Klein Vs Greenwald: A Sock Puppet Unmasked

Not a major fan of Joe Klein, but it is glad to finally see someone with mainstream media cred begin to expose Salon's paid sock puppet Glenn Greenwald. I thought media outlets fired people guilty of that, as opposed to signing them up? But, I digress. Klein takes Greenwald to task for little more than his usual unsupportable tripe here. Unfortunately, Klein presumes Greenwald is genuinely knowledgeable about something because he wrote about it. Something most reasonable bloggers have learned to not do.

Klein: I don't understand this. Is he saying that people like Broder and Ron Brownstein and me shouldn't talk to people outside the Beltway?

Look, the blogospheric media critics have served a valuable function at times, and at other times it's just vitriol for vitriol's sake. I thought an essential part of the critique was that some of us are out of touch with reality...but now Greenwald is saying that any efforts to actually report what's going on outside the Beltway are bad, too?

The this Klein didn't get is that, Greenwald wasn't suggesting it's wrong for beltway journalists to get out and mix with the people, in one of his typical un-informed attacks, this one directed at David Broder, he simply pretended that the man's entire career doesn't exist. I gather he learned that from some alternative tabloid that blew across his towel on some beach in Brazil.

GG: I would be willing to wager that the vast majority of Beltway journalists agree with Edsall -- that Broder is a real, true, salt-of-the-earth representative "of the people." That's more or less what Joe Klein said recently in praise of Broder:

Klein: No, what I most like about Broder as a reporter is that he has taken pains over the years to talk at length with the sort of people who don't go to protests, and even to folks who don't go to political meetings in Iowa and New Hampshire. He'll actually go door to door, or convene a group of neighbors, to find out what's important to them.

GG: See, Broder knows how the "ordinary people" think because he leaves the Beltway and goes and studies them real up close like farm animals and then comes back to Washington and publishes his findings about the behavioral patterns of this odd species known as "the people."

Beltway journalists want to believe that Broder is "the voice of the people" because that means that they are, too.

Klein updates

Update: Here's Glenn Greenwald's response to my post. As I say above, Greenwald and I are in agreement on columnists who don't go out and report...but I'm wondering where the evidence is that when Broder goes out, he's only talking to people who worship at his shrine or agree with him?

I'll spare you the usual Greenwald tactic of responding by masking his ignorance with 5,000 words no one wants to, or will read and leave you with this utterly illogical graph from Greenwald that reveals exactly how illogical is Greenwald's reasoning, assuming he has any solid reasoning ability at all:

It ought to go without saying that I argued nothing of the kind. My point was that Beltway pundits are far too insulated and detached from the people whom they baselessly claim to represent, not that leaving the Beltway is bad. The fact that it is supposed to be some sort of commendable or distinguishing attribute that Broder goes on field trips to America in order to study how the "ordinary people" think -- ... -- illustrates that point.

Huh? It's that very Broder Greenwald attacked to start this off!

Mr. Klein, Glenn Greenwald doesn't like, and I suspect very much envies Broder and other Inside the Beltway pundits who actually worked a long time to get where they are. So, he's simply lashing out in his usual adolescent fashion, sure to get him big pats on the back from his foaming at the mouth over everything regular readers. Please don't attempt to confuse the boy with the truth, or expect any supporting facts. Those aren't his stock in trade, and this only serves to explain why those who engage in sock puppetry should probably be fired and not hired in the first place. If you ever really figured out what they were up to, you'd know you couldn't trust them at all.

Comments

[ec1009]

How to lie with elipses - Lesson one

Dan quotes "The fact that it is supposed to be some sort of commendable or distinguishing attribute that Broder goes on field trips to America in order to study how the "ordinary people" think -- ... -- illustrates that point."

Greenwald says
"The fact that it is supposed to be some sort of commendable or distinguishing attribute that Broder goes on field trips to America in order to study how the "ordinary people" think -- much the way a zoologist travels to the jungle to observe the behavior of different species -- illustrates that point."

[ec1009]

Anyone care to comment?

Yeah, I'll comment. The name is "Dan," use it but dont' wear it out. I shortened it because it changes nothing. GG attacked Broder for "not" being of the people - his characterization of Broder's interaction with the poeple has no point, it refutes his original argument - that Broder and others have none.