Monday, November 25, 2013

Crazy Nation!

I don't usually read The Nation; a new article in that publication by Rick Perlstein reminds me why! Perlstein describes how Jaqueline Kennedy manipulated Theodore White into describing her late husband's presidency as a time of hope and magic, "Camelot," rather than as a time of bitterness and vituperation. Perlstein goes on to say:
The whole thing is a great object lesson in the horrors of access journalism—and access history. . . . If you hate the kind of writing Bob Woodward does now; if you hate Politico or, going back further, if you hate the kind of things Sally Quinn wrote on Monicagate (“‘He came in here and he trashed the place,’ says Washington Post columnist David Broder, ‘and it’s not his place.’ ”), or the childish abuse and systematic distortions meted out to Al Gore in 2000 because he didn’t fit into the Washington insiders’ village, blame Camelot—or “Camelot.”
What is this lunatic talking about? No one hates those things! We love those things! In addition to being great practitioners of access journalism, the Woodward of today, the Broder of yesterday, and the Washington insiders' village of 2000 are all great followers of the first of my "tips for young journalists!"

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