Mark Twain is Back — And He’s Pissed

“Exactly a century after rumours of his death turned out to be entirely accurate, one of Mark Twain’s dying wishes is at last coming true: an extensive, outspoken and revelatory autobiography which he devoted the last decade of his life to writing is finally going to be published.” [Independent UK]

13 Comments

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ:
How do they explain Dick “Dick” Cheney or Sarah Pailin?

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ:
as much as I hate to agree with newsweek . . .

and Dick and Sara too. come on, how great would it have been in the run up to the Iraq war to have a few real journalists out there.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ:

The reason it matters is that because there is no longer a healthy, aggressive press corps… candidates don’t run the same kind of gauntlet they once did. They’re not challenged by journalists.

True, but what does this have to do with the Death of Print? Shall we revisit print coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War?

@nojo:

maybe the problem is that no one was reading it.

@Capt Howdy: Judy Miller wasn’t lacking for readers.

No, what the good Atlantic blogger is describing is Pack Journalism, and that long predates the Web. Also, we’re talking about a primary, for chrissakes. Rand Paul wasn’t a national story until he won.

Finally, it was a Louisville paper that did the original interview everyone picked up on last week. Rand’s views were on the record, but nobody cared.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: I’d take Josh Green’s argument a little more seriously if (a) he got the name of the newspaper in question correct (it’s Courier-Journal, or C-J if you’re into the whole brevity thing); (b) he hadn’t use the word “decimated” incorrectly; and, most importantly, (c) he’d bothered to mention that the Civil Rights Act kerfuffle began with an interview by the C-J editorial board.

@nojo: You beat me to it, but yes, his post complaining about sloppy journalism is, in fact, an example of sloppy journalism.

As one who has distributed his share of leaks and tips to drive or shape the news agenda, I can tell you that the wost kind of political reporter is the lazy know it all who can’t be bothered to actually write a story because it would take time away from his side job writing about shitty music no one cares about. Second worst: dispshit who is likely to get his own name wrong on the byline. Third, someone who takes your tip and fucks it up by talking to the wrong goddam people.

One guy here in town is my go to guy. Another is a courtesy call that I make but can’t stand because he’s so lame. I haven’t had the opportunity to do anything like that for a while, though.

@mellbell: Unfortunately, sometimes those things are off the record here, otherwise we would know a lot more about the GOP’s new brown sweetheart here whom I wrote about late last night.

ADD: also, didn’t McCain come off badly in some editorial board interview videos that came out during the 08 campaigh?

ok
admit I didnt click the link but it seems there might be a valid point to be made about Paul and the rest of the TeaTards in that if journalists were really printing what they think and what they say and what the seem to believe they would have been discredited before Paul ever won.

that is instead of bending over backwards to print how normal and main stream they really are.

@redmanlaw: Could be. Haven’t voted there in eight years, so I haven’t been following it as closely as all that.

Google eye candy: The Googleplex is giving me an ad saying “actual user photos” and asking me to “meet the hottest singles” on a certain website. I think Mark Twain might have approved.

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