The Spirit Of Little Debbie Lives On At The Post
(without any Photoshoppery whatsoever)
You probably don’t recognize the guy in the preposterous picture on the right. That’s Patrick Pexton in the caca d’oie colored plaid sports coat over the brown turtleneck track suit (with the fetching zipper) and with the windswept tuft of hair sitting on the top of his head like a lonely Shetland pony. This is his publicity photo. He uses it on purpose to tell people that this is what he looks like, apparently proud of having been dressed by Barry Manilow and coiffed by Donald Trump’s hairstylist. I should note, by the way, that it is perfectly fine for me to have a tuft on my head like that, but that is only because I am a cartoon character.
Pexton is the ombudsmen for the Washington Post, and it appears that his main job is to defend Fred Hiatt’s right-wing hacks when they go a little too far and get the Post‘s readers upset. Yesterday, Pexton circled the wagons around the loathsome Jennifer Rubin for her non-apology over her initial blog post that blamed the Norway killings on, of course, Mussulman terrorists. Her apology: well, even if the shootings were by a Christian Norwegian, it could have been done by Muslims who are, after all, more likely to kill white people than Norwegians are. So, she claimed, her point still stood, and we should continue to invade Muslim countries to keep them from killing people at summer camps, which they could have done in this case, even if they didn’t.
Pexton starts out defending Rubin with this:
When I received my Post e-mail alert about the bombing in Norway, my first thought was that it was al-Qaeda. That was reinforced when the second alert came about the youth-camp shootings.
This is, apparently, a simple and direct admission that, as far as the Pexton is concerned, Post writers are paid to report on the first thing that pops into their minds, unconstrained by any facts and giving free rein to any prejudice the particular writer has. I’m glad we got that out of the way.
If your politics are liberal and you don’t generally read Rubin, but you read her Norway posts, you probably would be pretty offended. But if you are a conservative, or someone who reads Rubin regularly, you’ll know that this is what she does and who she is.
Rubin was hired by Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Post, to be an opinion blogger who would appeal to conservatives and people who want to follow conservative politics. She does.
In other words, the point isn’t whether she was right or wrong, but whether or not she appeals to conservatives, which she does. The job of a journalist ombudsman isn’t to pass on a reporter’s accuracy but only to determine whether the reporter conforms to the particular bias for which he or she was hired. Who knew?
Of course, what has Pexton most worked up is not that a conservative columnist would stoke anti-Muslim prejudices, because that was, apparently her job. Instead Pexton sees the real problem here is — this should come as a big surprise — the liberal blogosphere. The liberals are, says Pexton, a bunch of meanies who don’t understand that Rubin’s job was only to spout conservative talking points without any regard to whether they were, you know, true or, even, loathsomely racist.
The liberal blogosphere, propelled by tweets, picked up Rubin’s piece and spread it around rapidly, helped by a trifecta of posts from theatlantic.com. … In a long chat with Rubin last week, I found her forceful and unrepentant, yet not unreasonable. She is not an ogre or a racist. And she does not deserve some of the calumny she got. Some of the e-mail she received was way over the line — ugly, obscene, vile and, worst, containing threats of physical harm.
You know where this is going. The anti-Muslim extremists like Rubin aren’t the real extremists; the real extremists are people who criticize Rubin. And we should be more concerned that they will cause violence to Rubin than that Rubin’s writings — such as her claim that Muslims are more likely to kill people than “blond Norwegians” — are ugly, obscene, vile, and odious and may incite violence against Muslims.
This brings us back to the shootings in Norway, an act committed by a disturbed man who drew some of his inspiration from extremist Web sites. A blogosphere given to vitriol and hasty judgments ought to consider the possible consequences of its own online attacks.
And with that, Pexton dismisses Rubin’s own vitriol and hasty judgment about the Norway killings, and decides that the liberals who called her on it are guilty of hasty judgment and vitriol that might incite attacks on Rubin. The real victims aren’t the targets of Rubin’s vitriol; the real victim is Rubin herself. It’s just another tired variation of the old wingnut chestnut that liberals, by not tolerating intolerance, are the people who are really guilty of intolerance.
Can’t they just give all the right-wing hacks a rubber stamp that says: “That was central to my point!” and let it go at that? Nobody believes their notpologies, anyway.
Having a bad day Tintin? Tpyos galore – not like you.
Third!
The money shot:
Why should they bother, when even the Washington Post doesn’t consider it worrisome when it shows up in their own pages?
I’m still waiting for a response from the NPR ombudsman for the execrable, heinous, dishonest, piece of hackery that was yesterdays Alix Spiegel piece featurinng Rich Wyler. I expect if there is any response to be equally odious but perhaps less transparently so.
Is this a rhetorical question?
@Pupenius. I think I got most of them on my second sweep through the post. And if y’all continue to complain, you won’t get any more posts or any other nice things from me!!!
I’m commenting from my iPhone. I have a good excuse for MY tpyos.
Some of the e-mail she received was way over the line — ugly, obscene, vile and, worst, containing threats of physical harm.
If true that’s too bad, but it really has no bearing on whether or not her column was unprofessional bullshit that warranted scorn. It’s also ludicrous for the person supposedly representing the readers’ interests to defend Rubin’s ugly, prejudiced, and unwarranted conclusions by pointing out that rank amateurs not affiliated with the paper sometimes make similar mistakes.
Shorter: If you think Rubin is incompetent at her job, take a look at how I do mine.
Hrmph. Typical liebrul, Tintin, editing for speeling and grammer. And sticking to facts. Hrmph again, I say.
Hrmph!
Wow, I wish I was a faded and over-the-hill hipster paid to wash fred hiatt’s balls. Oh yeah I do.
And if y’all continue to complain, you won’t get any more posts or any other nice things from me!!!
I need to redouble my efforts to teach Snowy how to type…
I know a couple of guys in their mid-20’s with a tin-tin style peak of hair at the front…
caca d’oie colored plaid sports coat over the brown turtleneck track suit (with the fetching zipper)
i only wish his headshot included the arms as well…i am sincerely hoping that said caca d’oie colored plaid sports coat is sleeveless as well…it’s the only thing that could really pull that outfit together…
This is what happens when you negotiate with terrorists.
I found her forceful and unrepentant, yet not unreasonable. She is not an ogre or a racist. And she does not deserve some of the calumny she got.
[she made me say this after she squeezed and pulled and hurt my neck!]
Some of the e-mail she received was way over the line — ugly, obscene, vile and, worst, containing threats of physical harm.
hey, kids at home…do you have your score cards ready? looks like j-ru is ready to play the game we like to call ‘wingnut victimry!’ she’ll be challenging our reigning death threat victim, pamela geller…aka the ‘shrieking harpy!’
Nice to see Don Knotts is still getting work, though
Jennifer Rubin = teh Rosa Parks of hate.
Alt-Shorter: pimpin’ bigotry ain’t easy, dawg!
Come on, libs, give these “people” some slack here!
Liberal Fashionism is to blame yet again! It just isn’t
profitableacceptable to demonize the usual victims any more – womynfolks, gays, blacks, & even Latinos are looking more human-like all the time now, even to the point where shitting on them & then joking about the smell is actual grounds for legal action or firing.If you intolerant lefties insist on taking away their Muslim chew-toy too, where else can they aim their throbbing, fully-erect arsenal of hate? Left-handed stamp-collectors? Middle-of-the-tube toothpaste-squeezers? Parapalegic Zoroastrians? Dyslexic Scientologists?
WHO WILL THINK OF THE (ADULTS WITH THE MINDS OF) CHILDREN???
Thunderpants pointed this piece out yesterday and that set me off on a thousand word ranting. I thought it was out of my system, but they’re talking about it over at CT as well, so I recapped and linked back here. So in order to complete the circle, a pretty nice synopsis of my most recent angry yelling at teh War Criminal Post. Man, if only there was some place I could collect all these thoughts together. Maybe I should start blogging or something.
Anyways, since I’m patting myself on teh back and all, lemme quote myself:
Middle-of-the-tube toothpaste-squeezers?
OOH I HATE THEM SO MUCH!
She is the most prolific opinion blogger at The Post, doing eight or 10 posts a day often, most of it insider stuff on GOP politics, a lot of it based on single sources.
“Is that a fact Senator McConell, I did not know that. Thanks, I’ll go with it then!”
I think that coat is more caca d’bebee.
That hair is more cockatoo than Shetland pony. He’s got his feathers up because liberals are picking on Jenmela Rubellar. He is so miffed!
I found her forceful and unrepentant, yet not unreasonable. She is not an ogre or a racist. And she does not deserve some of the calumny she got.
Re the “racist” thing – it’s one thing to jump to the conclusion that this must be al-Qaeda rather than another terrorist group. It’s stupid, it’s jumping the gun, it’s bad policy, but still.
It’s quite another when you discover that the terrorist was motivated by Muslim-hate, and instead of recanting, immediately start piling on with “well of course he went too far, but his motives are completely understandable, those Muzzies SCARE me” and then use that as a trampoline to go right back to spewing “Eurabia” bullshit. The former is just stupid – the latter’s well and truly racist, and I have no problem calling it that.
Don’t know which category Rubin falls into, but a ton of the right falls into the second category.
(Best I can do for them is to give them a mulligan on “racist” and downgrade it to “bigot,” assuming charitably that it’s only Muslims and not Arabs or Middle-Easterners they have a problem with. But based on the amount of shit Hindus, Sikhs, Arab Christians, even some Jews and so many others have dealt with over the last ten years because they committed the crime of looking vaguely Haji-ish, I’m not willing to drop the “racist” label for the Islamophobes. And it wouldn’t be much of a step up even if I did).
Wrote a little parody ditty about the debt crisis.
(click my name for the full version]
“Got in a little debt ceiling jam
They put a pea shooter in my hand
Sent me off to congress land
To go fight the tea bag man
Democrat in the U.S. House . . .
Came back home to the Dem infirmary
And Nancy said son if it was up to me
Went down to see the President man
He said son, don’t you understand”
Her apology: well, even if the shootings were by a Christian Norwegian, it could have been done Muslims who are, after all, more likely to kill white people than Norwegians are
Obviously, she’d never heard of Hardrada.
Shorter Pexton, “I will grant Jennifer Rubin seven inches of Washington column space or so much more, as she is wingnuttier than other hacks.”
This is, apparently, a simple and direct admission that, as far as the Pexton is concerned, Post writers are paid to report on the first thing that pops into their minds, unconstrained by any facts and giving free rein to any prejudice the particular writer has.
And War Criminal Post ombudsmen are paid to defend Fred Hiatt’s hires, which Pexton has done.
Go back to your wives, husbands, and children, people. There is no story for you here.
~
Shorter FleeceBlazer: “It’s not our job to report the truth, it’s our job to create propaganda. Jesus, what kind of idiot would think otherwise?”
That guy desperately wants someone–ANYONE!–to think he’s hip.
Uh, new thread, people!
Here’s much more fun link for caca d’oie
http://ultragross.blogspot.com/2010/05/couleur-caca-doie-learning-french-can.html
It’s even better than your characteriszation, Tintin: He’s saying that we librul haters CAUSED the shootings in Norway by a hater of Muslims.
Circling the wagons.
Dude’s face is weird, like a caricature artist drew him ( apologies to dude if he’s had a stroke).
Well, this guy is even gayer-looking* than the Peter Lorre guy in the last thread. And the thread before that. And the thread before that. Seriously, are there any guys on their side of the fence that could remotely pass as straight?
*Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
If your politics are liberal and you don’t generally read Rubin, but you read her Norway posts, you probably would be pretty offended. But if you are a conservative, or someone who reads Rubin regularly, you’ll know that this is what she does and who she is.
In other words, “conservatives aren’t offended by her bigotry and knee-jerk accusations, so fuck off you socialist cunts.”
One could probably describe the shooter as “forceful and unrepentant” but, you know, a fucking madperson who should be locked up for ever.
WARNING: Long-winded pompous ass goes on and on at smugly sanctimonious length about something he’s already yammered about repeatedly in the past 24 hours.
Pexton’s first graf is about how he jumped to conclusions. About how he automatically assumed that Utoya must have been an Islamoterror plot because I suppose, all terrorists are Muslims.
Pexton’s second graf is stunned incomprehension that people could be offended by anyone assuming all terrorists are Muslim. I mean seriously, other than this one Anders Breivik case, all terrorists are Muslims. Right? It’s okay to have goofed because clearly Breivik is the one exception to the all terrorists are Muslims rule.
That’s what “even the liberal Washington Post” has as their basic assumptions about the world. All terrorists are Muslims. And even when they aren’t, it is incomprehensible that anyone would be offended with the assumption.
I know a lot of other people also jumped to that conclusion. Don’t feel too bad about yourself if you did – that’s the position we’ve all been conditioned to accept for a decade now. But do feel at least a little bit bad about it because it’s a racist assumption based on prejudice and with little or no objective thought given to it.
Seriously. It’s not like Islamoterror is such a prevalent thing that “all terrorists are Muslims” is justifiable. Heck even a “quite possibly likely maybe outside chance perhaps that this terrorist is Muslim” doesn’t fit the bill. The number of European Islamoterror incidents in all of Europe last year is,,, three. One failed bombing, one attempted assault of a cartoonist and one double bombing that managed to kill only the bomber himself.
And that total is with the bias that we’re all being subjected to. That violent offenses by Muslims are more likely to be considered TERRORISM. Observe how the Norway attacks were TERRORISM when it was believed to be perpetrated by Muslims, and then became an extremist attack committed by a lone-wolf once it was clear that Islam could not reasonably be blamed (although that hasn’t stopped some fucking useless idiots from trying).
We’ve been conditioned to connect violent political attacks with Islam. The shooting incident at the Holocaust museum? Terrorism until it was discovered that it was a white supremacist. No terrorism charges were laid on Werner von Brunn for what was obviously a terrorist attack with political motivations.
Glennzilla had a post about this earlier about how “Terrorism” has become a degraded and meaningless word. A follow-up on the previous post regarding Joe Stack. You know, that terror attack with the plane being flown into teh government building that suddenly became not-terrorism once it was discovered that Stack wasn’t Muslim.
And the context of it all – in the wake of this horrific terrorist attack. According to teh wiki, teh deadliest attack by a single gunman in recorded history. Who believed himself to be waging a Holy War Against the Evil Islamoterror Threat.
But all Terrorists are Muslims. Right? And even if the assumption is wrong, it doesn’t harm anyone to keep believing it. Well maybe the Muslims, but certainly no one else. Right?
When did Don Knotts get reincarnated?
Well, I admit that when I heard that somebody had blown up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, “Muslims” was my knee-jerk reaction, because it had only been what—two years since the first WTC bombing? Then I thought: “Nah, Oklahoma City? Not showy enough.” And then of course the truth came out.
I guess the difference between me and them is that my prejudices are malleable. When I first heard about the 9/11 attacks, I wanted Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell tortured to reveal what they knew about it. Of course, then I realized no Christards would suicide in the commission of an atrocity, so I cooled down.
Hard-hitting relevant journalism ISREAL!!!
Now eagerly looking forward to the 2013 smash sequel, The Smurfs Take The Rhineland.
You know which Smurf I like best? The blue one.
In the entire history of ombudsmanship, has an obmbudsman ever admitted that his/her paper fucked up? I mean ever? Is “ombudsman” Latin for “in-house weasel?”
Alas there is no Shorter!
Now I much change my white linen suit for and fantastic deck hat for some grubby old clothes before heading ashore.
I hope I live through this!
Hard-hitting relevant journalism
CNN really oughta stop stealing crap from The Onion.
I survived! I survived the horrible swamp and the alligators with dreadful lasers growing from their heads. Now I’ll change my clothes, get a mint julep, and begin to catch up the thread.
Nice to see Don Knotts is still getting work, though — steerpike
—————–
Muslim chew-toy — jim
—————–
Pop by gocart’s place for the parody lyrics. Btw, whatever happened to those insane Lyrics and Poetry binges at S,N? They were some of the mostest funnest things here. Clever and witty metered and rhymed snark … haiku … limericks … I couldn’t contribute much except haiku, but they were hilarious to read.
I miss the Lyrics and Poetry strands!
Worth the read: http://www.gallup.com/poll/148763/Muslim-Americans-No-Justification-Violence.aspx.
I looked at the title and I thought Schlussel had been sacked/died/been sacked and then died
Reminder: New thread!
“She is not an ogre or a racist.”
I have seen her picture and I have read her columns. I’m pretty certain that she is both of those things.
I for one hope that the WaPoo doesn’t discover that copying the Washington Slimes’ editorial policy isn’t the most fiscally sound of ideas until Fred Hiatt and Ms. RubIn are living under a bridge and arguing over who gets to eat the fattier parts of Mr. Pexton.
Christ, what a quivering, reeking load of shite.
Great post, Tintin.
Fuck your new thread and fuck you, Arbuckle.
You know, it’s not offensive that Jennifer Rubin suspected Al Qaeda might be behind the Norway attack. It’s perfectly reasonable to suspect high profile international terrorists might be behind a high profile act of terrorism.
What is offensive is her putting her knee-jerk speculation in writing on the website of a major Newspaper, and then, when she turned out to be wrong, saying “Well, one incident can’t disprove my broader point”.
Well, if the identity of the attacker had no bearing on her point, then why the fuck would she even bring it up?
And if the identity of the attacker WAS central to her point, then as a decent human being she should apologize for being wrong and seriously re-evaluate her point, since one of the central arguments in its favor has just been demolished.
Instead, she wants to have it both ways. It’s like she’s making a bet and then saying “If I win you owe me $100. If you win then we were just playing for fun”.
It’s the fact that she and her ombudsman can’t even make a pretense of being intellectually honest that pisses me off.
alt shorter: Ms Rubin is the REAL_VICTIM(TM) here.
P.P. up there should give The Ig his eyes back.
I love how Ombuds does such a terrible and execrable job that if I appropriately denounce him like he deserves, I’ll just be fostering an environment for killing! Well, played, cobag.
E-mail I just sent to the ombudsgoof:
Hope he doesn’t come looking for Tintin, but I figured he should get a dose of reality
By “P.P. up there” I don’t mean the admirable Mr. Pinko Punko.
It’s telling that I read that as “felching zipper.”
WF
It’s nice that the most recommended comment on Pexton’s article is this:
“James Fallows, returning to the US after an extended period in China, was asked about changes here that caught his attention. One of the first things he mentioned (perhaps the first) was the decline of this newspaper. I understand it would be rather to much to expect an ombudsman to reverse such a dynamic but it seems appropriate to ask of him that he not contribute to it.”
I tried to add my recommendation but, alas, my WaPo registration is kaput. I guess, just to increase the count, it’s worth re-registering. Or not. I’ve mostly just given up on WaPo. It’s the dishonesty that kills me. Before Murdoch, I read the WSJ. No, I hated the editorial page but, for the most part, their new coverage was consistent and generally truthful once you corrected for the usual Villager outlook. I haven’t read WaPo for news in ten years or so.
Just an aside but has anyone read The President’s War, Pexton’s book on Gulf War I? His bio says “published in Japan” so I assume there’s a Japanese edition but I can’t find a trace of it in English. It’s a little odd that his number one qualification is not available in English. Also, hmmm, Navy Times? Military Times? Okay, fine, yes, there are at times okay articles in those but, for the most part, they are about as relevant to political news journalism as, say, Gothamist or Doctor Who magazine, no insult to either intended.
I will catch up with this thread after posting this, but this is seriously fucked up shit, y’all.
Rubin was hired by Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Post
Which begs the question – why does Hiatt still have a job?
Why you talky-talk so much? Usin’ too many words helps the Muslins take over.
I attended a reading of his previous work:
Because nobody ever fucking did any kind of terrorist attacks in the age before the fucking internet. Because there’s no such thing as a fucking book called the Turner Diaries, you dumbass piece of shit!
When I received my Post e-mail alert about the bombing in Norway, my first thought was that it was al-Qaeda. That was reinforced when the second alert came about the youth-camp shootings.
When I received my Post e-mail alert about the ombudsman’s response to critics of Jennifer Rubin, my first thought was that it was going to be a pile of rancid weaselcrap.
I didn’t have to write a correction.
Why did he steal Jim Traficant’s wig?
Hmm, this ‘Jennifer Rubin’ person writes a column so soon after this norway terrorism, and attracts a lot of free publicity. Coincidence or conspiracy?
when is the gears of war 3 beta