{"id":957,"date":"2005-01-10T09:34:06","date_gmt":"2005-01-10T17:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/01\/catching_up_1\/"},"modified":"2005-01-10T09:34:06","modified_gmt":"2005-01-10T17:34:06","slug":"catching_up_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/01\/catching_up_1.html","title":{"rendered":"CATCHING UP"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the rush to leave 2004 behind, I never got around to posting the conclusion of a small debate
\nthat erupted about Bill Moyers. It began with a farewell to<\/FONT>
\nMoyers that praised him<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> — he was retiring from broadcast journalism — and
\ncontinued with reader Larry Lippman’s negative
\nresponse<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, which attacked Moyers for being sanctimonious and me for
\nadulating him, followed by Bill Osborne’s reflections on the power of the mass media to create the
\nworst of all worlds.
\n

<\/P>
\n

Lippman then messaged a response, which has not been posted. Here ‘tiz:<\/P>
\n


\n

As you know, Tom Shales in the Washington Post pointed out that a common
\nsin of the left is piety, and it could be applied to Bill Moyers, but that “it wasn’t much of a
\ncharacter flaw,” which is true in general, but not in a journalist.
\n

<\/P>
\n

Piety has a tendency not only to close the mind, but also closes off the possibility of serious
\ndiscussion or debate. “You are a fascist” tends to be a conversation stopper.<\/P>
\n

Unfortunately, this character flaw is often associated with a mental defect — the inability to
\nmake distinctions. If intelligence consists in the mind’s ability to both generalize and make
\ndistinctions the leftist mind is often half-brained.This mind has no problem in detecting similarities
\nand making generalizations from them, but it often has trouble noticing differences.<\/P>
\n

Bill Osborne is a good example of the leftist writer’s tendency to fuse piety with
\nhalf-brainedness — Nazis bad. Goebbels a Nazi. Both Limbaugh and Goebbels recognized the
\npower of radio to influence the political landscape.Therefore Limbaugh a dangerous incipient
\nNazi. No, I am not worried, and I am not moving to Canada.<\/P>
\n

Happy holidays and a wonderful New Year.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

I forwarded Lippman’s message to Osborne for his response. Here ‘tiz:<\/P>
\n


\n

I see what Larry is trying to say. Nazi is used as a sort of hippie epithet for
\nrednecks and the like, but I refer to German history for other reasons. After all, I have lived in
\nGermany for the last 25 years, and have written numerous articles about the culture, including one
\npublished by the MIT Press on how Hitler manipulated the symphony orchestra for propaganda
\npurposes. Germans and their history are a living reality for me. [Read the article.<\/FONT><\/A><\/B><\/A> — JH<\/B>]
\n

<\/P>
\n

Starting a war with false fears about WMDs is clearly fear mongering for political purposes.
\nIt led to the extreme of war. This fear mongering was taken up by rightwing radio. Using the
\nmedia this way has important historical correlations people should carefully consider.<\/P>
\n

I think it is a little superficial to try to discredit Moyers as pious. It sounds like Larry is being
\nmade a little uncomfortable by what he said. He can’t attack the substance, so he attacks a
\npresumed style. And that is to say nothing of the fact that the right’s political base is Christian
\nfundamentalists. What is more pious than a president who literally mimics the rhetorical style of
\nSouthern fundamentalists, and who wants to turn over many government programs to faith-based
\ninitiatives?
\n

Larry is overlooking a few things. I wish someone could find a way to help these folks see
\nhow they come off. Maybe they would would become a little more
\nmoderate.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the rush to leave 2004 behind, I never got around to posting the conclusion of a small debate that erupted about Bill Moyers. It began with a farewell to Moyers that praised him — he was retiring from broadcast journalism — and continued with reader Larry Lippman’s negative response, which attacked Moyers for being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-fr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}