Re: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo)

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:03 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, this looks good; the assistant responded after just an hour. I'm going to try to sell him the Vanderbilt story.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ross Ramsey <rramsey@texastribune.org>
Date: Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo)
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Thanks for sending us the idea, but it's not suitable for the Tribune at this time. We're focussed on politics, government, and public policy -- you'll see when we roll out the website (texastribune.org) next Tuesday. I appreciate your interest and hope you'll keep us in mind in the future.

Ross Ramsey
Managing Editor
Texas Tribune
823 Congress Avenue, Suite 210
Austin, TX 78701

rramsey@texastribune.org

ofx: 512/716-8611
mob: 512-750-6235
fax: 512/716-8601

On 28 Oct 2009, at 7:03 PM, Barrett Brown wrote:

Mr. Ramsey-

I wanted to check in with you to see if Texas Tribune might be interested in a piece I'm about to write about a telling little piece of state history.

I'm a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Skeptic, and The Onion, and my work has appeared in dozens of other outlets, including several based in Texas. My first book, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, was released in 2007; my second, Hot, Fat, and Clouded, is scheduled for publication next year.

The article in question is an allegedly humorous examination of A Texan Looks at Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power, written by historian and cowman J. Evetts Haley. The book, which came out in 1964 and appears to have been something of a statewide success, covers much of Johnson's early career, obviously with a negative slant. The book itself is interesting for a number of reasons. It's packed with accounts of mid-20th century Texas corruption and written by an equally colorful fellow who ran for statewide office several times on a segregationist platform (indeed, he campaigned to redeploy the Texas Rangers as a means of enforcing the separation of the races). And Haley, though no doubt a fine historian when focused on the southwest, is laughable when dealing with anything beyond that - by the second paragraph of the preface, he has already asserted in passing that Julius Caesar was feared by the people and feared them in turn, when in fact he was so extraordinarily popular that he was appointed dictator several times, his assassins were in turn hunted down by mobs, and his adopted son was eventually made both an emperor and deity by virtue of that inherited popularity. Elsewhere, he sprinkles the book with observations of the following intellectual caliber: "History indicates that illegitimate power cannot afford to let rebellion grow and spread." And a portion of the book consists of complaints about people who have allegedly screwed him over on business deals.

Let me know if this interests you.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302