There are plenty of Europeans who can present themselves well and give assurance of some reliabilty. How does one assess that? Obviously over time. Levy over time has been completely unreliable and it is well known. If a left wing host cant read Levy's articles with the degree of notoriety Levy has for distortion, he'd be advised to find someone who can or go with someone more reliable.
The difference between Levy and Ignacio Ramonet, Rossana Rossanda, Serge Halimi or hundreds of others is far from meaningless. I gave a few examples of what his pursuit of 'fashionable' position taking in other posts. Why do you think NO ONE on the left will have Levy on in Europe? Are they all purists? Are the only non purists hip New Yorkers who cant read foreign languages? I'd be happy to explain why a virtually single minded pursuit of glamour is a bad thing but that will be in another thread if you like. And dont equate that with saying I am banishing you to some gulag where I will take away your Prada toys.
--- Liza Featherstone <lfeather32 at erols.com> wrote:
> ...People often invite guests on the radio on
> the basis of reading only one article of theirs,
> much less having perused their whole oeuvre in their
original language. What makes a good guest is
> timeliness, ability to speak well and say stuff
> listeners may not have heard. I thought BHL was an
absurd, arrogant pretentious prick, but he also
> had all of those good guest assets. As for your
> claim not to be "purist" -- I'd point out that some
of your "criticisms" of BHL are moralistic and have
> little to do with substance: "self-promotion" (why
> is that bad? isn't one major difference between
obscure intellectuals and famous ones that the
> latter have engaged in more self-promotion) and
> being "in it for the glamour and money" (again,
meaningless -- couldn't this criticism be made of
> anyone who publishes a commercial book, and in any
> case what is "glamour" exactly and WHY is it a bad
thing). Liza >
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