John Hess

[Dennis]

> What a cruel post. John Hess is alive and well, and I'm proud to say, a
> friend of mine. He lost his Paris job as New York Times correspondent
> for being too left in the early 70s. He was then Times food critic for
> one brief wild period, ending when he tore apart a restaurant that
> advertised in the Times. Check out his brilliant and hilarious book
> (with his wife Karen, a food historian) "The Taste of America" - about
> how McDonaldism came about. He's been doing his two minute commentaries
> on WBAI for many years and has not stopped doing them under the current
> regime. He's totally on the other side from Utrice Leid. He hates
> Giuliani, and pompous fools and poseurs of all kinds. Sounds like Dennis
> got on his wrong side at some point. I've yet to meet a target of his
> rudeness who didn't deserve it and more.
>
> john mage

Well, John, sometimes we must be cruel to be kind, though in Hess's case,
cruelty, or rudeness if you will, doesn't seem to be based on anything other
than spite.

For the record, I first met Hess in the late 80s, when I was hired to write
a media column for the-then young New York Observer. He and I shared an
office with Doug Ireland (who once kicked my briefcase across the office
because he didn't like it on the floor), and Hess was to be my editor of
sorts. He was incredibly literal-minded, and routinely chopped up my work so
it would sound more like his. Fortunately, I soon left the paper, and Hess,
and continued my work at FAIR.

Hess would shuffle into the FAIR office now and again, and was always curt
and short. Yet, for some reason, I had respect for him, and defended him in
a debate I had with Paul Berman about Central America (he and Berman had
clashed in the letters section of the Nation over the contras). But then, at
some FAIR party, Hess and I rated which Third World countries could give the
US a decent fight. I said that despite its poverty, North Korea wouldn't be
a pushover the way Iraq was. After all, they fought the US to a draw in the
50s. Hess went off and berated me for my stupidity. He was extremely caustic
and rude. Now, this was dumb party banter. Who really knows if the North
Koreans would roll over or not? But to Hess it was something bigger. I never
spoke to him again.

If Hess is so opposed to Leid, why is he providing her with copy? Why does
he willingly appear on a hijacked network?

DP