Phony Award for May 2005

by eriposte

...goes to Dan Okrent.

I previously wrote about Okrent's nonsensical claim about the Times' "liberal bias", but what transpired last week takes the cake.

This particular note from Okrent is all one needs to read to see why this man was a dream for conservatives. Bob Somerby caught it - and this sentence of Okrent's bears repeating:

I also believe that columnists are entitled by their mandate to engage in the unfair use of statistics, the misleading representation of opposing positions, and the conscious withholding of contrary data. But because they’re entitled doesn’t mean I or you have to like it, or think it’s good for the newspaper.

Wow! "Entitled by their mandate" to "engage in the unfair use of statistics", "misleading representation of opposing positions", and "conscious withholding of contrary data". Wow! No wonder conservatives wrote letters to the Times in praise of this character.

This is the corrupt media that is the long-time dream of the Far Right. This is the media which Nixon probably dreamed about - where his fellow crooks or brown shirts serve as "experts" to trash the guy who helped bring Nixon down.
This is the illiberal corrupt media that Okrent enabled during his tenure. He has earned his Phony Award.

P.S. Commenter Bob, in response to my last post on the Media's True Colors mentioned how boring my focus on the media was and also added:

This administration will be remembered for destroying the all-volunteer military. "The Army that Bush Broke"... why don't you write about that? It is much more interesting than perceived media bias...

Well Bob, if you haven't figured out the single biggest reason why Democrats, Progressives and the country are in the mess they are in, then you're not going to solve the real problem. It's not George Bush. It's the media. Crooks and liars are present in every generation. It's the media's role to point them out every day 24/7 to the public. You have failed to understand that all the blogging about Bush's incompetence or mendacity or corruption is not going to win this country back (it didn't in 2004). Unless you get a media that is not corrupt (conservatively biased), you are going to be complaining about how boring my posts on the media are and why I'm not saying more stuff about Bush (as if there aren't 10000 other blogs doing that already including this one). You have a right to your view, but ignoring the media is an excellent prescription for progressives to remain losers.