On Wed Nov 17 1999 Nathan Newman <nathan.newman at yale.edu> wrote:
> Actually, I lose respect for Cockburn by the week. First, he launches
> a rather ill-mannered attack on Katha Pollitt, partly based on private
> discussions they may have had. Now he is surfing LBO for quickly
> dashed off thoughts people may have posted here. It shows a lack of
> respect by Cockburn for a space where a lot of us work out ideas
> without the formal constraints of a formal writing venue. It is nice
> to see folks like Doug, Katha and others casually writing here, but
> that will end if folks like Cockburn act as if everything said here
> should be held up to the same scrutiny as a written article.
To be fair to Alex, by Doug's account, he's a newbie, which excuses his lack of feel for cyberpropriety. And LBO has mocked and abused him roundly, which tends to make people short-tempered and unfair; I assume this is why Katha is unfair towards the New York Press. And lastly, for all his faults, you have to grant Cockburn on thing: he is really a professional in the way he always molds his writing to the magazine he's writing for. His stuff in the Wall Street Journal spoke in the voice of the Wall Street Journal; his stuff in the Voice sounded like the Voice, and his stuff in the Nation sounds like the Nation. His voice in the New York Press has been inflected to the New York Press. And this stunt of opening other people's mail on the front page fits the NYP style to a tee. It's rude, it's inventive, and it probably sells papers.
But now that I think back on the many places in which I've enjoyed Alex's writing over the years, it does second a question that Katha raised before. In all those other venues he always made it a point of honor to attack to the editorial nonsense of the paper. In the Wall Street Journal he whaled on Claire Sterling and the Bulgarian conspiracy. In the Nation he revelled in roasting Navasky. And the Voice, well, it's probably part of why he got dumped. But for as long as he's been writing in the New York Press, I can't remember him ever attacking their weird ideas. The worst he's ever done was make a bet.
But then again, a large part of Alex's virtue was always that he was a leftist that attacked liberals, just as a large part of Christopher Caldwell's interest lies in the fact that he's a conservative that spends most of his time criticizing his own. There's a certain truth to be derived from that angle, along with a certain kind of nonsense. So perhaps it's no mystery that nowadays Alex goes out of his way to find nice things to say about his conservative colleagues. He's still baiting liberals, just as he always has. It's just that, with the collapse of the organized left, that includes in his mind just about all of us.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
In his essay "Stop the Press, I Want to Get On," Nicholas Tomlin, a talented and versatile English journalist, wrote: "The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are ratlike cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability." He added, "The capacity to steal other people's ideas and phrases -- that one about ratlike cunning was invented by my colleague Murray Sayre -- is also invaluable."
-- Jessica Mitford, _Poison Penmanship_ __________________________________________________________________________