Wow. New York Times Article About Charles Johnson Is Reasonably Accurate
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | 64 Comments
Unlike the fawning Los Angeles Times column that spoiled my breakfast in Burbank a couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Dee’s article takes time to examine the pivotal episode in the Little Green Footballs meltdown, the 2007 Brussels conference:
It seems borderline ridiculous that the political character of an extremist Belgian party, which in the last parliamentary election captured just 17 seats out of 150 in the Chamber of Representatives, should become the issue over which a kind of civil war among American conservatives broke out, but that is what happened. . . .
Johnson first hinted, and eventually demanded, that [Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer] publicly distance themselves from both Vlaams Belang and the conference itself, and when they demurred, he publicly distanced himself from them. . . .
Johnson broke off relations with blogs that claimed openly to owe their own existence to him. He called the syndicated columnist Diana West and the investigative reporter Richard Miniter fascist sympathizers. He threatened to take down Michelle Malkin. In some ways, it was an exploration of the limits of his own influence: all over the blogosphere, you were either with him or with the fascists. . . .
Read the rest, and remember that it was in October 2007 that Geller first stood up against Johnson’s bullying. It was not until November 2008 that I first spoke up in Geller’s defense, and September 2009 when Johnson came after me. If the two weeks when I did battle against LGF seemed to me to stretch out like an endless nightmare, think of what it was like for Geller and Spencer to endure it for months on end.
For far too long, then, Geller, Spencer and a handful of others were pretty much alone against the once-awesome might of Little Green Footballs, and a lot of other people ignored it because it wasn’t in their interest to get mixed up in someone else’s blog war. But there were larger issues at stake, and conservative bloggers would have been wiser to heed the alarm bell when it first rang.
At least Dee’s New York Times article doesn’t buy into Johnson’s self-serving claim of a road-to-Damascus awakening about global warming as the origin of his war on the Right. What happened to Charles was a lot more personal than climate change. His attacks on others were an externalization of his own inner demons — scapegoating and projection — and because he lacked the manhood to confront his failures, he couldn’t back down or admit the possibility of error.
Tuesday night on blogger’s row in Boston, Pamela Geller was seated between Karen Tumulty of Time magazine and Kerry Picket of the Washington Times. When the band played, and the balloons dropped and confetti filled the air . . .
Well, Charles Johnson wasn’t there. He was somewhere else, infinitely and miserably alone.
UPDATE: Graydon Carter hires Barrett Brown?
Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.
“Managed to get myself involved” = belatedly jumped on the dogpile after everyone else had become bored with the sordid mess at LGF.
Evidently Vanity Fair‘s editors decided that permitting that pretentious phony James Wolcott to befoul the blogosphere wasn’t enough, so now they’re grooming young Brown as a sort of junior varsity Wolcott.
Infinitely less interesting than VF‘s photos of Stephanie Seymour nude but, then again, isn’t everything?
(Graydon: Let Wolcott and Brown handle the boring-and-obnoxious-writing business. All I want is that photographing-nude-hotties gig.)
UPDATE II: Robert Spencer of JihadWatch reacts to the New York Times article but is strangely silent about Stephanie Seymour nude.
Comments
64 Responses to “Wow. New York Times Article About Charles Johnson Is Reasonably Accurate”
January 22nd, 2010 @ 11:34 pm
[…] Welcome, Instapundit readers! Feel free to browse around. Here’s a tempting combination: Little Green Footballs and Stephanie Seymour nude. (Don’t worry — Charles Johnson remains fully clothed.) var addthis_pub='smitty1e';var […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:45 am
I saw this over in the comment section..
Misery loves company, I guess.
They have his and hers ponytail bands now.
BTW, did this part get discussed already? Charles has a fiancee!
Congratulatutions Charles! Many best wishes to you both and all the happiness in the world!
January 22nd, 2010 @ 11:45 pm
I saw this over in the comment section..
Misery loves company, I guess.
They have his and hers ponytail bands now.
BTW, did this part get discussed already? Charles has a fiancee!
Congratulatutions Charles! Many best wishes to you both and all the happiness in the world!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:56 am
Charles has a fiancee!
The poor woman . . .
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:56 am
Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .
January 22nd, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
Charles has a fiancee!
The poor woman . . .
January 22nd, 2010 @ 11:56 pm
Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .
January 23rd, 2010 @ 5:30 am
Dunno how long it will last the way he keeps letting his hair clog up the drain.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:30 am
Dunno how long it will last the way he keeps letting his hair clog up the drain.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:50 am
The New York Times is banned from the internets.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 5:50 am
The New York Times is banned from the internets.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 6:03 am
I am particularly disappointed that Dee seems to take the word of a notoriously deranged loon like Pam “Smearnoff” Geller as a reliable source without so much as a glance at the crazy hall of mirrors that is her site.
Do NYT reporters actually use the web when reporting on it?
January 23rd, 2010 @ 1:03 am
I am particularly disappointed that Dee seems to take the word of a notoriously deranged loon like Pam “Smearnoff” Geller as a reliable source without so much as a glance at the crazy hall of mirrors that is her site.
Do NYT reporters actually use the web when reporting on it?
January 23rd, 2010 @ 1:46 am
[…] The Other McCain has more on the reasonably accurate article. Comments (1) […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 1:46 am
[…] The Other McCain has more on the reasonably accurate article. Comments (1) […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 7:41 am
dude… my pic of Stephanie Seymour was covered up by the ad for the Vanity Fair with Obama on the cover.. bait and switch!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 2:41 am
dude… my pic of Stephanie Seymour was covered up by the ad for the Vanity Fair with Obama on the cover.. bait and switch!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 8:00 am
ROFL. He misses the days of the “unslanted” Walter Cronkite?!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 3:00 am
ROFL. He misses the days of the “unslanted” Walter Cronkite?!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:50 am
You are all creationists!!!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 6:50 am
You are all creationists!!!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
“Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.”
Oh, and turning himself into an obnoxious troll over at Protein Wisdom, cherry-picking the comments section for responses to his trollsomeness for some book of his about the horrible awful no-good very bad conservative blogosphere.
“What a maroon!” B.Bunny, Esquire
January 23rd, 2010 @ 7:10 am
“Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.”
Oh, and turning himself into an obnoxious troll over at Protein Wisdom, cherry-picking the comments section for responses to his trollsomeness for some book of his about the horrible awful no-good very bad conservative blogosphere.
“What a maroon!” B.Bunny, Esquire
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:21 pm
Funny how the Times finds this as “news” now, considering that that the big war broke out about 8 months ago, and now most of us pretty much ignore that banning chump.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 7:21 am
Funny how the Times finds this as “news” now, considering that that the big war broke out about 8 months ago, and now most of us pretty much ignore that banning chump.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
Give the Times credit for pretty much just laying out the timeline the way it was. Normally, when you have someone who’s seen as being on the right move to the left, like Garry Willis, Kevin Phillips, David Gergen or David Brock, their come-to-Gaia moment is lionized by the Times and other liberal media outlets, which is what you see in the Vanity Fair piece on Johnson and LGF. Charlies probably expected both outlets to offer up similar treatment, so the Times story has to be about like getting your sock caught in the bicycle chain.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 7:41 am
Give the Times credit for pretty much just laying out the timeline the way it was. Normally, when you have someone who’s seen as being on the right move to the left, like Garry Willis, Kevin Phillips, David Gergen or David Brock, their come-to-Gaia moment is lionized by the Times and other liberal media outlets, which is what you see in the Vanity Fair piece on Johnson and LGF. Charlies probably expected both outlets to offer up similar treatment, so the Times story has to be about like getting your sock caught in the bicycle chain.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 1:03 pm
His wake up moment was to become an AGW hysteric. Hilarious. Climategate must have been hard on his over-sized ego. Charles Johnson possesses the rare skill of photographing fences and rails. He’s in a class of no greater than 308 million Americans.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 8:03 am
His wake up moment was to become an AGW hysteric. Hilarious. Climategate must have been hard on his over-sized ego. Charles Johnson possesses the rare skill of photographing fences and rails. He’s in a class of no greater than 308 million Americans.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 8:26 am
[…] covering the story. And as Stacy points out, Vanity Fair has apparently picked up internet Dexter-in-his-own-mind, Barre…. Just for the record, Barrett: I warned you about […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
LGF was once a daily read.
I’ve even deleted LGF bookmarks now.
Sounds to me like Charles crashed his bike on the Palos Verdes switchbacks and suffered a head trauma.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:42 am
LGF was once a daily read.
I’ve even deleted LGF bookmarks now.
Sounds to me like Charles crashed his bike on the Palos Verdes switchbacks and suffered a head trauma.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:55 am
[…] The Other McCain, Jihad Watch, QandO, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit and Tim […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:56 am
[…] […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:56 am
[…] The Other McCain, Jihad Watch, QandO, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit and Tim […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 10:37 am
[…] The Other McCain finds the NY Times article about Charles Johnson reasonably accurate. […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:02 pm
#7 Projection much Brute?
And your comment supports the articles bent.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:02 am
#7 Projection much Brute?
And your comment supports the articles bent.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
Ban people from LGF? How can that be? I only ban fascists and racists, not people who merely disagree with me. Of course if you disagree with me, you must be a fascist racist.
I will have revenge on Dee. Just like I will have revenge on that photographer who made my picture fat in the LA Times.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:11 am
Ban people from LGF? How can that be? I only ban fascists and racists, not people who merely disagree with me. Of course if you disagree with me, you must be a fascist racist.
I will have revenge on Dee. Just like I will have revenge on that photographer who made my picture fat in the LA Times.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:25 pm
I banned Patterico from LGF, but only because he asked me to. He said it gave him street cred.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:25 am
I banned Patterico from LGF, but only because he asked me to. He said it gave him street cred.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:29 pm
Right there with you Koblog. I deleted my bookmarks to LGF a long time ago when he started ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagreed with him, instead of addressing their arguments. About the same time I noticed many comments on the web noting that “Charles” had apparently lost his mind. Glad to see it wasn’t just me. It’s a pity because he used to have a very good website.
And now a plug for my favorite blogger/commentator, Bill Whittle rules!!! Sorry Stacy, you’re good, but Whittle is amazing. 🙂
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:29 am
Right there with you Koblog. I deleted my bookmarks to LGF a long time ago when he started ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagreed with him, instead of addressing their arguments. About the same time I noticed many comments on the web noting that “Charles” had apparently lost his mind. Glad to see it wasn’t just me. It’s a pity because he used to have a very good website.
And now a plug for my favorite blogger/commentator, Bill Whittle rules!!! Sorry Stacy, you’re good, but Whittle is amazing. 🙂
January 23rd, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
[…] now blogging about the New York Times profile of Charles Johnson. Rather than extend the previous post, I’ll collect the reactions in a new post. This aggregation will be extended and updated […]
January 23rd, 2010 @ 6:11 pm
That ‘road-to-Damascus’ a real nice touch, kudos!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 1:11 pm
That ‘road-to-Damascus’ a real nice touch, kudos!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 8:08 pm
Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .
Probably a woman, just of the blow-up type, as she will be less likely to post remarks critical of Charles on LGF.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 3:08 pm
Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .
Probably a woman, just of the blow-up type, as she will be less likely to post remarks critical of Charles on LGF.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
UPDATED — Kevin DuJan of Hill Buzz is NOT a racist and he needs our help…
The Daily Kos and Democratic Underground have outed Kevin DuJan as the owner of the blog, Hill Buzz. They are smearing him with the false charge that that he is a racist. They are urging their readers to destroy his career and attack him physically. (I…