[lbo-talk] specious generalizations...

[Jim Devine]

On 7/17/05, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ... the Talking Head Syndrome. Once
> you're a Known Figure and Commentator, it seems you
> are expected to comment on every event that happens in
> the world, regardless of whether you actually know
> anything about it or not. There was a particularly
> eggregious example of this after Beslan by Naomi
> Klein, in which she seemed to view events in the North
> Caucasus entirely insofar as they possessed a loose
> family resemblance to Israel-Palestine. It was pretty
> obvious she didn't know what she was talking about,
> judging by the factual errors, but, since she was a
> Known Personality, she was obligated to make a
> Comment.

I don't know why Naomi Klein's Comment  was "particularly egregious"
-- since people like Robert Novack make similarly egregious Comments
more than weekly. Perhaps Klein's Comment was egregious, but not
particularly so.

Anyway, it's important to treat all pundits' columns -- whether they
be from the left or the right or the middle -- as what they are. They
are simply opinions, a bunch of ideas used in order to try to make the
subject of the column make sense to the reader and to convince the
reader to change her or his opinion. As such, they should be seen as
mind-ticklers, pushing people to think, not as the final word. When
they're wrong, write a letter to the editor.

-- 
Jim Devine
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" -- Richard Feynman