I say this in total ignorance of whatever qualifications H might have but my take is that he has assumed this role the way others have assumed roles as 'experts' or 'leading authorities' and people are willing to play along with it. That is, in the absence of some kind of professional qualification (like who would get on CNN; a lawyer or a 'law expert'?) that would provide some kind of commonly understood level of learning and expertise, and the only rebuttal coming from other self styled experts, it's easy to turn yourself into some kind of commonly called upon mouthpiece, especially when you're willing to spew what the powers that be want to hear.
Arguably "...a sneering attitude and excessive verbiage...." are core competencies for a literary 'expert' such as H, or any other media windbag. The only others would be having read, written and published more than the average CNN viewer, and H meets those criteria as well. I suspect if he were in a serious literary crowd that could use terms like theory and semiotics in an informed manner H would be waaaaay out of his league. Or imagine H on a panel with say, John Updike, Umberto Eco, and Irvine Welsh being asked to discuss their concept of 'the writer'. Nyuk.
>i remember reading an atlantic monthly (now there's a match made in
>stuffy verbal diarrhea heaven) piece by him in which he gleefully quoted
>a wodehouse conversation with evelyn waugh ridiculing maugham. i love my
>wodehouse as much as the next guy, for the humour value, but come on! i
>don't need his opinion any more than hitch's on somerset maugham! or on
>the relevance of george orwell, for that matter!
About all this prove is that he's got researchers who can find these nuggets while he's scarfing down the 12 year old scotch downstairs. His writing will never have the charm, flair, or joi de vivre that any of those guys do. And I suspect knowing that, especially no matter how much he tries to graft the mantle of Orwell to his booze racked shoulders, drives him nuts. Suits him. As noted, he deserves the company he keeps these days.
PC
N P Childs
'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt, I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.
-Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon