Re: Marty
Subject: Re: Marty
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 8/4/09, 22:56
To: Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com>

Howdy, Spencer-

Thanks again for your help thus far.

Would you be willing to provide me with your general thoughts on The New Republic  for use in the chapter in question?

If so, let me first give you a little more info on the book. It consists of attacks on the more well-regarded and "serious" of mainstream columnists, including Thomas Friedman, Richard Cohen, Charles Krauthammer, Ruben Navarrette (though not exceedingly famous, his stuff is so bad I pretty much have to use it), David Broder, and a couple of others. The chapter on TNR will be different in two ways - it is, of course, about an institution rather than an individual, and it's a publication that is, on the whole, one of the best in the country. As I mentioned, I subscribed from about 2003-2007, and I was struck by its intellectual honesty; it was the mirror opposite of National Review insomuch as that it would criticize nonsense on the part of Democrats when necessary (the weekly Dem primary round-up box section towards the front was particularly impressive). But these weren't the sort of vapid criticisms that wannabe centrists (Cohen comes to mind) make just to be all reasonable and centrist and keen. Alternatively, when NR criticized, say, McCain during the 2008 GOP primary, it was generally for things like flip-flopping for which they gave Romney a blatant pass - overall, their criticisms were not made out a sense of fairness, but rather out of tactical expediency.

So I'm covering the shortcomings of TNR not because it is among the worst of political journals, but because it is among the best of them, which makes its flaws (Peretz, Siegel when he's talking about himself or the people who write mean things about him, James Kirchick on too many occasions) more tragic as well as indicative of the structural problems found within the realm of "serious" policy/political analysis.

From you, then, I'm not necessarily looking for criticism of TNR or Peretz or anyone else, but rather your thoughts on the virtues of the publication with criticism only to the extent that you feel like voicing any. I'll probably have one or two more specific questions for you within the next few weeks, but for now, would you be up for giving me a paragraph or two (or longer if you're inclined) on why you feel TNR is important, plus whatever else you might think bears mentioning about the publication and its relation to the policy/opinion industry of this country?

Incidentally, I'll also be doing a very much abridged version of the chapter as an article, possibly for VF, and might want to use a portion of any quotes you give me for that as well. I would let you see both before publication to ensure that you are satisfied with context.

Please let me know if this interests you or if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302


On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 9:37 PM, Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com> wrote:
Hmm. I'll think about old Marty pieces. He wrote a lot of crazy shit. Anything you can find of him in Nexis that references Elie Kedourie is most likely going to be a prelude to a rant about how Sunni Iraqis are savages or lack "civilization." The best thing that ever happened to TNR was the loss of their 2000-2007 web archive.

Never had any idea about how ad sales work. Sorry about that.

Best,
Spencer


On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 9:02 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Howdy-

I figured you probably wouldn't want to insult Marty at this point and particularly not in public. Basically, I'm planning on doing a chapter on him as one example of what's wrong with the centrist, allegedly serious media. The bulk of the stuff I'll be making fun of him for comes from his TNR blog. I recently read every single Spine entry over the period of two days, and it actually kind of fucked me up.

I think I'll probably have a couple of general background questions about Peretz for you at some point in the next few months, but at the moment I wanted to see if you knew to what extent he was responsible for ad buys at TNR. I ask because of the full-page FLAME adverts they used to run; one of them made reference to "murderous Arabs." Also, if you happen to remember any particularly egregious things that he may have written back in the day, please let me know.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302


On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 11:53 AM, Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com> wrote:
Hey Barrett,

I'm happy to help, although I should say that I'm kind of reluctant to wade back into publicly going after Marty. From my perspective he's a pathetic, irrelevant self-parody, so I don't really want to stoop to his level in print. But again, I'm happy to help you if you'd like to chat.

Best,

Spenc
--
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Reporter
The Washington Independent
202. 387. 3670 x230 office
202. 294. 9523 mobile
GoogleChat: spencerackerman
Skype: spencer.ackerman
AIM: ackermanspencer




--
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Reporter
The Washington Independent
202. 387. 3670 x230 office
202. 294. 9523 mobile
GoogleChat: spencerackerman
Skype: spencer.ackerman
AIM: ackermanspencer