[lbo-talk] Tragedy & farce in today's media

[C. G. Estabrook]

The historian Tony Judt is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, a terrible fate, and
that may help to explain the inadequacy of his op-ed in today's NYT ("Israel
Without Clichés").  It's unfortunate but unsurprising that it seems to represent 
the limits of liberal opinion as countenanced by the major media.

First as tragedy, then as farce: a man who pretends to be a historian, Michael
Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the US, was featured on Stephen Colbert's show
last night. Colbert employed the same knowing burlesque he's used against the
White House press and the US army in Iraq - an extremely difficult procedure -
and the results as usual seemed to me equivocal.

I'd like to know what people are making of both Judt and Oren.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/opinion/10judt.html?scp=1&sq=tony%20judt&st=cse

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/wed-june-9-2010-sam-nunn