Mediocre American Hypocrite
Pens weighty tome re great ones. Barnett at Weekly Standard reviews Glenn Greenwald’s right-bashing “Great American Hypocrites,” professes to like him, pronounces his book’s argument worthy of consideration, and goes on to enumerate point by point why it is a big fat piece of crap and a waste of time.
Never mind the unlikelihood that any effort to present a serious book entitled “Great American Hypocrites, entirely limited to one side of the aisle, could be anything but an exercise in hypocrisy. There is no indication in this review that it is in fact a serious book, or anything but a partisan bid for money and attention. You’re welcome, by the way, Glenn, for this bit of gratuitous attention. It’s my pleasure. However infantile the book is … quite, to judge by the review … the review itself is worth a read. Given Greenwald’s boundless self-admiration, I presume the cover has a big picture of the sockpuppet himself on it.
No, apparently it doesn’t. Astonishing. I would have thought the unself-conscious self-adoration would have trumped other artistic, marketing, humility, self-mockery concerns, etc.
You can admire Glenn and his curriculum vitae at the link, and also observe how busy he is going to be promoting himself and his latest great contribution to western civilization. It’s already got one, but for the second edition, here’s a suggested edit on the subtitle: Takes One to Know One.
Jonah Goldberg at The Corner, shrewdly wasting less time and space on this than I did, proclaims Greenwald “one of the most easily and profitably ignored voices in the blogosphere.” Considering the competition, that’s no insignificant accomplishment.
Karl at Protein Wisdom, showing off his Greenwald scholarship chops with the “Ellensburg, Ellers” references, cruelly observes more hypocrisy. Yeah. No kidding.
Ha! Greenwald critiques the review … A little unseemly. Bordering on, dare I say it, self-obsession. You know, Glenn, when you go out on tour and the reviews start flooding in, you’ll need to remember to take it like a man. You’re the author. They’re the critics. Have some dignity for gawdssake. Anyway, he’s already written the book, but apparently it was insufficient to make his case and he blogs a windy addendum, including a somewhat precious defense of the lameness of his heroes, blaming their shortcomings and failures on dastardly Republican political tactics.
It gets better. Greenwald will have his own wackpack.
Selected works from Crittenden’s body of prior Greenwald scholarship, with linked citations to some of the important work others have done in the study of Greenwald:
Lacking Even the Ethics of a Journalist
I’ve always appreciated this bit of Greenwald mockery, by the way. He thought it was funny in January 2007 when I wrote that Bush’s surge speech would “show us the way forward.” Never mind that it did. The great failure of Greenwald, the Democratic Party, etal, in 2007 was the inability to recognize that George Bush was in fact the president of the United States, and they weren’t.
Topics: moronocy, shameless opportunism, shameless self-promotion
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:33 am on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
4 Responses to “Mediocre American Hypocrite”
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April 16th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
The great failure of Greenwald, the Democratic Party, etal, in 2007 was the inability to recognize that George Bush was in fact the president of the United States, and they weren’t.
Say rather, that was the latest in a series of great failures. Because I don’t think they’ve learned that lesson just yet.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[...] In short: Barnett at Weekly Standard reviews Glenn Greenwald’s right-bashing “Great American Hypocrites,” professes to like him, pronounces his book’s argument worthy of consideration, and goes on to enumerate point by point why it is a big fat piece of crap and a waste of time. [...]
April 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Glenn Greenwald: True Hypocrite
It’s interesting that Glenn Greenwald takes down John Wayne in his new book. On occasion I stop by Wayne’s resting place, to sit under the tree by his headstone, and reflect aloud about life in the United States today. It’s peaceful there; and while…
April 16th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
All I get from Greenwald’s “critique” is a litany of “Boo hoo, the meanie Rethuglicans are being mean to my candidate!”