Nattering Nabobs: The GOP's Endless Assault Against the Media

Reader Comments
Back to article

In para. 3, you wrote "negative nabobs of negativism" instead of "nattering nabobs of negativism." This article might be old, but the info is still appropriate! Thanks! I couldn't remember the rest of the "hypochondriacs of history" part of the quotation.

PatF of WA 5:02PM December 04, 2010

No doubt columnists everywhere are getting an eyeful now that the great silent majority, the people, vox populi, the Great Beast has at last waked from its long slumber. One has to pity the liberal aristocracy as it realizes first with incredulity and then with horror that the sans cullotes are out in force and here to stay - and that the liberal ancien regime itself is actually in peril from those uncouth commoners. How could such a thing ever come to pass? How has the world suddenly turned upside down?
It is perfectly obvious that journalists just don't get it and probably never will. Mr. Mashek's sublime certitude and serene confidence in his own rectitude is by no means rare in the journalism trade. Such people are unable to imagine that they could ever become the targets of serious and legitimate criticism because in their own hearts and minds they know they have only the purest of motives and also that they are absolutely right in every one of their premises and prescriptions for the universal betterment of all mankind.
Let the revolution proceed so that such faux-sages can be released from their thankless task of telling the rest of us how and what to think, and return to the trade for which they are trained and suited, the reporting of the news itself.

Teleologicus of GA 4:46PM September 14, 2008

Here we are a full six days after this column was posted and still the full comments do not load so we all can read what other readers think of Mr. Mashek's premise. I'll wager the comments are overwhelmingly negative, otherwise this little glitch would have been corrected waaaaay back on Sept. 6. Funny thing about liberals. They champion dissent, except when it is aimed at them or pet causes or pet presidential candidates. Dissent then quickly becomes hatespeech, or in this case, "an endless assault". Mashek profers a bogus claim of victimhood even as his team perpetrates the most viscious political attack in history on Palin. The ability to see glaring hypocrisy in themselves seems to have been lost in that standardless partisan gray area they inhabit.

E Warner of FL 1:13PM September 14, 2008

While politics in general is not an industry known for integrity, there are limits which have been followed in bygone years. As a former Republican totally disgusted with the party I feel that until they regain some semblence of integrity they are not worth considering. The fact that the party allows a person such as Larry Craig to remain in the party is evidence they cannot police themselves much less legislate to the American people. While I cite Craig as an example I am not naive to think only the Republilcans lack integrity yet they are the most vocal on values in every election yet demonstrate an alarming lack of discipline within their ranks. Republican party leadership has been non-existent during Georgie's Reign of arrogance and terror ergo the trend continues. Where were the Republican values as Georgie has spent like a drunken sailor amassing huge debts??? Why have Republicans stood idly by while the White House runs roughshod over America from starting a war without reason, lying to the people to ruining the economy, draining the treasury and over-extending our armed forces??? The list of atrocities against our citizens by the Republicans is far too long to mention many of which won't be revealed until a new administration is in place as they continue to bailout their buddies upon the backs of the American people. If the Republicans wish anyone to seriously consider voting for anyone in the party, they must first clean house of malcontents and ethics violators, then perhaps they can speak of values and integrity. Intil then, I and many others refuse to remotely consider any Republican for anything except a doormat!!!

Ray Fisher of NM 8:26AM September 14, 2008

McCain and republicans of his ilk are not concerned about the media. They just don't like the media doing their jobs, and that doesn't happen enough to be a problem. They don't like the media reporting the truth, and that doesn't happen too often. They don't like the media researching for facts and then reporting them. Basically Republicans love the media since they are on the same republican team. The media needs to fight for the truth and fight for some integrity. Now they have none. After 8 years of corrupt, incompetent governance someone in the media should want an improvement. Someone?

Vicki Friedman of LA 12:08AM September 12, 2008

John,
Well, how about a little fairness test to the credible national media...WHEN Barack bails out the clinton campaign debt, throws Biden under the "win at any cost" bus, deigns to ask Hillary to be his V.P. -- is the press going to gushingly kow-tow to Barack's brilliant choice or rebuke this fear-based, condescending choice of the token female?

Valerie of ID 5:50PM September 11, 2008

I can't stop weeping for the smug pseudo-intellectuals of the media who are being criticized by the GOP.They are almost as sensitive as the love of their collective life Senator Obama in whose service you have prostituted yourselves for the past 18 months.You have the credibility of the telemarketing industry and you achieved it the old fashioned way. You earned it.

Donna of NY 12:02PM September 11, 2008

The full comments page for this piece has not been loading since the column was first posted. Doesn't anybody up there know how to fix a bad link? Or is John Mashek so sensitive about being criticized that he can't stand for anybody to read all those plebians in Palin--er--Flyover Country taking his 'arguments' (if they can be glorified as such' to pieces?

Alfonzo S. Tangerine of AL 5:16PM September 10, 2008

I have the same difficulty reviewing earlier comments because of page load errors which I assume are server-side and inadvertent. It would be nice to see them repaired so that readers could survey the entire scene of the disaster. There is, however, little reason to expect anything fresh.
Opinion pieces like Mr. Mashek's always find a sympathetic audience - otherwise someone else would be providing them, and to a very different audience.
What distinguishes Mr. Mashek and his sympathizers from the rest of us is their curious and clearly sincere inability even to conceive the possibility that maybe, just maybe they might be wrong about some of their notions, plans, proposals and prescriptions. It is this remarkable imperviousness to even so much as the theoretical possibility of error, however far-fetched and implausible, that has become their signature style.
Nor need such enthusiasts even go so far as to admit the potential for actual error on their own part. It would be sufficient progress were they willing to concede the legitimacy of differing points of view even when those points of view, in their opinion, are manifestly wrong. Do they not after all pride themselves upon their tolerance, their pluralism, their love of diversity, their progressive and enlightened cosmopolitan, indeed global broad-mindedness and sophistication? How comes it then that these qualities that they claim to possess and never cease to recommend to all are seldom or never in evidence in political disputes and commentary such as this?
That someone could disagree with them without necessarily being either wrong or evil or both is something these superior minds and elevated souls do not seem to believe possible. What makes them unintentional and unconscious comic figures is the highly selective manner in which their self-proclaimed virtues are manifested: they are tolerant, compassionate, inclusive and friends to diversity in every respect but one, namely when someone is foolish or ignorant or wicked enough to disagree with them about something too dear to them for dispute.
Columns like Mr. Mashek's show us that they don't get it and that in all likelihood they cannot get it. They are not therefore bad people - though in their irritable frustration about matters they cannot comprehend they often behave badly. They are simply so utterly certain that their views, values, analyses and interpretations are correct that they have no choice but to respond to dissent the way they do.
This mindset is not new in the history of humanity. True believers invariably are baffled by those who refuse to accept their beliefs, beliefs that for them are obvious and indisputable truths equivalent to established facts. Romans sought to reason with Christians before feeding them to the lions, just as Inquisitors sought to reason with heretics before burning them at the stake.

Teleologicus of GA 7:48AM September 10, 2008

Amazing that all day yesterday and still this morning I can't read all the comments to this amazing piece of drivel. It just never loads. And yet I can go over to the Barone piece and no problems at all. Wouldn't it be interesting to see how the majority of readers react to another Alice in Wonderland moment from the media.

E Warner of FL 6:40AM September 10, 2008