The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Conor Friedersdorf: Now Turning the Atlantic into Media Matters Lite?

Posted on | April 4, 2011 | 21 Comments

When Andrew Sullivan jumped ship to The Daily Beast, Conor Friedersdorf stayed behind at the Atlantic, where today he devotes some 1,800 words to Why Rush Limbaugh Is Wrong About Libya. A few sample Conorisms:

His commentary has misled his audience, his prejudices have helped to distract the conservative movement from the stance it ought to be taking, and even his defenders will have a difficult time explaining away his latest buffoonery. . . .
Limbaugh is a man confident that his mistakes will drift off into the ether unnoticed. . . .
[T]he talk radio host isn’t guided in his commentary by any consistent principle, nor does he acknowledge obvious errors in analysis. Instead he blithely misinforms his audience about reality daily.

Well, Conor: Change the station, OK? Nobody is forcing you to listen to Limbaugh. Without attempting a detailed analysis of Rush Limbaugh’s various comments, I’ll say this: The greatest difficulty in criticizing Obama’s policy on Libya is in figuring out exactly what the policy is.

On the one hand, Obama tells us Qaddafi must go. On the other hand, Obama seems unwilling to commit sufficient military resources to drive Qaddafi out. So we are non-fighting a non-war under a U.N. “humanitarian” mandate, with the French leading a NATO coalition of air support for the half-assed Libyan rebels.

There’s something for everybody to hate: The neocon hawks think the policy is too weak. The constitutionalists are angry that Obama committed the U.S. to military action without even bothering to ask Congress. The peaceniks are angry that we’ve taken any military action at all. My main beef — borrowing an insight from Ace of Spades — is that America could “lose” a war we’re not even fighting.

In short, Obama’s policy is a huge joke, and trying to comment on it with a straight face is an enormous challenge. (Sully’s Libya headline today: “Stalemate Watch.”) If Limbaugh’s daily commentary on Libya has been somewhat contradictory — or perhaps just plain wrong at times — so what?

Like I said: If you don’t like it, change the station.

UPDATE: Via Twitter, Conor says: “‘Change the station’  could be a response to any criticism of any commentator.” Indeed, it could. But Rush Limbaugh built the world’s largest radio audience (think about that) as an independent syndicated host. He isn’t employed by a behemoth like NBC or the New York Times. There is no management who can fire him. His continued success depends solely upon his continued “Excellence in Broadcasting.”

An important point: I do not assume that the Limbaugh listener gets all his information from Limbaugh. If Limbaugh is wrong, therefore, his listeners are likely to figure that out for themselves. But Conor obviously thinks that Dittoheads are a bunch of morons who can’t think for themselves – ”mind-numbed robots,” t0 borrow Rush’s phrase — and so frets about Limbaugh’s influence.

Linked by That Mr. G. Guy — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!


Bookmark and Share
Category: Libya, Rush Limbaugh

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Another Quagmire, I tell you, another Quagmire.

  • Pingback: Conor Friedersdorf…Change The Station « That Mr. G Guy's Blog

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    Giggety.

  • http://twitter.com/oldrightblogger oldrightblogger

    There’s something for everybody to hate: The neocon hawks think the policy is too weak. The constitutionalists are angry that Obama committed the U.S. to military action without even bothering to ask Congress. The peaceniks are angry that we’ve taken any military action at all.

    Jebus. Ol’ Bambi got it coming and a going.

  • Anonymous

    My sympathy for the immature little shitweasel currently pretending to be pResident is extremely finite. The sooner he resigns to pursue his true calling, trading his body for cheap booze, the better off the country will be.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    The reason why Rush is popular and Conor isn’t is because Rush can articulate what many Americans are thinking and feeling.

    Conor.. Is a bit more difficult to follow..

  • Tlaloc

    “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
    -HL Mencken

  • Anonymous

    And Mencken died rich. Get it?

  • http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/ Anonymous

    There is a simple doctrine that covers what is going on in Libya that actually fits what is happening. It is The KTA Doctrine: Kill Them All.

    That is what we are down to with ‘rebels’ that dress like civilians, mercentaries and thugs from the regime that dress as civilians, and actual civilians dressing like civilians. When NATO announced that it will bomb ‘rebels’ attacking ‘civilians’ then you have to ask: how can you tell them apart? So no matter the verbiage on ‘humanitarian’ mission and such detritus, the actual doctrine and methodology has boiled down to the simplest, most brutal and most destructive imagineable. This is what happens when ‘smart soft power’ is deployed.

  • Anonymous

    This all reminds me of how tried to be a good soldier during the Bush administration, defending policies I knew went against the principles I held and saying to myself that the policies were necessary because the circumstances demanded pragmatism and expediency, and I knew what the alternatives were if the Republican party was out of power. Well, I guess the Republican party got what it deserved. The times demanded of the voters an expediency and pragmatism in getting rid of an incoherent administration and legislature and the party now in power is beating that very performance in spades. Now that party is glancing over at the wings looking out for the guy with the hook, while trying desperately to save the act while it still has the stage. Good luck with that.

  • Anonymous

    I’d just like to come out and say something because no one else is and I think it needs to be said. If the people are going to vote for reform governments only to see these governments harassed and threatened while the police stand by and allow thugs to have their way, perhaps the police are the first thing needing reform before going after everything else. Entire departments that are great threats to personal liberty can be eliminated at a stroke at the federal level, and the thing tying the police to the thugs, such as guaranteed pensions and double-dipping should be eliminated. If mobs show up to successfully cow legislatures into reversal when proposing these kind of policies, the folks will get a clue as to just what kind of country this is turning into.

  • Anonymous

    I tried to post a comment to Conor’s story but it was deleted immediately. I wanted to say that Conor looked at roughly 3 weeks worth Limbaugh shows (according to the dates of the links, 3/7 – 3/30) and took a series of 1-2 sentence blurbs. The contradictions he found were really small beer.

    To find his contradictions he had to bring in off hand remarks about bullying in schools and the like that Limbaugh related to Libya on the fly.

    Pulling in single sentences from a much larger context can be made to look anyway you want them. Context is everything. If you have to look through 60 hours of broadcast time to this type of small, 1 sentence contradictions you’re trying too hard.

    But my comment got the editorial axe. I’m guessing Conor, or the intern under his instruction, was sensitive to this type of criticism to his style of journalism.

    Although I didn’t related it to Media Matters, it does seem appropriate. They do have a history of the same type of dishonesty.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    When I turn the radio dial to listen to my favorite PBS station, my ears are assailed by the rantings of Rush Limbaugh. I don’t know what it is, but my hand quivers when I get to Rush’s show and I- can’t- seem- to- change- the- channel….

  • Dave Evers

    Don’t try to make sense of “Ready, Fire, Aim.” You’ll go mad.

  • Mark L.

    I agree that Conor Friedersdorf thinks Dittoheads are a bunch of morons who can’t think for themselves. But it is an obvious case of projection — assigning attributes to others that he sees in himself when he looks in the mirror. Bet he never starts writing a piece until after he has checked to see what today’s version of JournoList tells him what he is supposed to believe that day.

  • SC

    “Change the station”: An option I chose with respect to Sullivan quite some time ago. Friedersdorf? Feh.

  • Wking70477

    “The greatest difficulty in criticizing Obama’s policy on Libya is in figuring out exactly what the policy is.”

    Someone needs to get Charlie Gibson to opine. He seems to think he’s dialed in on such things.

  • Pingback: ‘Etch-a-Sketch’ Estimate of Libya War Costs: $40 Million Per Month? More? : The Other McCain

  • SVT

    I have an inflamed friedersdorf. Should I see a doctor?

  • SVT

    I have an inflamed friedersdorf. Should I see a doctor?

  • Pingback: In Defense of Conor Friedersdorf : The Other McCain

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE