Meanwhile on the International front....

... something something Barstow.

He wasn't a journalist either.

Or should either be italicized? I'd answer but those bats are swooping and screeching and diving around the car.

 

I think Thompson conformed to most of the conventions of journalism for most of his career. Even though so many of his marquee stories are essentially memoir, they are reported memoir. He's also incredibly transparent about his point of view.

I further think the better comparison in this case is Baldwin, another essayist, who wrote about the psychology and interiority and moral imperative of race and politics and culture and society, rather than simple ticktocks of who, what, when, why, where, how, and so forth.

This is what's so fake about that fake "metric" mentioned above.

There are lots of ways to be "informed."

 

Fuck Baldwin, Thompson, and Coates ...

... we're only informed when Taibbi drops his most perfect quote from a nameless someone who just happens to be standing near him.

 

Coates on Coates on CBS:

 

Any way we could move the capital J Journalism discussion to a spinoff thread on that board?

 

Sure, go for it.

 

Israel kills 50 terrorists, including six commanders.

IAF strikes Hezbollah underground headquarters, kills 50 terrorists

 

Why Netanyahu Won’t Cease Fire

 

Sometimes I think Netanyahu has some sort of Michael Corleone complex, Oct. 7 was Solozzo's guys shooting Don Vito at the fruit stand and he's trying to settle all the family business.

 

I am being sincere when I ask someone to help this stupid Gentile out. Why is the identity of Judaism so incredibly tied up in what happens to the government of Israel?

I get why they want the Holy Land and how vital Jerusalem is to the religion and all of that. And if someone says Israel should be dissolved, that person should go screw.

But why is it so important to defend this particular government of Israel and treat any criticism of its actions as an attack on the entire faith and an existential crisis? Is there any meaningful way for a third party to be critical of what the government there is doing without being called an anti-Semite?

 

A good question. I'm not an expert in international relations, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I'd like to try to answer.

There was an Israeli left but it hasn't been remotely relevant in 20 years or more, and what I think it comes down to is that despite his many and varied corruptions and the amount of blood he has on his hands, Netanyahu has convinced, if not a majority a blocking minority of, the public that his government is the only solution to an existential threat to Israel's existence and the safety of all Jews in Israel. Which is to say he has changed the choice to right government or left government, good government or bad government, to my government or being wiped off the face of the planet, a threat that carries particular resonance to that audience.