The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
AP: Novelist Anne Rice says she's leaving Christianity
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on August 11, 2010, 01:02:39 pm ---apparently, he has received journalism awards and is a member of a professional journalism society.
--- End quote ---
Oh, now you're just hair-splitting. The Pulitzer Prize also has categories for fiction, drama, poetry and music. Does that make novelists, playwrights, poets and composers also journalists? And yes, Pitts apparently wrote some straight journalism years ago -- mostly, it seems from his bio, musicians' profiles.
But he's not writing musicians' profiles now. Now he is a commentator. Writing opinion pieces. That's his current job.
Criticizing opinion pieces for failing to be straight journalism, then pointing to the fact that the writer was a journalist at some earlier point in his career as evidence that he should still be doing that, is a lame stretch. You might as well hold up Tina Fey's SNL impersonation as an example of journalism's distortions of Sarah Palin. Oh wait, you did that, too.
For someone who is constantly denigrating the so-called "dinosaur media" you sure come up short on examples of its actual failings.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: Marge_Innavera on August 11, 2010, 01:12:10 pm ---How about naming some of his specific statements that you'd object to?
For people who'd rather go straight to the source, here's a source for Mr. Pitts' columns:
http://www.leonardpittsjr.com/recent_columns.html
and
http://www.leonardpittsjr.com/everything-else.html
--- End quote ---
I did above, but here it is again.
"The word "Republican" does not appear in the book(Gospels?).
Not once.
Yet somehow in the last 30 years, people of
faith were hustled and hoodwinked into
regarding the GOP platform as a lost gospel.
Somehow, low taxes for the wealthy and
deregulation of industry became the very
message of Christ. Somehow, hostility to
science, gays, Muslims and immigrants
became the very meaning of faith. And
somehow Christianity became -- or at least,
came to seem -- a wholly owned subsidiary
of the Republican Party.
Consider that, after the election of 2004, a
church in North Carolina made news for
kicking out nine congregants because they
committed the un-Christian act of ... voting
for Democrat John Kerry.
Who can blame people for saying, "If that's
faith, count me out?" Has atheism
ever had a better salesman than Jerry Falwell, who
blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on the ACLU --
or Pat Robertson, who laid Haiti's earthquake
off on an ancient curse?
a shriveled faith that marginalizes and
demeans?"
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on August 11, 2010, 01:25:18 pm ---You might as well hold up Tina Fey's SNL impersonation as an example of journalism's distortions of Sarah Palin. Oh wait, you did that, too.
For someone who is constantly denigrating the so-called "dinosaur media" you sure come up short on examples of its actual failings.
--- End quote ---
no, no, no, no - I said at the time, and later, that the "Fey" ;D episode was an example of popular culture in lockstep with the Dinosaur Media.
why, I have written reams about the bias and actual partisanship of the Dinosaurs.
If you choose to think of Pitts as a non journalist commentator - like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter, OK fine by me, I will join you in judging him by a different standard.
but, if he is no longer a journalist, then he needs to leave all those Professional Journalist societies he belongs to.
Pitts is not a journalist - so let it be written , so let it be done! :)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on August 11, 2010, 01:43:52 pm ---I did above, but here it is again.
--- End quote ---
I think she's asking you to name actual objections, because the passage you have twice quoted contains nothing that all that objectionable. No lies. No name-calling. Partisan, sure, but as we've established ad nauseum, that's his job. The worst I see here are a couple of bits of writerly exaggeration that aren't factual but aren't really unusual in an op-ed piece. Please don't make me start mining Glenn, Rush and Ann for far, far more egregious examples. There are whole websites devoted to the verbal atrocities of those guys, and I really don't feel like wading into that ... muck ... right now.
To annotate:
--- Quote ---"The word "Republican" does not appear in the book(Gospels?).
Not once.
--- End quote ---
Fact, AFAIK.
--- Quote ---Yet somehow in the last 30 years, people of
faith were hustled and hoodwinked into
regarding the GOP platform as a lost gospel.
--- End quote ---
Arguably exaggerated but valid opinion, based on large overlap between religious and political conservatives, and use of one as basis for the other.
--- Quote ---Somehow, low taxes for the wealthy and
deregulation of industry became the very
message of Christ.
--- End quote ---
Hyperbole.
--- Quote ---Somehow, hostility to
science, gays, Muslims and immigrants
became the very meaning of faith.
--- End quote ---
The first three, simple fact. Christianity has been used as a basis for arguments against teaching science in schools, gay rights and Islam. The fourth is possibly less defensible unless he's thinking of something I'm not.
--- Quote ---And somehow Christianity became -- or at least,
came to seem -- a wholly owned subsidiary
of the Republican Party.
--- End quote ---
Hyperbole, but the "came to seem" qualifies it.
--- Quote ---Consider that, after the election of 2004, a
church in North Carolina made news for
kicking out nine congregants because they
committed the un-Christian act of ... voting
for Democrat John Kerry.
--- End quote ---
Not familiar with this incident, but it sounds verifiable.
--- Quote ---Who can blame people for saying, "If that's
faith, count me out?"
--- End quote ---
Valid opinion.
--- Quote --- Has atheism
ever had a better salesman than Jerry Falwell, who
blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on the ACLU --
or Pat Robertson, who laid Haiti's earthquake
off on an ancient curse?
--- End quote ---
Valid opinion based on simple facts.
--- Quote ---a shriveled faith that marginalizes and
demeans?"
--- End quote ---
Valid opinion.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on August 11, 2010, 01:51:37 pm ---no, no, no, no - I said at the time, and later, that the "Fey" ;D episode was an example of popular culture in lockstep with the Dinosaur Media.
--- End quote ---
As I said at the time and later, blaming journalism for an SNL skit is just plain silly.
--- Quote ---If you choose to think of Pitts as a non journalist commentator - like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter, OK fine by me, I will join you in judging him by a different standard.
--- End quote ---
Didn't I say almost this very thing in my first post on this subject?
--- Quote from: serious crayons on August 06, 2010, 03:05:58 pm ---Of course Leonard Pitts is biased, just as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow are biased.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---but, if he is no longer a journalist, then he needs to leave all those Professional Journalist societies he belongs to.
--- End quote ---
OK, I'll be sure to tell him to do that. :)
--- Quote ---Pitts is not a journalist - so let it be written , so let it be done! :)
--- End quote ---
Whew! Finally we can agree that the sky is blue.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version