Always a timely question. While pondering it, you can also chew over his assessment of the Marty Peretz era. Amusingly, it closes with a quote from our very own Petey. It's also surprisingly favorable; in particular, Eric is very taken with Leon Wieseltier's back of the book.
« Somalia | Main | Picking Durant »
Why Does Eric Alterman Hate the Jews?
18 Jun 2007 01:05 pm
Comments (27)
Petey, you bloggers pet you.
I have to disagree with Petey's quote. I kept my TNR subscription through most of the Peretz era; I could always just ignore the Israel articles if I didn't want to read them (although if anyone thinks that Peretz is a newly-found racist they weren't reading his back-page "editorials" during the 90s). It was when Peretz's views on Israel started leaking into every single article in the magazine that I chose not to renew.
Now, I know the stalwart and intrepid pundits who contributed to TNR during those end times will tell me that this never happened; that they were far too independent to allow Peretz to affect their domestic policy articles for example. To which I can only say, you have my sympathies.
Cranky
So what does Eric think of Mort Zuckerman --billionaire owner of US News and World Report?
The guy who likes to go on "The McLaughlin Report" and smirk at Pat Buchanan.
Would it be right to think that the 'back of the book' is unaffected by Peretz-ism? I seem to recall some rather dodgy book reviews on Middle East themes.
Great piece. A lot of stuff I didn't know.
Interestingly enough, many years ago, when I was fresh into this country and not following American politics too closely, I said to a professor and some fellow students that I thought TNR was conservative. I had never read the magazine, I was just noticing its covers. The all assured me it was liberal.
A bit telling isn't it?
Way to ruin a magazine fellas.
By the way, that's a hell of an article.
When I grow up, I want to be a blog commenter quoted in a Prospect article.
Quotes like that are why I was named Time's man of the year.
I kowtow in awe, Petey.
In the future, you may sign your criticisms of my posts with the Emperor of China's directive:
"FEAR THIS -- and trembling obey!"
Yeah, TNR has gradually slid downhill as a magazine over the last 10-15 years, to the point that Petey's "good stuff" is the exception. There's certainly not a lot of it any more. IMO the Prospect and the Washington Monthly are both much better, more intelligent liberal policy mags.
Also Alterman's article is a little gem of intellectual history, that itself testifies to the hold TNR had during its glory days of the 80s when Alterman probably came of age. That self-styled contrarian "look, I dare to say conservative stuff!" act is badly out of date though. There was always less there to it than it seemed, as shown by how badly its acolytes have aged. Really, it was just a way of freeloading off some of the cultural energy of the reactionary backlash.
Has Alterman been taking a course in the bad metaphor school of writing? I liked the history in the article, but found the journo-glamor words bizarre - Partisan Review's "brittle pages"? Wieseltier working in the 'vines' of Harvard? Walter Winchell he is not.
Why Does Eric Alterman Hate the Jews?
Because, like all liberals, he is an ANTI SEMITE -- WORSE THAN HITLER !!!
Oh uh, all liberals except me, that is.
"Yeah, TNR has gradually slid downhill as a magazine over the last 10-15 years, to the point that Petey's "good stuff" is the exception. There's certainly not a lot of it any more."
I'd disagree with this. There is plenty of "good stuff" still in the magazine. The problem is that there is also lots of "bad stuff".
But among the "good stuff", folks like John Judis, Ryan Lizza, Jon Cohn, Jon Chait, Thomas Edsall, Frank Foer, and Peter Beinart are pretty much always worth reading.
... Peter Beinart, Petey? For reals?
"Peter Beinart, Petey? For reals?"
I don't always agree with Beinart, just as I don't always agree with Judis. But they're still pretty much always worth reading.
(Chait and Cohn are especially fun because I do always agree with them. It's nice to have a few pundits with papal infallibility.)
This, I think, brings up an important question. When is Petey getting a blog of his own?
Given your frequency of commenting here and at Ezra's place, I know you have time, and I know you have plenty to say. What gives?
you mean the "he wouldn't let us fly his scientists out of the country so we had to invade Iraq" Chait?
When is Petey getting a blog of his own?
I'd read it.
I have a confession to make.
The Spine has become a guilty pleasure for me. I just can't stop peaking in and reading his latest rant. It's always a good laugh. He seems to have no self awareness.
"That self-styled contrarian "look, I dare to say conservative stuff!" act is badly out of date though."
Unfortunately journalists/pundits of that generation are scarred for life with the virus. Just look at Mickey Kaus, Joe Klein.
Thankfully the new generation is free of the virus.
The cultural criticism pages at the back of the New Republic are good but I think they're overrated. The only great critic is James Wood (interestingly, Wood is also a major contributor to the London Review of Books, definitely not a politico-ideological cousin of the New Republican). The problem with the art/film/book, etc. criticism in the magazine is that it is hard to avoid a sense of the consistent ideological inflection of the critics. It's a fairly circumscribed filter, frankly, and all it takes is a work that touches somehow on their pet political/foreign affairs concerns, like the predictably venomous review a few months ago of My Name is Rachel Corrie, to realize that you can't have a truly open, objective exploration and dissection of art, writing and so on in that rag. I suggest the London Review of Books and even the New Yorker (Anthony Lane and Alex Ross are the reigning deities of the critics!) for a more worldly and nuanced understanding of our cultural products.
"Besides, who hates the Jews more than the Jew?"
Henry Miller
I miss the days when Marty would go postal on Edward Said.
dan - if you wait awhile, that episode may be reshown.
Comments closed July 02, 2007.
| 
Heads in the Sand
I'm thinking about starting a website called:
JamesWoodstopworkingforaracist.com
I figure we shame their most important writer into quitting, then it's curtains for that rag.
Full disclosure: I'm a hypocrite--I subscribe for the back of the book, but once my website takes flight, I'm going to cancel it.
Posted by david mizner | June 18, 2007 1:16 PM