This illustrates the decline of our so-called civlization (h/t commenter Waingro) better than any other short passage I have ever read (though the whole piece rambles a bit):
Then suddenly it was over, and The Atlantic’s own godfather, David G. Bradley, was marching toward David Weigel, a young and prolific journalist specializing in Republican politics who had recently made a name for himself getting fired and rehired by the same media company within several weeks. For Bradley, this shift in nameplates apparently constituted a Chalabi-caliber show of resilience:
“DAVID! So good to see you!”
“Hello, David.”
“David, you really came back swinging, didn’t you? You were out for all of, what, a week? But now you’re back!”
“Well, I mean, it was actually a few weeks, and it really screwed up my health insurance . . .”
“David, I just want you to know I’ve been scheming ways to deploy you here for quite some time now! Now, of course I realize you may be enjoying your present . . . deployment!”
“Well I mean, heh, I did just start . . .”
“But David, let me tell you this. David, I know you think your mastery is politics. But I think . . . I think your mastery . . . ”
Dramatic pause.
“. . . may be . . . mastery.”
“Oh uh, thanks . . .”
“Do you know what I mean, David?” Bradley finished, gliding out the door. “It’s the same thing with David Brooks. He thought his mastery was politics, but his mastery was actually, whatever he put his mind to. Think about it, David!”
schrodinger's cat
I bet David Weigel can’t solve a second order partial differential equation.
The Washingtonian punditubbies are not journalists they are the courtiers on the Potomac. David Weigel is just another Villager in training.
TooManyJens
Sweet Jesus. We live in a Shallowocracy. Rule by people who can’t be arsed to think about anything except how magnificent is the sound of the output of their own pieholes.
Well. That and how much less they’d like to be paying in taxes on their 1%-er incomes, of course.
Warren Terra
Jesus, Doug, warn a fellow. Put it behind a cut, after a disclaimer about the suicide risk of reading the passage.
cathyx
David Brooks masters anything he puts his mind to. Hahaha
John Weiss
WTF?!
schrodinger's cat
BTW does any one know what happened to Dan Froomkin, a journalist who tried to do his job and was not a sycophant.
Villago Delenda Est
You know, the French figured out a way to deal with this sort of thing a couple centuries back.
Zifnab25
@cathyx: He’s certainly a master debater.
schrodinger's cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Shall I start knitting?
schrodinger's cat
To paraphrase Krugman, Bobo is an idiot’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
Froomkin went to the Huffington Post, if I recall correctly, but has hardly made a splash there.
serge
Tautology, anyone?
Egg Berry
I see the nominees are already piling up for the Wanker of Atrios’ Second Decade.
PeakVT
He thought his mastery was politics, but his mastery was actually, whatever he put his mind to.
But Bradley couldn’t afford Brooks so he hired Clive Crook instead.
Mike Furlan
David Brooks is the acknowledged master of the Applebee’s Salad Bar.
schrodinger's cat
If Brooks is a master of anything, it is lying with a straight face. I would take Rush Limbaugh and Fox News bots spewing bile than umble Mr Brooks any day.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: He seems to have disappeared without a trace. That’s what happens when you are not a courtier, I guess.
ChristianPinko
This is like the 21st-century version of that scene in The Graduate where the old guy says to Dustin Hoffman, “PLASTICS.”
SatanicPanic
I agree, Brooks is not a master of politics.
jl
I think the message is that a certain type of person can master one thing and only one thing (‘spin’) and then apply it to everything.
Being able to do ‘Spin’ is even more versatile than math, since a certain type of math is not useful for everything.
Punchy
Dont understand a single point in this post, but since its from DougJ, I gotta believe its about Sullivan.
DonkeyKong
To quote Master Yoda “Break me a fucking give you will!”
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
David Bradley wooed Jeffrey Goldberg with a pony. Yes, the wanker Jeffrey Goldberg got a pony. David Bradley’s just not right in the head.
Warren Terra
Other “gems” from the article:
And in a story that boggles the mind, Bradley claims that his father inspected mass graves in a WWII Nazi Concentration Camp … and then didn’t really think about it until he saw Schindler’s List almost 50 years later. Given that my Grandfather liberated a couple of camps and occasionally woke screaming for decades, I’m skeptical. Also note that Bradley’s father apparently spent those fifty years dedicated to Hippie-Bashing, and worse.
jl
Off topic:
‘ Ryan says questions whether bishops’ letter on poverty and GOP budget is real opinion of consensus of bishops.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) dismissed the concerns of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, after the powerful advocacy group criticized his budget for “failing to meet [the] moral criteria,” of protecting human dignity, prioritizing the needs of the hungry and homeless and promoting the common good. He also suggested that the criticism itself might not represent the Bishops’ consensus view — an insinuation the group directly rejects.
“These are not all the Catholic bishops, and we respectfully disagree,” Ryan said.
USCCB spokesman Don Clemmer cleared the air in an email to TPM. “Bishops who chair USCCB committees are elected by their fellow bishops to represent all of the U.S. bishops on key issues at the national level,” he said. “The letters on the federal budget were written by bishops serving in this capacity.” ‘
Paul Ryan Questions Catholic Bishops’ Opposition To His Budget
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/paul-ryan-questions-catholic-bishop-opposition-to-his-budget.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
I guess probably Donohue doesn’t agree?
The shifty sleazy Ryan would be a good VP choice, maybe. Get along great with Mitt and would repel some voters who can put up with Romney.
Steve
@schrodinger’s cat: It is worth following Froomkin on Facebook. He is still writing good, substantive stuff, mainly at HuffPo.
Anthony
“I want to say just one thing to you David, just one thing:
Plastics!”
Mickey
So it’s kind of like Seinfeld? Where you write about nothing week after week and make it sound important?
Gex
Their kind of “mastery” is a cardinal sin, isn’t it?
JPL
@Anthony: teeheehee Ain’t that the truth..
Spaghetti Lee
What I’m taking away from this is to not trust any journalists named David.
Vixen Strangely
My brain re-wrote this as, “Has anyone ever told you you’re stunning? Ever do any acting?
“Ever hear of this movie, The Devil in Miss Jones? It might have been before your time…
“With the right connections, you could be a real star!”
David Koch
I don’t understand. Weigel was fired from WaPo and hired by Slate.
Is Slate owned by WaPo?
JPL
@David Koch: Yes..
David Koch
@JPL: Oh, I didn’t know that. No wonder is sucks so badly.
joeyess
Reminds me of that scene in Broadcast News when, after William Hurt’s character had to do a breaking story with Holly Hunter in his head for the entire piece and after the broadcast, the smarmy news division head is giving a pep talk to all the control room geeks about how this was “so good for Tom and how great Tom was and how they all did such a marvelous job in making Tom great because Tom is sooooo great……”
Shoot me in the face, please.
Warren Terra
@David Koch:
No, the sucking of Slate is a far more longstanding, even foundational thing, and existed long before the WaPo bought it. It all comes out from the shallow contrarianism and utter cynicism that was so very treasured by Slate‘s founding editor Michael Kinsley, and his thoroughly sympathetic successors.
… of course, the shallow contrarian suckiness of Slate doubtless made it seem a good purchase for the WaPo …
Suffern ACE
@David Koch: Yep. Its why its noted “contrarianism” ends up sounding like the things 80% of the mainstream press establishment believes at any given time.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spaghetti Lee:
Well, David Brinkley wasn’t bad, at all, but he’s gone now.
“Good night, David”
“Good night, Chet”
Just a notch below Uncle Walter.
Villago Delenda Est
@Warren Terra:
Slate is also the home of wanker runner up Lord Salatan, who can’t grok why the anti-abortion folks can’t get behind preventing abortions with birth control, which is his masterly “solution” to the entire issue.
Sad_Dem
That excerpt reminds me of the Heller novel Good as Gold. There’s a villager character in that who keeps having really stupid conversations with the main character that he seems to think are quite deep, because, you know, he works as an important somebody in Washington. Needless to say, that character is a complete sociopath.
Joseph Nobles
I see your example of the decline of civilization, and raise you Vince Vaughn starring in a feature adaptation of The Rockford Files.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Joseph Nobles: Oh god, no way.
freelancer
@Anthony:
I opened up comments on this post just to quote that line from The Graduate. You got there first. :D
Rogers
Villagers Ahoy! Just when you think you’ve achieved the appropriate level of cynicism regarding these careerist swine you get blindsided by a little reality update, like a whole new freezer full of bodyparts. New&Improved!-Now with twice the Evil!
Deb T
@schrodinger’s cat:
Froomkin can be found over at HuffPo on occasion. He used to write a column for the Washington Post called White House Watch. I read him all the time.