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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Professional Collegiality At Its Finest

Professional Collegiality At Its Finest

by Anne Laurie|  March 26, 20109:02 am| 43 Comments

This post is in: Media, Assholes, Going Galt

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I know it is widely assumed that the Washington Post has no editorial standards whatsoever, but you have to give the Kaplan Daily pundits full credit when it comes to shivving a “colleague” who no longer shares the protection of the corporatist aristocracy at whose pleasure the Media Village Idiots serve. Howard Kurtz adds his keen courtier insights to the sad case of David Frum’s expulsion from wingnut-welfare Eden:

… Frum made clear, in a letter to AEI President Arthur C. Brooks, that his departure after seven years as a resident fellow at the conservative think tank was not voluntary. “I have had many fruitful years at the American Enterprise Institute,” he wrote, “and I do regret this abrupt and unexpected conclusion of our relationship.”
__
In a brief interview, Frum said “there was no suggestion by AEI” that his sharp criticism of the GOP’s health-care strategy was the reason for his dismissal. He declined to say what Brooks told him.
__
“They invited me to remain associated with AEI on a non-salaried basis,” Frum said, and he declined.
[…] __
Bruce Bartlett, another conservative scholar who has been at odds with the right, wrote that Frum told him AEI staffers “had been ordered not to speak to the media” about health care “because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do. . . . The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line.”
__
While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services with other outside ventures, including his Web site, his books, his frequent television appearances and his column for the Week magazine and Canada’s National Post.

Highlights mine. Imagine the insult, for a committed professional glibertarian, of being invited to give away one’s brilliant insights! Second only to the insult, for a professional “communicator”, of being labelled as the corporatist equivalent of a nymphomaniac prostitute!

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43Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    March 26, 2010 at 9:06 am

    .

    I know it is widely assumed that the Washington Post has no editorial standards whatsoever

    I dunno. They pretty much have a clear ability to print worthless right wing and hawk bullsh*t and are pretty discriminatory when it comes to views challenging right wing and hawk bullsh*t.

  2. 2.

    Menzies

    March 26, 2010 at 9:08 am

    Interesting. I remember an old interview with Charles Murray where he seemed totally on the bandwagon with AEI fellows showing up wherever they could because think tanks were producing the awesome research now, not universities.

  3. 3.

    mierardi

    March 26, 2010 at 9:09 am

    How rich. With how many outside ventures does the Kaplan Daily have to share Howie Kurtz’s services?

  4. 4.

    someguy

    March 26, 2010 at 9:09 am

    I’m glad that we on the left don’t suffer from this kind of ideological lockstep mentality.

    But on the other hand, this is how the wingers achieve their sucesses folks. You want us to do better, you need to drive the blue dogs out the way the right just made Frum walk the plank. They have maybe 26% of the population on their side, yet they dominate the media and the political debate. And this isn’t even a party official; it’s just some meaningless little think tank fop, yet still they took the time to run him out of town.

    Until you get that kind of discipline into the party, you’re not going to win very often.

  5. 5.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 26, 2010 at 9:11 am

    Interesting indeed. They were ordered to shut up because they agreed with Obama on what he was trying to do and their patrons did not? Money over honest policy? Tell me it isn’t so!

    I am crushed, absolutely crushed.

  6. 6.

    Alan

    March 26, 2010 at 9:14 am

    More from Bruce Bartlett.

  7. 7.

    beltane

    March 26, 2010 at 9:14 am

    The best thing about this Frum business (can’t really call it a scandal), is that it’s the type of jockeying among courtiers that resonates in the Village. Will David Frum still be invited to all the A list cocktail parties and soirées, or will he now be a persona non grata?

  8. 8.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 26, 2010 at 9:14 am

    @someguy:

    Right, that’s why we just lost passing the historic health care reform bills. Good advice. Not. The Democrats are a lot of things but they are not a purity party. Leave that to the Repubs.

    Take a good look at them. That’s what happens when you require a purity test.

  9. 9.

    Ash Can

    March 26, 2010 at 9:15 am

    “They invited me to remain associated with AEI on a non-salaried basis,” Frum said

    I’m still laughing at this today.

    AEI staffers “had been ordered not to speak to the media… The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line.”

    No one could have predicted.

  10. 10.

    beltane

    March 26, 2010 at 9:16 am

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Going Galt=a life of prostitution. This is about the only useful thing I’ve ever learned from the AEI.

  11. 11.

    cleek

    March 26, 2010 at 9:17 am

    i think the teabaggers, libertarians, christianists, and Chamber of Commerce factions would take issue with any assertion of ideological purity on the right.

  12. 12.

    Punchy

    March 26, 2010 at 9:22 am

    I’m glad that we on the left don’t suffer from this kind of ideological lockstep mentality.

    /cough GOS cough /cough DKos cough

  13. 13.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    March 26, 2010 at 9:23 am

    I know it is widely assumed that the Washington Post has no editorial standards whatsoever, but you have to give the Kaplan Daily pundits full credit when it comes to shivving a “colleague” who no longer shares the protection of the corporatist aristocracy at whose pleasure the Media Village Idiots serve.

    As blogospheric critiques of the dead tree media asshats goes, this is, by far, not only the best one I’ve ever read, it’s also the most succinct.

  14. 14.

    Athenae

    March 26, 2010 at 9:28 am

    Fucking Kurtz. The Washington Post has to share Bob Woodward with all those things, but you don’t see him trashing Bob, do you?

    Far be it from me to defend that asshole Frum, who knew what the scorpion was when he picked it up, but this is just starfucking crap.

    A.

  15. 15.

    dr.hypercube

    March 26, 2010 at 9:39 am

    “Far be it from me to defend that asshole Frum, who knew what the scorpion was when he picked it up…” – QOTD

  16. 16.

    Warren Terra

    March 26, 2010 at 9:54 am

    WTF? Kurtz implies that they were upset about “sharing” Frum, that he had too many media appearances? Absurd! The whole point is to get their “scholars” in the public eye, promoting the AEI name.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    March 26, 2010 at 10:08 am

    someguy

    thinks that if we just parrot the communist/fascist/totalitarian style, the US will do better. All that democratic freedom ( that they hate) is what is actually our weakness.

    Only this time it is the right wing, 9 foot tall giants that oppose the weak, disorganized left -which for some completely unknown reason happens to have the presidency, and both houses of Congress by large majorities.

    …. yeah, right.

  18. 18.

    burnspbesq

    March 26, 2010 at 10:16 am

    @someguy:

    “’m glad that we on the left don’t suffer from this kind of ideological lockstep mentality.”

    Say what? That’s a peculiar thing to say on a blog whose commentariat contains a large number of refugees from FDL, Kos, Talk Left, et al.

  19. 19.

    burnspbesq

    March 26, 2010 at 10:20 am

    It is breathtaking to stop and consider that on the Right as it currently exists, Frum and Bartlett are the sane and reasonable people.

  20. 20.

    catclub

    March 26, 2010 at 10:28 am

    burnspbesq @ 18

    Looks like it is time to re-read “Great popular delusions and the madness of crowds”.

    Never goes out of style. Like the Divine Comedy or Ulysses
    (Homer or Joyce)

  21. 21.

    PeakVT

    March 26, 2010 at 10:38 am

    While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services

    I always thought creating the impression of high demand was part of the pundit scam. Thank goodness an authority like Kurtz is around to correct me.

  22. 22.

    Stefan

    March 26, 2010 at 11:10 am

    While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services with other outside ventures, including his Web site, his books, his frequent television appearances and his column for the Week magazine and Canada’s National Post.

    Good point. After all, if you’re a policy think tank dedicated to getting your ideas out there, the last thing you want your resident scholars to do is to promote those ideas and give them greater visibility on web sites, books, TV and newspaper and magazine columns…..

  23. 23.

    Little Dreamer

    March 26, 2010 at 11:10 am

    __

    While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services with other outside ventures, including his Web site, his books, his frequent television appearances and his column for the Week magazine and Canada’s National Post.

    Ahhh, and now sadly, according to Bruce Bartlett, Frum has absolutely “nowhere to go“!

  24. 24.

    Martin

    March 26, 2010 at 11:22 am

    @Warren Terra: But why pay him to do it if Time and CNN are willing to pay him to do it? And nobody can be so stupid as to think that a conservative think tank can go to war with the Republican party, which Frum is close to doing.

    But AEI gets nothing really out of this relationship. This isn’t a business, it’s a charity not unlike a religious organization with a mission to spread the gospel. And like any such organization if you run against the grain, or some other organization is going to pay your way to do that job, they’re going to cut your stipend – particularly if money is tight.

  25. 25.

    flounder

    March 26, 2010 at 11:27 am

    I love it. Frum was invited to continue commenting on the AEI blog…under the name weenieCon69.

  26. 26.

    BruinKid

    March 26, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    I think the real story is this.

    Bruce Bartlett, another conservative scholar who has been at odds with the right, wrote that Frum told him AEI staffers “had been ordered not to speak to the media” about health care “because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do. . . . The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line.”

    So the think tank people couldn’t even speak their real minds, for fear of upsetting their donors/teabaggers?

  27. 27.

    El Cid

    March 26, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    The excellent UK newspaper The Independent, home of Robert Fisk, has been sold to Russian newspaper owner and former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev for pretty much nothing.

    The Independent, launched nearly a quarter of a century ago with the aim of being a genuinely non-partisan national newspaper, was sold yesterday to Russian billionaire and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev for a nominal sum of £1.

    On the plus side, this should keep it going for at least another while.

  28. 28.

    SRW1

    March 26, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    “They invited me to remain associated with AEI on a non-salaried basis,” Frum said, and he declined.

    I’d say Frum was pretty lucky there. In the good old days standard operating procedure for anybody forced from the politbureau was to have them taken outside and shot.

  29. 29.

    Barry

    March 26, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    @Martin:

    Martin, because it boosts his cred in policy and scholarship. After all, AEI calls their talking heads ‘scholars’; one occasionally has to throw a bone to maintain that facade.

    Kurtz: “While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services with other outside ventures, including his Web site, his books, his frequent television appearances and his column for the Week magazine and Canada’s National Post. ”

    As opposed to the Washington Post guys, who labor 12 hours a day/7 days a week for their master, not even dreaming about any outside appearances and gigs.

  30. 30.

    priscianus jr

    March 26, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    “Imagine the insult, for a committed professional glibertarian, of being invited to give away one’s brilliant insights!”
    Although I am no fan of Mr Frum’s, this is not a valid generalization. Normally, being invited to write for an institute is an honor. The fact that one would not be paid for the writing is irrelevant, since most such organizations, even libertarian ones, rarely pay anyone for their writings; or if they do, they would be people who are on staff. In Frum’s case, he had been on staff for 7 years and had been paid for his writings up until that moment. I would not blame anyone for being told, hey, we’re still friends, you can do the same thing you were doing all along, we just won’t pay you any more. I do appreciate the irony of the typical eat-your-own vengeance of Republican donors to a supposedly scholarly institute.

  31. 31.

    priscianus jr

    March 26, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    Sorry, the last two sentences above got screwed up: They should read: “I would not blame anyone for being miffed upon being told, hey, we’re still friends, you can do the same thing you were doing all along, we just won’t pay you any more. I do appreciate the irony of neocon stalwart Frum becoming the latest victim of the typical eat-your-own vengeance of Republican donors, for telling the truth to a supposedly scholarly institute.”

  32. 32.

    Comrade Kevin

    March 26, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    @Punchy:

    /cough GOS cough /cough DKos cough

    Anyone who claims that doesn’t actually read the site.

  33. 33.

    TooManyJens

    March 26, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    @priscianus jr: I agree. “You’re fired, but you can keep working for us for free,” is not a deal I’d expect anyone to jump at.

  34. 34.

    Sophist

    March 26, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    “They invited me to remain associated with AEI on a non-salaried basis,” Frum said, and he declined.

    “Then they took turns kicking me in the shins, and when I got to the parking-lot my car was on fire. All and all, an amiable parting of ways.”

  35. 35.

    gbear

    March 26, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    USPS has a new .44 stamp coming out next month:

    Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet

    The dogs and cats on the stamps are cuties.

    (edit: crap. I thought I was on the open thread)

  36. 36.

    Polish the Guillotines

    March 26, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    All of these Frum posts and not one decent title. “Death Frum Above” anyone?

    Sheesh.

  37. 37.

    Viva BrisVegas

    March 26, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    @Little Dreamer:

    Ahhh, and now sadly, according to Bruce Bartlett, Frum has absolutely “nowhere to go“!

    Doesn’t the Washington Post want to complete their matched set of Bush speechwriters?

  38. 38.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 27, 2010 at 1:11 am

    Imagine the insult, for a committed professional glibertarian, of being invited to give away one’s brilliant insights! Second only to the insult, for a professional “communicator”, of being labelled as the corporatist equivalent of a nymphomaniac prostitute!

    You’d better watch it. Keep this sort of thing up and you’re going to be hearing from the NPADL (Nymphomaniacal Prostitute Anti-Defamation League). And don’t try to get out of this by saying that you meant to compare Frum to a crack whore, otherwise the CWADL (Crack Whore Anti-Defamation League) and ACWADL (Assistant Crack Whore Anti-Defamation League) will be all over your ass, and those fuckers are mean and crazy, they make the JDL under Meir Kahane look like a Brownie troop.

  39. 39.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 27, 2010 at 1:15 am

    “They invited me to remain associated with AEI on a non-salaried basis, said that they wouldn’t be leaving an envelope on the dresser on the way out the door any more,” Frum said

  40. 40.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 27, 2010 at 1:19 am

    While Frum was hanging his hat at AEI, the organization had to share his services with other outside ventures, including his Web site, his books, his frequent television appearances and his column for the Week magazine and Canada’s National Post.

    TRANSLATION:

    AEI was tired of being the caboose in the train that David Frum was pulling with all of the other conservative publications and think tanks out there.

  41. 41.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 27, 2010 at 1:23 am

    OK, that’s a lot of prostitute jokes about David Frum, but Jesus H. Spaghetti Monster, if there’s anything I hate more than a fucking wingnut it’s the fucking wingnuts we’ve managed to import from other countries like Frum, Mark “I’m not gay, there are lots of straight men who write theatre reviews” Stain, John “I moved to America because there wasn’t a British chapter of the KKK” Derbyshire, Andrew “I want to be the meat in an Edmund Burke/Michael Oakeshott sandwich” Sullivan and Michelle “anchor baby” Malkin. Damnit, we need to start enforcing our immigration laws and keeping these douchebags out!

  42. 42.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 27, 2010 at 1:40 am

    You know, I’ve been trying to work out a post that would reference David Frum’s status as a leading conservative man-whore and that would also be a tribute to Sam Kinison’s “sticky, broke and confused” routine but for whatever reason I’m just not able to nail it. Damn!

  43. 43.

    Nancy Irving

    March 27, 2010 at 5:38 am

    John Galt would not work for no pay!

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