See The Nazi; Be The Nazi, Plus
Pity the poor New York Times reporter, plus
See The Nazi; Be The Nazi
You know by now that co-fuhrer Elon Musk concluded his stirring post inauguration speech—I’ve no idea what he said, as I’m not even reading transcripts of this bullshit—with a Nazi salute. Musk defenders are saying no, it was a Roman salute (which was more recently adopted by a certain post-Weimar German clique, through no fault of Musk’s), but Germans, for instance, are saying it was a Nazi salute. Given that the world’s richest man recently endorsed Germany’s neo-Nazi party and has obviously gone power-mad, one really can’t be confused about this.
One can’t be confused about this unless, of course, one is writing for a prominent national newspaper, such as the Washington Post
or the New York Times.
“Controversy!” “Online Speculation!” Yeah, that’s the ticket, ‘cause everybody knows online isn’t real life. Never mind that the majority of New York Times and Washington Post subscriptions are online; it only counts if somebody says it where you can’t read or hear it.
Nazi Nazi Nazi. Oi Oi Oi Oi.
Pity The Poor NYT Reporter
Meanwhile, NYT reporter Eric Lipton is over at BlueSky complaining about how hard it is to cover the new admininstration.
That salute reminds me of something but I can’t put my finger on it. Ah well, on to the next unmanageable story. Some say using the military to round up undesirables is reminiscent of something, but that analogy is lost to the mists of time.
In another post he reminds readers that their responsibility here, their contribution to resisting the onslaught of history, is to read the paper’s amnesiac reporters.
The Times has more than 1700 reporters/photojournalists worldwide, many of whom are in the U.S. Might one suggest reassigning some reporters from other sections? I’m a big fan of political imagery analysis: why not assign the writer of this Pete Hegseth style piece
To be specific, he was wearing the now-signature Trump uniform: the bright blue suit, pristine white shirt with spread collar and perfectly knotted red tie, this time with subtle navy stripes, that acts as a Pavlovian allusion to the American flag. The uniform that has been adopted by Trump acolytes like Vice President-elect JD Vance. The one that is a sign of allegiance not only to the country but to Mr. Trump himself.
In case anyone didn’t get the picture, Mr. Hegseth added an Old Glory print pocket square — one he also favored during many of his previous visits to Capitol Hill — in matching red, white and blue. Not to mention some star-spangled socks and a flag belt buckle.
to an analysis of Musk’s visual and rhetorical style. The salient issues with Whisky Pete are that he’s a drunk and a toady and a rotten human and wholly unqualified for the gig, while the Nazi Elon Musk is at this point the most powerful man in the world and he’s slinging Nazi salutes.
And why not take some of those “this Brooklyn Heights couple want to move to Manhattan on a two million dollar budget. Can they find what they need south of 125th Street?” reporters and assign them to covering that firehose of bullshit Lipton complains about. Let’s see a byline saying “I used to report on the marriages of high-status corporate princes and princesses but now I report on the fascist marriage of corporations and the state.”
I swear, my White House reporter, Eric Brewer, who arrived in the briefing room with not a whit of reportorial experience, had a better institutional memory and asked better questions than a bunch of NYT reporters and editors in and out of the White House.
Reporting is hard. But lots of reporters who earn a fraction of what reporters at the big papers make, and who have a fraction of the resources, do it better, more bravely, and with little complaint.
Plenty Of Blame To Go Around
Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade has a column at former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin’s new joint, The Contrarian, in which she explains that Merrick Garland’s leisurely approach to prosecuting Trump is not to blame in any part for the latter’s reelection, which instead is the responsibility of Mitch McConnell and the quintet of reactionary twats in the Supreme Court building. Of course they contributed mightily, but so did Garland and so did the press, and for that matter so did Biden and Harris.
Music
Continuing in the Chumbawamba vein: WYSIWYG, (“Hey Hey We’re The Junkies”); Sinead O’Connor, I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss (“The Voice of My Doctor”); Cigarettes After Sex, Xs (“Tejano Blue” live).
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I'm too worn out with developments to comment other than saying this.