The myth of Glenn Reynolds, centrist
Published September 04, 2003
Experiment 1
Noticing that InstaPundit linked to the Daily Howler today, a site that Phillip Winn once dubbed "reliably liberal" here on Blogcritics, I decided to do an experiment.
Background: The Daily Howler, far from being reliably liberal, is a site that critiques the press, especially the political press. While I do suspect that site author Bob Somerby has liberal leanings personally, as The Howler he tries to be fair and take a look at what he calls "clowning" on the part of the press whether that clowning is helping the left or the right (or neither).
However, he has utterly assailed the Bush Administration's culture of lying. He repeatedly draws insightful comparisons to the way the press acts now and the way the press acted back in the 2000 campaign, when they created a myth that Al Gore was a liar and George W. Bush was a straight shooter--and stuck to that myth, despite all contrary evidence, even when it was slamming them in the face.
MOST of the time, the Howler rails against the media's complicity in the Bush Administration's culture of lying. And Somerby does it well. He is careful to say that the press should be looking at the lies the President really is telling, rather than go with more sensational and easy-to-write stories with stock characters. But make no mistake--Bob Somerby thinks Bush is a liar, and that his Administration has a culture of lying.
But you wouldn't know that to read InstaPundit. I searched InstaPundit for "daily howler." By this measure (obviously potentially incomplete, but I am assuming representative), this site whose proprietor Eric Olsen claims (Comment 5) "is about as centrist as it gets," linked or referred to the Howler 13 times between October 29, 2002 and today.
Of those 13 links, 10 linked or referred to Howler stories that just so happened to generally defend the Bush Administration, mostly against specific (and poorly supported) charges of lying about uranium and Africa.
How many links to the plethora of Howler stories that primarily discuss the very sound charges of lying by the Administration? Zero.
When the Howler defends Bush, it is worthy of a link. When the Howler accuses Bush of lying, it is ignored.
Of the other three stories, two are about what Somerby feels was some right-leaning pundits' revisionist history regarding press coverage of the D.C. sniper case. The right-leaning pundits claimed that the media had pre-demonized the sniper as a likely "angry white male" before his identity was known. Somerby claims that "angry white male" claim in fact was not widely distributed.
Somerby's two stories on the "angry white male" controversy could be seen as criticism of the right, whose pundits spoke in defense of angry white males.
- The myth of Glenn Reynolds, centrist
- Published: September 04, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Culture: Media
- Writer: Brian Flemming
- Brian Flemming's BC Writer page
- Brian Flemming's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Really, Brian, you're SO silly. Depending on how you calibrate the scales exactly, in the current datafield of contemporary American political outlook, Glenn would probably have to rate as a little right of the mean, but easily within one standard deviation of the mean- thus a centrist. His general outlook might best be described as a conservative centrist.
So what's your problem? You just can't seem to stand dissent. No one is allowed to stand an inch to the right of Hillary without being called an evil fascist or some such.
Ignore Asinine Al and his echo, Brian. What you've said about Glenn Reynolds is something that has needed to be said out loud for the 10 months I have been familiar with the blogosphere. I remember pestering Atrios about why people were accepting Reynolds' false claim he is a centrist when I was a baby blog addict. One of my happiest achievements was helping out Reynolds along with his fellow reactionary, gun research fraud John Lott. (They were very much in bed together before Reynolds distanced himself.) As long as Glenn Reynolds is the voice of Bloggersville to most people, we have something to be embarassed about.
BTW, Reynolds has a gripe with the Washington Monthly related to it having taken down him and his gun lobby friends in a story that showed lax enforcement of gun laws by ATF is caused by Republican lobbyists, including some he is associated with, having been successful in watering down the law. If you aren't aware of the guy's involvement with those loonies, search blogs about four months ago, at the peak of the Lott scandal. Many of us wrote about it -- including me for Atrios, Calpundit, Roger Ailes and on Mac-a-ro-nies. Summary? The gun goon involvement shows Reynolds' true Right Wing colors.
To be a centrist, there has to be a center. I don't think I've ever claimed to be a "centrist." My views are more "eclectic" than "centrist."
And it's not as though those Howler posts are pro-Bush, really. Did you read 'em?
Glenn, I am the one who said you were centrist in a comment on Brian's original attack post, and your term "eclectic" is more correct. "Centrist" implies views that hew to the middle as a matter of course, my meaning was averaged together, your views come out in the middle, which is a different thing.
Brian, also, it would be helpful to make the aHowler URL listings actual links so readers don't have to copy and paste.
If Glenn is eclectic or a centrist, why isn't he associated with any causes that are not Right Wing?
Feel free to name any liberal or progressive positions Glenn supports.
Anytime Mac Diva is defending your point of view, you need to totally reassess your position.
Glenn does support some positions, such as criticism of the drug war, which are often associated with the left, but also supported by libertarians. And he's quite anti-Saudi, which is also often a left position - but Glenn, characteristically, pretends that liberals ignore Saudi abuses. He's more right-libertarian than straight conservative, although like most bloggers of that ilk, he doesn't really reconcile his love of military intervention with his disdain for large, centralized governmental bureaucracies which are about 5% as large, centralized, and bureaucratic as the Pentagon.
Good points, Alex. The whole see-no-evil stance of the Bush administration in regard to the Saudis is laughable. If bin Laden turned up sitting on a Saud's lap, they would pretend he wasn't there. And, war is as big a government event as ever happens. A weirdness (among many) of some of the Right libertarians is they hate Lincoln because he led the government during the Civil War, but love all contemporary wars. Is that a contradition, or what?
Terry, STIMULATE yourself.
Feel free to name any liberal or progressive positions Glenn supports.
Gun rights- a major and underappreciated freedom under the Bill of Rights- and perhaps the most important
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/8115)
If Howard Dean can be labeled a centrist, I don't see why Glenn can't. But, hey, seeing as how you're unbiased, I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. A little teeny hint: Glenn is pointing out exceptions with the Howler citations(and the "fair and balanced" meme is soooooooo last month).
Not attacking or asking questions, just stating my opinions.