NP- David Brooks, Joe Klein, and the Courtier Press

[David Morris]

The difference between pamphleteers and TV networks is vast.  TV and
print journalism has never been pure, but some standards did exist.
The real truthsayers these days are on the Internet.

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 10:38 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> all well and good but i dont think we need be surprised that there are
> scribblers out there who support the powers that be in sycophantic
> drollery whatever their political affiliations. I'm reading about the
> view of the American Revolution from the British point of view and in
> that era of burgeoning pamphleteers and coffee house banter, one can
> easily point the David Brooks-like types supporting an incompetent
> King, diffident Parliament and oblivious Whitehall machinations; there
> were far few Edmund Burkes though a sizable number of people in
> Britain were somewhat aghast if not bemused by the conduct of the war.
>
> how much muck does one come across in their daily diet of newspapery,
> writings about our empire and political future, and how it resembles
> so much douchebagary as written in the past
> rich
>
> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 10:33 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Everyone who loves Pierce's Brooks lambasts should know he's following
>> Driftglass's lead.  Driftglass is an obscure blogger who's years of Brooks
>> commentary has served as model for Pierce's new regular fun.  And Pierce
>> would be 1st to admit so.
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, Monte Davis wrote:
>>>
>>> Charlie Pierce is on a tear this year, as much fun as Mencken at his best.
>>> He's been honing for months those Brooks-in-the-manor scenes with Moral
>>> Hazard, the lugubrious Irish setter. Esquire as magazine/site never
>>> mattered
>>> much to me, but now his blog is my coffee companion every morning.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
>>> Behalf
>>> Of David Morris
>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 4:10 PM
>>> To: P-list
>>> Subject: NP- David Brooks, Joe Klein, and the Courtier Press
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/david-brooks-joe-klein-romney-10753130
>>>
>>> That we have, in the main, a courtier press bringing us our political news
>>> every day has been beyond question ever since Tim Crouse blew the whistle
>>> in
>>> The Boys on the Bus back in 1973, only to have every problem he identified
>>> in that book get immeasurably worse after he published it. It is very
>>> simple
>>> these days. The primary job of an elite political reporter - Joe Klein of
>>> Time, say, or David Brooks of The New York Times - is to entertain and to
>>> comfort the real owners of the country and its politics, to assure them
>>> from
>>> time to time that they are really doing the right thing in their
>>> stewardship
>>> of what was supposed to be a fractious, unruly self-governing republic. It
>>> is the elite political reporter's job, upon request, to sing to the real
>>> owners of the country a pleasant tune in a charming soprano voice. In
>>> return, they become very important players in the increasingly worthless
>>> puppet show that the real owners of the country are making out of the
>>> politics of the country.
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> Both Klein and Brooks have taken to the public prints to reassure Willard
>>> Romney - and, by proxy, all of the country's Willard Romneys - that he is
>>> being treated so terribly unfairly, darling, by that man in the White
>>> House
>>> who plainly does not know his place. First, we have Brooks, who never saw
>>> a
>>> plutocrat for whom he wouldn't happily serve as a footstool....
>>>
>>> ---------------------------
>>> Romney is going to have to define a vision of modern capitalism. He's
>>> going
>>> to have to separate his vision from the scandals and excesses we've seen
>>> over the last few years. He needs to define the kind of capitalist he is
>>> and
>>> why the country needs his virtues. Let's face it, he's not a heroic
>>> entrepreneur. He's an efficiency expert. It has been the business of his
>>> life to take companies that were mediocre and sclerotic and try to make
>>> them
>>> efficient and dynamic. It has been his job to be the corporate version of
>>> a
>>> personal trainer: take people who are puffy and self-indulgent and whip
>>> them
>>> into shape. That's his selling point: rigor and productivity. If he can
>>> build a capitalist vision around that, he'll thrive. If not, he's a
>>> punching
>>> bag.
>>> ---------------------------
>>>
>>> All those steelworkers, and the people at that paper company, they were
>>> puffy and self-indulgent - and not hunks of iron-reinforced man-flesh
>>> like,
>>> you know, David Brooks - and that's why none of them have jobs anymore.
>>> People at the business end of the "system" that so charms David Brooks
>>> over
>>> the canapes know the real score: The "scandals and excesses" are the
>>> system.
>>> Take them away, and Romney is clipping coupons back in Michigan.
>>>
>>