The old saw that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is being proven once again by law professor/Dem-o-pundit Susan Estrich who — after having questioned LA Times opinion editor Michael Kinsley’s mental capacity because of Kinsley’s Parkinson’s Disease — now seems to be appearing on television more than ever… and on the subject of Terri Schiavo, of all things! Whoever said tastelessness and vulgarity don’t pay?
Cathy Seipp, who has made La Estrich her own special province, has an interesting article on the…[Don't you dare call it a kerfuffle!-ed.]… controversy this morning on NRO. While I remain agnostic on the issue of the ubiquity… or lack thereof… of female opinion writers (although I recommend this essay on the larger debate; it’s brilliant), I was amused by Cathy’s description of the LATimes as a local paper. “Unlike the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times isn’t really a national paper; you can’t get it delivered to your door outside the regional circulation base, so its influence with the chattering classes is limited.”
Indeed, as the Professor would say. But it’s worse. And I’m not complaining about the paper’s liberal bias, as some have done with considerable accuracy. I expect bias in a newspaper, as I do in most human endeavors, especially where the written word is concerned. The LAT’s problem is that it is deadly dull and hemmorhaging readers because of it. What the LATimes misses, more than anything, is another daily newspaper to compete with — some juice and action. It misses the old Herald Examiner desperately. (Face it, Angelenos; didn’t you prefer to read the HerEx, no matter what your politics? I was way left and I did.) Now with the Internet beckoning, most mornings my copy of the LAT sits on my doorstep, only to be taken in as an afterthought, if at all.
So if Estrich and her gang of Brentwood lunch ladies are determined to get on the opinion page of the LAT, that’s okay with me. I probably won’t know they were there anyway. But I will be keeping up with Cathy Seipp — and many others — on line. It’s much more convenient… and it’s global. If I want to know movie times, I can always go to Rotten Tomatoes.
As for title of this post, I just put it there as joke about Estrich. “Famous All Over Town” was reputed to be the first “important” Chicano novel about East LA written by someone named Danny Santiago. It was actually authored pseudonymously by Dan James, an Anglo screenwriter who collaborated on “The Great Dictator.”
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13 Comments
1. TedM:I have Joanne Jacobs, Michelle Malkin, Ranting Profs and Melanie Phillips on my favorites list. Will I have to delete any of these women under some fairness doctrine?
Mar 24, 2005 - 9:32 am 2. Duke:The old Examiner had THE best sports section in America, believe it or not they were pro-labor and the unions shut them down. You are right, it had a shoot from the hip single syllable style and we are all worse off for its disappearance. I understand from people in the newspaper business that all evening papers in metro areas, other than the NY Post, have failed. I believe that the Post now comes out in the AM.
Mar 24, 2005 - 9:40 am 3. neo-neocon:Did someone say tastelessness and vulgarity don’t pay? I must have missed it
.
In addition to all the other interesting issues you raise–the dullness of the LA Times, the place of women in journalism, the place of women in science and academia (and that Ruth Wisse article was great; thank you for linking to it!)–it appears that tastelessness and vulgarity have become not just accepted, but even expected.
In the arts, the right to be vulgar (which I most definitely defend) seems to have morphed into the obligation; to be vulgar is to be cutting edge. Look at the state of poetry, for instance–if you read the poetry for which Harold Pinter won the Wilfred Owen prize, and then compare it to Owen’s work itself, you want to weep (at least, I do).
So, now the whole thing has spread to political life. Susan Estrich is just part of a trend, I’m afraid (although one of its more strident and grating members). But just about everybody’s getting into the act, including Joe Biden in a recent New Yorker article. See here for more.
Mar 24, 2005 - 9:47 am 4. BigFire:I renewed my Dog Trainer subscription this year (since my brother need the Wednesday food section, and we all need the Friday Fry’s Electronics Ad).
Mar 24, 2005 - 10:04 am 5. Fausta:Your choice of title is most appropriate, Roger.
Estrich and the other estro-centrics believe that women that have nothing to say should be listened to because they are women opinion writers, just as Famous All Over Town won acclaim because it was “important” Chicano novel about East LA written by someone named Danny Santiago.
As a woman, and as a hispanic, I’m glad I can do a search on the internet and find people who have something to say, and are saying it, all around the world, now, whatever their gender, whatever their ethnicity.
Mar 24, 2005 - 10:20 am 6. Buddy Larsen:Ha! Thanks for the chuckle, your header reminded me of the recurring line in “The Big Lebowski”, everytime the wild-living trophy wife was mentioned, someone would say “She owes money all over town!” One of the multitude of little gems in that film.
Mar 24, 2005 - 10:35 am 7. Silicon valley Jim:Whoever said tastelessness and vulgarity don’t pay?
Not H.L. Mencken, who wrote, “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” The past forty years or so look to me a whole lot like an experiment designed to test that statement.
Mar 24, 2005 - 11:10 am 8. richard mcenroe:TedM ó You’re in trouble now boy. You don’t have enough White Males in your blog bookmarks.
Roger ó If you’re not going to call it a kerfuffle, why not describe it, in the secret language of we neocons, as a mishegoss?
Mar 24, 2005 - 5:27 pm 9. Buddy Larsen:Hmm…McEnroe, of the McNeocon tribe….
Mar 24, 2005 - 6:16 pm 10. richard mcenroe:Buddy Larsen ó Leopold Bloom lives…
Mar 24, 2005 - 7:33 pm 11. Buddy Larsen:Agh…that does it…no more hourly postings…must get life….
Mar 24, 2005 - 7:45 pm 12. freetotem:I usually find Susan Estrich, who, after a brief fling with reasonableness during last year’s campaign, has come back in full loony-left fury, distasteful and flagrantly wrongheaded. This LA Times affirmative action thing is preposterous, for example. But I have to say her opinions on TV about the legal matters regarding the Schiavo case have been pretty solid, in my opinion.
Mar 25, 2005 - 12:38 pm 13. Buddy Larsen:I agree, on her personality overall. SDhe lapsed badly into dark cant for awhile there during the cmpgn–Bill Kristol nearly took her head off for it one night–but overall she and Bob Bechol (sp?) are watchable and good-humored professional liberals. Overall Kerry had some of the most blackboard-fingernail creepily blank-faced over-coiffed oddities I believe I’ve ever seen in my life, speaking for him. Terry McAuliffe really gets me, Mr. Overnight Global Crossing swindler millioaire preaching against GWB’s ‘big business’ ethics. Lousy freakin’ political-system subverter.
Mar 25, 2005 - 5:03 pm