The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Truth
: Terry Teachout fact-checks Tim Robbins’ ass.
I still don’t understand how we’re supposed to have rational discussions of the issues on these blogs when we start with comments about fact-checking someone’s “ass.” Just doesn’t seem very professional. This sounds like just another opportunity for partisan bashing (for both sides).
(sigh)
B tag open jeff.
Bugsy, have you actually read the article Jeff links to? It’s not an opinion piece, nor is it predicated in subjective interpretation. It’s an open-and-shut, cold, hard debunking of a terribly idiotic claim that Tim Robbins ascribed to neoconservative godfather Leo Strauss in his new play. And in this case, when the quote is so ridiculously over-the-top that anyone’s alarm bells should have been ringing (and considering the fact that Robbins got swindled by the LaRouchies, who fool almost NOBODY), it is certainly worthy of the mild phrase ‘fact-checking of someone’s ass.’
I’m intensely suspicious of people who, when confronted with an open-and-shut humiliating refutation of a position or person they happen to support or sympathize with, turn wistfully to questions of “tone.” The sort of idiocy Robbins displays (to say nothing of the odium he deserves for propagating such a heinous slander) should earn our heated contempt.
NPR took him to task last week also.
“As for the neoconservatives themselves, despite Robbins’s assertion that Irving Kristol studied under Strauss–Robbins appears to be confusing Irving, who is well into his 80’s and in any case attended City College, with his son Bill–what, if any, debt they owe him remains questionable at best”.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=online&s=kaplan031004
“B tag open jeff.”
This happens so often, I have to suspect interactivity junky Jeff does it deliberately to encourage those warm, helpful comments and emails. It’s an irresistible part of the “conversation”.
:)
yeah, robbins blew it. but it still doesnt change the nietzschean character of strauss’ views: both belived socrates was woefully confused on the question of virtue and argued that virtue is power, more or less.
Leave Terry alone…he’s a good upstairs neighbor.
Virtue is power??? How shocking! Everyone knows that knowledge is power.
“If knowledge were power, then librarians would be the most powerful people on the planet.” (Bruce Sterling).
And I’d get me some minions….and Tim Robbins would be one of them. And so would George Clooney. But for entirely different reasons.
Whatever NPR may think of neoconservatives, they have a lot less use for paleomoonbat LaRouche.