I was delighted to see that Charlies Johnson has nominated the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for the second annual Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year (aka the "Fiskie"). The first Fiskie was awarded last January to Jimmy Carter.
The world has no shortage of deserving Idiotarians, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is especially noteworthy. Not knowing any better, I signed up for a subscription to the P-I when I moved here in May. The main op-ed in my first issue was by ... Robert Fisk! That was an auspicious omen.
It didn't take me long to switch to the Seattle Times, which has its faults and biases, but is at least a credible newspaper. Although I won't give the P-I any more of my money, it continues to supply plenty of easy fodder for the blog (click here to see a listing of my entries about the P-I). A recap of some of the P-I's recent contributions to Idiotarianism:
1) An editorial equating bulldozer shahida Rachel Corrie with the Americans who were murdered by the suicide bomber at the Hebrew University last summer.
2) An editorial that claimed that
The constitutional standard for warfare is for the United States to face a "clear and present danger."The P-I refused to retract this astonishing fabrication.
3) An editorial that both equated flag-burner Rachel Corrie with Pfc. Jessica Lynch, and also made the unfounded claim that "photographic evidence" contradicted Israel's conclusion that Corrie's death was an accident. The P-I refused to retract their fantasy about the photographic evidence.
4) Last Monday (August 18), the day before the UN's Baghdad headquarters were bombed, the P-I published an editorial with the headline: "Time is Right for UN Role in Iraq".
While the competition for the next Fiskie will be fierce, I will take it upon myself to champion the P-I for this honor. The impending dissolution of its JOA with the Seattle Times could cause the P-I to go out of business. May it survive only long enough to receive a Fiskie.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 27, 2003 07:00 AMSharkman I was the LGFer who forwarded your piece the other day about the Seattle P-I to Charles Johnson. I hope that you don't mind.
Posted by: Joel on August 27, 2003 06:05 AMWhat? No mention of this idiocy?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/136294_firstperson25.html
Posted by: jimg on August 27, 2003 10:31 AMjimg I read the article What a crock of shit. High tech peopel tend to be cosnervative rather then libearl. Liberals flousrish in fields such as the arts, theater, etc. because that is not taxin gon the brain. As far as the cities goes that he mentions, he fails to say that businesses are leaving thsoe cities in droves due to ridiculouly liberal soical and economic policies there that are anti business.
Posted by: Joel on August 27, 2003 11:08 AMI know Joel, and you just touched on a couple of things.
The piece was wrong on so many levels, it's hardly worth reading ... except to realize just how sanctimonious and arrogant many liberals really are.
Sorry for the previous misspellings. Also liberals are by nature anti business and anti capitalism. It takes brains to build up a business, liberals prefer communes such as Seattle, San Francisco Bay area and Vermont. Since liberalism frowns upon rewarding individual initiative, most liberals prefer studying subjects such as theater, sociology, philosophy, etc. which are a lot easier then economics, finance, biology.
Posted by: Joel on August 27, 2003 06:57 PM"Since liberalism frowns upon rewarding individual initiative, most liberals prefer studying subjects such as theater, sociology, philosophy, etc. which are a lot easier then economics, finance, biology."
...or (gasp) working for a living.
Posted by: jimg on August 28, 2003 09:39 AM