Author Archives: Martin

It’s Peter J. Boyer Day: Whither Brian Williams?

How extraordinary that Emily chose this evening to post about Peter J. Boyer. I, too, listened to that podcast today, and I, too, enjoyed it.
I found one aspect of the interview puzzling. The subject of the article is the phenomenon of Keith Olbermann as an outlet for liberal rage, and what that phenomenon is doing to MSNBC and, by extension, NBC News. In no way do I mean it as a criticism of Boyer or The New Yorker to wonder how it was that the name “Brian Williams” wasn’t mentioned once in the podcast.
I like Williams–I think he’s my “favorite” anchor–but, as a category, that has about as much meaning these days as a preference for Ann Landers over Dear Abby. But it’s a curious testimony to … the newfound irrelevance of anchors? the ineffectual tenure of Williams himself? I’m not sure.
I went back and looked at the article. Sure enough, there’s plenty of stuff about Brokaw, the “hall monitor” of the sprawl—the entire story is structured as the battle between Olbermann and Brokaw for the very soul of NBC News—but just a few bland references to Williams.
I guess Williams has a tough job; he’s angling for attention smack in the middle of a gaggle of on-air personalities that, on all of those recent primary election nights anyway, included Brokaw, Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Chuck Todd, and who knows who else. I admire Williams’s stated commitment to making NBC News more “transparent”; perhaps, in the rush for Keith’s ratings, that directive has not gotten the attention it ought; such, anyway, appears to be Boyer’s thesis. Or maybe for all of Williams’s persuasive suavity, he’s not so good at being the center of attention—odd trait, for an anchorman.
Agree? Disagree? Post a comment!

“Love, Curiosity, Freckles, and Doubt”: A Summer of Dorothy Parker

Martin Schneider writes:
That line comes from “Inventory,” a fantastic poem quoted in the latest newsletter from the Dorothy Parker Society, headed up by our friend Kevin Fitzpatrick. It’s going to be a busy, fun summer for Dottie enthusiasts! Here’s a quick preview.
The New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, New Jersey, presents The Little Hours by David Bucknam, based on several short stories by Dorothy Parker. It runs from July 10 to August 17.
The prestigious 2008 New York City Midtown International Theatre Festival has accepted a new show called Those Whistling Lads! the Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker, written by Maureen Van Trease, a member of the Dorothy Parker Society. It runs from July 20 to August 1 at the Workshop Theatre Mainstage, 312 West 36th Street, 4th floor.
The Society also has a special Dorothy Parker birthday party planned for August 20, with live music, singing, and a lot of fun. The event will be held at Broadway Baby Bistro, 318 West 53rd Street, at 10 p.m.
If you like Dorothy Parker, you sure oughta sign up to the Society’s newsletter.

Say Cheese: The Writerly and the Photogenic

Martin Schneider writes:
Here’s a curious Flickr group dedicated to author photos of New Yorker people. If you’ve always wondered what John McPhee or Dana Goodyear look like (I didn’t know), this is worth a look.
Note: Loyal reader ZP of I Hate the New Yorker (who recently wrote about all the mentions of Roy Cohn, in prose and cartoons, through the years of The New Yorker) told us about this ages ago, but we lost track of it somehow.

Political Dispatch from the Distant Past: Two Weeks Ago

I know that, more than a week now since Hillary Clinton threw her support behind Barack Obama, it may seem odd to draw attention to her speech of four days earlier, but Hendrik Hertzberg’s expansive thoughts on the subject on his blog are required reading for anyone looking for a final wrapup of that crazy, long primary.
The animus directed toward Clinton that night had as much to do with expectations as anything else; if the networks had been primed to say, “This night is about Hillary and her supporters; the concessions come later” before the fact, there would have been no outcry at all. In that sense, that night’s mismatch of expectation and outcome stands as a microcosm of her campaign.

Libretto: Oratorio for Spin and Ten Flacks

Alex Ross is right. This compilation of news footage, compiled by the dogged geniuses at Talking Points Memo, is sublime. (It’s a lengthy series of clips of Bush administration officials, mostly, explaining why Scott McClellan’s book has come as such a doggone surprise to them.) As Ross notes, the compilation is diabolically edited in such a way as to maximize the musique concrète quotient of the speech acts. Which of course also has the effect of dramatically boosting the perceived inanity and desperation of the speech acts.
In an effort to help out, I have charted out a kind of score or perhaps libretto of the major themes of the piece, in the event that anyone wants to mount a production at the Met someday. Peter Gelb, call me.
Even without the Harry Partch angle, the mere fact of Ari Fleischer ruminating about how he is all “heartbroken” makes my very heart sing.
Full text after the jump.
Oratorio for Spin and Ten Flacks
“Anger”
“Shock”
“Confusion”
“Out of the loop”
“Out of the loop”
“He shouldn’t have been in those loops”
“He wouldn’t have been”
“He wasn’t in the meetings”
“Was he at the meetings?”
“Frankly I don’t recall Scott being at a lot of those meetings”
“I was there”
“I saw it”
“I saw it a lot more than Scott did in fact”
“I think his view is limited”
“He didn’t have the right access”
“What was said behind closed doors”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzling”
“Puzzlement”
“Puzzled”
“Perplexing”
“Perplexing”
“Puzzling”
“Scratching their heads”
“Scratching their heads”
“Scratching my head”
“Scratching our heads”
“Baffling”
“Bewildered”
“Shocked and surprised”
“Shocked and saddened”
“Shocked
“Surprised”
“Disappointed”
“All of the above, maybe?”
“It’s kind of hard to make head or tails of it”
“It’s kind of out of left field”
“Surprised”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzling”
“Puzzling”
“Puzzling”
“Puzzling”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“Puzzled”
“A book that doesn’t make sense”
“Make no sense”
“Something is wrong”
“Smething doesn’t add up”
“It doesn’t match”
“It doesn’t match”
“It doesn’t match”
“It doesn’t match”
“It doesn’t match”
“It doesn’t add up”
“I can’t figure it out”
“We were so surprised”
“Not just puzzled”
“Puzzled and surprised and disappointed and saddened”
“Saddened by it”
“I thought his heart was in it”
“I’m heartbroken”
“I just don’t understand it”
“It’s so hard to understand”
“I still don’t understand”
“I still can’t understand”
“It’s just too hard to understand”
“I am stumped”
“I am really stumped”
“I just am so stumped”
“I’m stumped and I’m stunned”
“You said you were stumped”
“I’m still stumped”
“That’s what leaves me kinda heartbroken”
“It’s so horribly unfair”
“I feel like crying”
“This is heartbreaking to me”
“I find this whole thing heartbreaking”
“Heartbroken”
“So heartbreaking”
“This doesn’t sound like the Scott McClellan folks knew”
“This is not the Scott we knew”
“This is not the Scott we knew”
“This is not the Scott we knew”
“This is not the Scott McClellan we knew”
“This is not the Scott McClellan I’ve known for a long time”
“It’s a different Scott”
“Maybe this is a new Scott”
“Maybe this is a new Scott”
“Almost like a out-of-body experience”
“Scott’s words don’t even sound like Scott”
“This doesn’t sound like Scott”
“This doesn’t sound like Scott”
“What did Scott sound like?”
“You’d know how Scott sounds”
“Scott’s a soft-spoken person”
“Scott was known for sitting quietly”
“Sounds like somebody else”
“Sounds like a left-wing blogger”
“Scott uses the very same words as the far left uses”
“Moveon dot org”
“The John Kerry campaign”
“The DNC”
“Even Dan Rather during the 2004 campaign”
“Did you have a ghostwriter?”
“The editor tweaked the content”
“Tweaked it?”
“That’s the way Scott put it to me”
“The publisher didn’t hold a gun to Scott’s head”
“He held a checkbook”
“I don’t know”
“I don’t know”
“His disgruntlement”
“Sad and disgruntled”
“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled”
“Disgruntled”
“He was not a happy camper”
“Disgruntled employees”
“Disgruntled”
“Sitting on the front porch swinging in Crawford with Scott”
“Didn’t sound like he thought he was ever going to sit on that swing”
“Total crap”
“Total crap”
“Total crap”
“Scott uses these very inflammatory words like shading the truth”
“Total crap”
“I actually don’t care”
“I’m more concerned with American Idol”
“I care more about American Idol”
“Need any brownies or anything?”