April 05, 2006
Take That, Markos
Devoted fanatics of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly” undoubtedly recognize that we enjoy pointing out the low quality of letters that appear in The New York Times. In fact, we’ve expended a great amount of effort pillorying numerous epistlers, demonstrating their patent lunacy.
Accordingly, dear reader, our humble musings may lead you to believe that the average Gray Lady reader is only slightly more mentally capable than the average platypus. Or perhaps the average anteater. Whichever one’s stupider.
A few missives to April 2nd number of The New York Times Magazine, however, have led us to believe that matters are more complex than that. In fact, we firmly believe that these two letters are dynamite, and they have double-handedly renewed our faith in the Paper of Record’s readership. Or, we suppose, in the Magazine of Record’s readership.
We think them so stellar that we shall reproduce them in full. The first comes from John C. Phillips, a resident of the curiously named Elfin Forest, California:
No doubt the March 19 interview of the founder of the Daily Kos was conducted over the telephone, because surely Deborah Solomon and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga would have been too embarrassed to look each other in the eye during their disingenuous exchange lamenting the lack of a partisan Democratic media outlet.
After naming Michael Moore, The Village Voice, The Nation, The American Prospect and The Washington Monthly as potentially available but ineffective channels, they both seem stumped to think of other outlets. Several glaringly obvious omissions immediately jumped to my mind, including The New York Times.
The Democratic Party’s problem is not a lack of partisan media but rather the lack of a cohesive and compelling message.
We know what you are thinking, dear reader: Brilliant, brilliant! Simply smashing! Huzzah! Huzzah! And we are inclined to agree.
And a pithier missive, which also pertains to the short interview with Zuniga, also delights. Penned by Carole S. Appel of Dover, New Hampshire, it reads as follows:
Markos of the Daily Kos says that when bloggers make an argument, they can add a link to support their premises, but “you cannot link with books.” Books have included links for hundreds of years: they are called footnotes. While it’s faster to find the referenced sources if it’s online, and I love that, it’s not the only way. Scholars consulting books in libraries are checking links all the time.
Oh, that’s a dandy. A real dandy. If we may offer our humble opinion, dear reader, we think it makes Mr. Zuniga into an even more moronic dolt than Mr. Phillip’s shot.
The former missive makes it seem as if the auteur of the Daily Kos hasn’t read The New York Times. The latter makes it seem as if he hasn’t read any books. And to think the Daily Kos is the most prominent liberal “weblog” on Al Gore’s Internet. Why again did J.S. Mill call Conservatives the “stupid party”?
