Via Washington Monthly, an interesting profile of Sarah biographer and Kristol-in-law Matthew Continetti:
After graduating in 2003, Continetti moved to Washington to work at The Weekly Standard. He was eager to report, not to opine, and this goal set him apart from most of his peers. “If your ambition is to write for some prestigious magazine, that is very different from the aspiration, ‘I want my team to succeed,’” explains Reihan Salam, a writer for National Review.
Traditionally, conservative magazines have placed little emphasis on reporting. “The great missing element in conservative opinion journalism has been reporters,” says Andrew Ferguson. “I’ve seen interns rotating through the office. You say, ‘So what do you want to be?’ And they say, ‘I want to be George Will.’ … When you come across someone like Matt who will make phone calls and go through boring government documents to find information, it’s a rare thing.”
[….]Continetti’s march toward outright partisanship is not unusual in Washington. In the conservative media world in particular, there are significant rewards for helping out the movement—that is, for putting political objectives above journalistic ones. “If you are working for a conservative publication, you are kind of rewarded for not deviating,” says Sanchez. “The thing that is rewarded is, in some sense, the easiest, laziest thing. It is sort of hard [to] think, ‘I’m going to do the more difficult thing and win the prize of being less successful.’”
Say what you will about the tenets of Tucker Carlson, at least he didn’t marry Bill Buckley’s daughter.
(Title for true musical theater buff’s only.)
aimai
His little history is like a dramatization of the phrase “epistemic closure.” He went from being able to imagine having some liberals as friends to entirely rejecting the notion that any liberals, anywhere, could be other than the enemy. “Do unto others…before they do unto you” is his new mantra. What a sickening family he has married into and with what joy he has embraced their beliefs. Wonder how his Obama-voting-mother looks at the situation?
aimai
Violet
Opining is a lot easier. No worrying about those pesky facts. Just say whatever you feel. See: Blenderella.
gogol's wife
“Carousel”! I love the Alfred Drake version. I can’t believe I opened up Balloon Juice and heard the voice of Alfred Drake.
ETA: But is she a skinny-lipped virgin with blood like water?
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@gogol’s wife:
Who’ll give him a peck and call it a kiss and look in his eyes through a lornet (sic?)
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
with reporters like o’kieffe who needs commentary.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
with reporters like o’kieffe who needs commentary.
The Ancient Randonneur
My children will read about the Spawn of Inbred Chickenhawks in 30 years. Fabulous.
Mark S.
Winning!
I like how most of the people interviewed say that being lazy and not doing anything original is the best way to succeed at a conservative outlet.
pseudonymous in nc
Wingnut welfare: once you’re made, you’re made. It’s a pity that Mario Puzo wasn’t around to write up the wedding.
Steeplejack
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
Lorgnette.
sal
What the hell? Liberal, conservative, Tea Partier, Occupier, whatever – what kid of intern wants to be a pompous bow-tied windbag (besides Tucker Carlson)? Are their interns 45 years old? Shouldn’t normal interns want to party, get laid, not emulate someone whose writing even on baseball sounds like an over-cultured effete milquetoast? Sheesh, the kids these days…
El Cid
The movement needs acolytes, not heretics.
Yutsano
Am I crazy or did a thread just evaporate?
Martin
Kay needs to swing by. I just found out that one of the new non-profit co-ops (that she nominated me to start up) that the fed approved this week is being run by a close family friend. He was being quiet about it until the approval came though, so I was out of the loop, but I might get a close inside look at one of these after all. I’ll post more when she’s around.
BO_Bill
I like pie.
Martin
@sal:
Uh, me! Pay me 6 figures to write 1000 words a week about how I feel about communism, with no expectation that anything in it be factually correct? Once you learn that someone has that job, every 17 year old wants it.
eric
@Martin: you have no chance in hell to be a Will-like writer. you care about how your words correspond to reality. :)
c u n d gulag
Matthew Continetti and “Always Wrong” Bill Kristol’s daughter are getting married.
Aaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…
Don’t they make a cute couple (of Fascists!)?
I’ll say this much: at least this version of Fascism here in America isn’t all about religious purity – just purity of thought.
And essence!
Martin
@eric: Yeah, I do try. But I could probably learn to not give a shit if you paid me enough.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Why not both/and?
Mnemosyne
I still can’t believe that someone who was interested in reporting would go to the Weekly Standard. That’s not exactly their strong point.
Martin
@Mnemosyne:
If you were interested in ‘conservative print reporting’ where would you go? That’s the problem. Since anyone actually committing journalism has long been labeled as ‘liberal’ there’s really nothing left but outlets like the Weekly Standard.
Amir Khalid
@BO_Bill:
How did you do that? I haven’t installed any pie filter.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
The only option I can think of is the Wall Street Journal, which at least had real reporting before Murdoch bought them. But, yeah, someone steeped in conservative culture isn’t going to go for a job at the NY Times.
Martin
@Mnemosyne: And the Washington Times, if they still exist. But yeah, the GOP keeps shitting in their own well here by decrying legitimate institutions (journalism, science, education) as being evil preventing the next generation of young conservatives the opportunity to participate and shape them from the inside.
And this is why the demographic problem is so bad for the GOP. Any 15 year old who’s genuinely interested in being a teacher is going to think “Hmm, I guess that means I’m not welcome to be a Republican”
c u n d gulag
@efgoldman:
No doubt.
You and your fiancee didn’t have as much money and clout as these two love-turds.
And, congratulations on 35 years of marriage!
That’s no easy task.
I’ll be 54 next Friday, and I haven’t been able to tolerate myself for 35 of those years, let alone someone else. So I decided I wouldn’t inflict myself on some other poor, unsuspecting soul. :-)
kdaug
@Amir Khalid: I am aware of all pie traditions.
c u n d gulag
I don’t know, young Ross Douche-hat was pretty amenable when the NY Times gave the future Mrs. Continetti’s daddy the boot, and offered him the job.
And he’s been busy for years now, 2 days a week, turning the Op-ed page into something I wouldn’t wrap a dead fish in, because between him, Friedman, Brooks, and more than occasionally Dowd, it’s an insult to the intelligence of the poor dead fish.
Redshift
On the first page of Google results for his name:
That’s some mighty fine “journalism” there! (Okay, CNN actually labeled it commentary, but still.)
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
I get about all my wingnut news from Hot Air. allahpundit is one of the few nutters who is capable of what passes for dynamic thinking and honest dialogue in that world. And it is entertaining, the high wire he walks to not get et in the shark tank that is Malkin’s comment sections.
And Capn Ed has become so untethered from reality, he will never be talked off the ledge. Everything looks like a GOP win through his rosy colored eyes, snuggered comfy cozy behind the iron curtain of closed registration that is HOT Air. You get a free Balloon ride, at least, on this side of the great divide. To listen as the wind blows
Roger Moore
@sal:
It’s always worth considering that the interns are saying what they think their listeners want to hear. Kissing up is a well know path to advancement.
c u n d gulag
@efgoldman:
That’s a cute story!
I’m a Major League asshole – but I’m also a sucker for a good love story.
gnomedad
And besides, if one of them condescended to become an actual reporter, it would weaken the “liberal media!!!” narrative.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
He didn’t have to, Tucker IS the legacy.
Egg Berry
@Mnemosyne:
Or so we’d like to think.
c u n d gulag
@efgoldman:
If I teed it up, I figured you couldn’t resist!
You’re welcome! ;-)
Cronin
@Amir Khalid: I’m crossing my fingers that the pie filter’s gone serverside.
JGabriel
So, let me get this straight: Conservatives admit that the reason the media has a liberal bias is because Conservatives are too lazy for actual reporting and prefer spouting off opinions without doing any research to back them up?
Color me impressed.
.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
I like allahpundit too.
Ohio Mom
When I saw the announcement in The Times, I showed it to Ohio Dad, and in my best imitation yenta voice pointed out that “Continetti doesn’t sound Jewish.” But I guess Continetti made the conversion that really counted for the Kristols.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
Can’t speak to the rabbinical half, but as someone who grew up in the Catholic church, let me assure you: Machers with money have always been able to access a broad-minded priest. This was no less true in the 1960s than in the 1560s, when young Continetti’s ancestors were probably pimping their underage offspring (of both sexes) to the Medici Popes.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Ohio Mom:
Did he make her convert to Catholicism, though?
Marriage-based conversions creep the hell out of me. I’m sorry if that offends anyone.
mb
How could you possibly do actual reporting and remain a conservative? Reporters find out truth and that’s poison to conservative ideology. Easy to see why young Matt didn’t stick it out as a serious reporter.