, TC fans bicker among themselves about the trivial, the tabloid, and the anomalous.

Publishers print what the market supports. What readers want is freak porn in paperback.

Pet peeve

I'm sick of "politically incorrect" being used as cover for loutishness. I'm tired seeing of any and all objections to crude humor dismissed as creeping PC.

Tossing around the c-word, b-word, or n-word does not transform a wimp into a brave warrior for freedom. It just shows that some parts of his psyche never left the eighth grade. This is nothing to be proud of.

The faux machismo of the AutoAdmit guys is funny in a pathetic, sad way. When the controversy first surfaced, they told the women who complained to toughen up and deal with it. Now that one of them got bit in the backside, they whine. I'm reminded of that tough prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption -- the one who "cried like a little baby" when the police arrested him.

This strikes me as justice

Law Firm Rescinds Offer to Ex-AutoAdmit Executive

The Law Blog has learned that law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its job offer to Anthony Ciolli, the 3L at Penn Law who resigned as “Chief Education Director” of AutoAdmit last month. He resigned in the wake of a WaPo exposé on how the site in part served as a platform for attacks and defamatory remarks about female law students, among others (see our earlier post here).

Big fights then and now

I understand there is a title fight this weekend. I wonder how many sports fans know or care?

It is a cliché that box has lost popularity. It is hard to imagine just how big boxing used to be.

In his biography of Jack Dempsey, Roger Kahn puts it into perspective:

[Babe] Ruth's annual salary was fifty thousand dollars. (It eventually reached eighty thousand dollars). ... Any year he chose to fight, the heavyweight champion could gross a million dollars from his fists and his irresistible persona.

Duke lacrosse: filling in the blanks

A few days ago i wondered what was happening in the ten days between the time that the DPD arrived at Krogers and DA Nifong's entry into the case. KC Johnson has answered some of those questions with a three part series on the actions of SANE-in-training Tara Levicy. (I,II, III).

Worth noting

Liberty v. Security

Likewise, I think there's value in encouraging kids to complain about the bullies in their midst, but this puts an interesting twist to it. If you complain, will those in authority do something about the bully or make a note that you have feelings of persecution?

[SNIP]

I think there's value in examining all these issues and we may well find some answers that help reduce the number of spree killings; but ultimately I suspect that "loony control" will prove as futile and contraproductive as gun control. I'm not sure we want to turn into a society of informers and snitches, or start medicating every kid who writes something wierd or doodles pictures of death's heads and dragons.

RTWT

I like the pick

So sue me. I think the Steelers 3d round selection makes a lot of sense. This could be a whole new look for the Steelers if he is as good as his reputation and if Bruce Arians is serious about this:

Arians wants to use more tight ends and wide receivers in various formations and more one-back schemes.

I've argued before that the fundamental weakness of the the Cowher/Bettis Steelers was their reliance on uni-dimensional players: RBs who ran inside, TEs and FBs who blocked but did not catch passes. That left them vulnerable in the playoffs where good defenses could shut them down.

Now, though, the Steelers can be more unpredictable. Willie Parker has the speed to go outside. If teams jam up the middle, he can make them pay. Especially with a good tight end on both sides of the line. (No more slow developing sweeps waiting for Dan Kreider to get out in front of the play.)

Moreover, the TEs are a bigger threat in the passing game than a blocking back. Nothing like watching a TE rumble for 30 yards to make LBs stay home and respect the pass.

Finally, the thought of a 6-7 receiver in the red zone just makes me smile.

The looking glass war

Remember how angry the Bush administration was over the New York Times' stories that revealed the details of secret operations? There were many in the blogosphere who wanted criminal charges brought against the Times editors. It is hard to take that view and reconcile it with this:

Just a few feet from the podium, Rove was found at The New York Times table, in discussions with the likes of D.C. Bureau Chief Dean Baquet and columnist Maureen Dowd. When asked why the paper, which often battles the White House, chose to invite Rove, Dowd said, “I don’t do the inviting anymore.”

Reporter Jim Rutenberg said he had asked Rove because “we cover him and I just asked.” Was he getting any scoops from the White House insider? “He’s telling us everything,” Rutenberg joked.

I think that this prove Bill Keller was right. Months ago he told PBS that the Bush administration liked having the issue but was uninterested in taking any real action.

It's not an accident that a certain number of these speeches decrying The New York Times happen to be at the microphones of Republican fundraising events. The New York Times is red meat to a certain slice of the conservative base.

I'm glad i didn't waste my outrage.

Reason #438,517 that the MSM is becoming a joke

What can you expect when the media watchdogs lie?

I ran across this at CJR Daily:

Duke v. Iraq, an Exercise in News Judgment

I thought the writer had a fair point about the attention paid to the exoneration of the lax players compared to the extension of the tours of duty in Iraq. I might have quibbled on some points, but it is an honest argument. (One I made here about Iraq versus the Natalie Holloway story.)

Sadly, the writer did not present his case in an honest manner. Far from it. He blatantly distorted quotes and changed their meaning.

This is from the CJR piece:

Friend and former colleague Brian Montopoli noted as much on Friday on CBS' the Public Eye, pointing to the comments of Gregory Papadatos, an Army medic and Iraq vet who feels much the same way: "Somebody please tell me why that one incident, which caused no bleeding or dying, is getting more radio air time than the fact that [a medic friend of his] -- along with about 100,000 of her closest friends and colleagues -- has just been told she has to spend three extra months in a combat zone."

If you click over to CBS News you can read all of what the Iraq vet wrote:

Now, keeping all of this in mind, somebody please tell me why a deejay with a reputation for irreverence calling a basketball player a "nappy-headed ho" should leave that woman "scarred for life" (which is a direct quote from one of the Rutgers basketball players, in Wednesday's newspapers). After that, somebody please tell me why I should care about it. And THEN somebody please tell me why that one incident, which caused no bleeding or dying, is getting more radio air time than the fact that MY little buddy - along with about 100,000 of her closest friends and colleagues - has just been told she has to spend three extra months in a combat zone.

No mention of the Duke lacrosse case. The soldier was referencing the attention paid to the Imus imbroglio.

Why did McLeary do this? If he really cared about the extension of the combat tours, the point is still made without butchering and twisting the quote.

Maybe he just does not like lacrosse players.

The bigger question is why CJR Daily ran such a dishonest piece. It does not look good when the official organ of high-minded journalism puts its imprimatur on something this bad.

Today's must read

Freak Porn News

How much of what passes for news falls into the category of "freak porn" -the collection and dissemination of the most unusual events anyone can find or manufacture? Designed to shock a jaded public, freak porn occupies so much of the daily news cycle that, other than the weather and traffic reports, I'm not sure the modern news media serves any real purpose anymore. It's merely sordid entertainment.

RTWT

An idea so absurd, only a journalist would waste time on it

Manhattan's Bloomberg as the new Perot. ($req'd)

Sure, there might be an opportunity for a moderate to make a splash. You have to be trapped deep in the echo chamber to think that this nanny-state mayor from deep blue New York City qualifies as a moderate.

Good question

If, as immigrationists often claim, the economy benefits so much from low skill workers, why continue to spend money educating native born Americans? Think of the economic boom to result if we stopped funding high schools and colleges in order to increase the homegrown pool of unskilled labor.

Across difficult country

HT: Steve Sailer

No such thing as a lone wolf

Good write-up on what the investigations in Europe have turned up.

This strikes me as encouraging and important:

It was common knowledge that Zougam was involved in radical activities, but investigators lacked sufficient evidence to charge him or even to maintain a constant tap on his phone.

The dots are out there, but first we have to collect them.

Wendy Murphy continues her idiocy

KC Johnson deftly fillets the most stubborn hag of the hoax.

Despite her jaw-dropping performance on the Duke lacrosse case, Murphy remains a frequent and honored guest on Fox News.

The gang that couldn't think straight

KC Johnson has an outstanding post on the Gang of 88 and their attempts to clarify what they meant to say when they ran their ad.

The response of Professor William Chafe is interesting on many levels.

I am appalled at the way that bloggers who have targeted the ‘Group of 88’ have put words in our mouths, denied our individuality and [used] racist and violent language to attack us—including sending us e-mails and making phone calls wishing our deaths and calling us ‘Jew b-’ and ‘n-b-’.

As KC notes:

Quite beyond the unintended irony of accusing “bloggers”—as a bloc, stripped of their individuality—of denying the “individuality” of people who signed a joint public statement, Chafe’s claim is absurd on its face.

As a blogger who has written on the case, i wonder if i should be offended at Chafe 's statement? He is denying my individuality and putting [racist] words in my mouth. That seems wrong seeing as how: 1. i defended the Group of 88, 2, never sent any of them an email, 3, never encouraged others to send them an email, and 4, have a long-standing position against urging others to send emails to political opponents.

Come to think of it, i believe that Chafe's statement has hurt me deeply.

Oh well, i guess i'll just brush it off and work on beginning the healing process.

There are other whose individuality was denied; maybe Chafe wants to speak up for them.

For thirteen months the 46 lacrosse players have been condemned as arrogant, loutish, privileged, pampered, law-breaking jocks. Even after the charges were dismissed, there are those who continue to condemn them. As i noted yesterday, Seligmann, for one, in no way resembles this caricature.

So, has Chafe or any other member of the Gang of 88 ever spoken out against this denial of the players's individuality?

To tell the truth, i actually believe the Gang when they say their ad was not really about the alleged crime. In The Roots of Radicalism, there is an interesting quote from Mark Rudd about the New Left's mindset and methods.

Even Berkeley had a slogan that 'the issue is not the issue,' meaning that the real issue was not free speech on campus but thoroughgoing social change.

In Durham, the issue was not the alleged crime. That was just a handy club that could be used to bludgeon Duke into making changes. Not that it will take much to push Brodhead in that direction.

As for the three falsely accused men and their teammates? They were just collateral damage in the war against Duke by those who hate what it is today.