Misc Commentary For March 9, 2004

09 Mar, 2004 by John Hawkins

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— I’ll grant you that Jayson Blair isn’t the most credible source in the world, but his new book apparently has some VERY JUICY stories about his days at the New York Times. Here are a few excerpts from the WAPO review…

“It was unremarkable, he writes, when “public relations people substituted theater tickets, free meals and drinks and, sometimes, even sex for mentions. Journalists at The Times were considered to have a weak spot for sex. . . .” Blair also depicts his Times colleagues as, literally, his partners in crime. Here for example, is how he describes his role in one Times-ian night on the town: “I spent my night trying to score coke and weed for some of the Times’s reporters and editors. . . . I ended up in a housing project on Manhattan’s West Side buying coke from a dealer, and supplying it to the assorted group.” If what Blair writes is true regarding the ethics of a good number of staff members at the Times, then all the rest of us hard-working, rule-conscious journalists deserve sainthood.”

Cokeheads, junkies, and people trading sex for mentions at the NYT? Who’d have thunk it? But here’s my favorite part…

“And (Blair) wasn’t beyond taking sexual advantage of young, nubile public relations staffers who would do anything to get their clients in the New York Times. In one such set piece, Blair is about to finish helping an eager (and drunken) blonde publicist out of her clothes when she stops to deliver the rather priceless punchline: “Jayson, are we going to get a mention in The Times?” The deal evidently was closed: Blair claims that, after their evening together, he filed several business stories that included positive mentions of the Internet company she represented.”

All I can say is, if there are any “nubile public relations staffers who would do anything to get their clients” mentioned on Right Wing News, let’s talk about it =D

— This column about Howard Stern by Richard Blow is one the most illogical pieces of tripe that I’ve seen this year. Not only does Blow seem to making the case that Clear Channel is somehow violating Stern’s freedom of speech by choosing not to carry his radio show — which is an obnoxious argument — but this is so bizarre you’d think it was a parody if someone didn’t tell you otherwise…

“First Janet Jackson, a black woman, has become the object of the right’s cultural demonization. (Not Justin Timberlake, the pretty white boy.) Now it’s Howard Stern, a Jew. Who’ll be next?”

So, it isn’t that Janet Janet showed her breast in front of millions of kids at the Super Bowl half-time, it’s that she’s BLACK. And the people who have a problem with Stern? They must just hate him because he’s a JEW. That’s just kooky…

— I’ve had just about enough of Aristide…

“Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide plans to sue the United States and France for allegedly kidnapping him, one of his lawyers said on Monday.”

I have a suggestion. Why don’t we pick Aristide up, take him back to Haiti, and drop him off at Port Au Prince? Then we’ll just wait a few days for the people of Haiti to give him the Mussolini treatment. After they’re done, we’ll scoop up what’s left of Aristide with a shovel and give him a nice funeral. I think that would settle this whole silly “kidnapping” business once and for all….

— Monday, the Iraqis signed an interim constitution that guaranteed an impressive array of individual rights to the Iraqi people. There’s still a long way to go, but yesterday was truly a historic day not only for the Iraqis, but for the whole Middle-East.

Oh and by the way — that historic day? The majority of the left had nothing to do with it. To the contrary, if most people on the left had their way, Saddam Hussein and his psychotic kids would still be raping, murdering, and filling mass graves with impunity. That’s something people need to be reminded of…