I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
frist!
The journalist covering the Gore campaign went on to become the fashion critic.
So, in just what way is the NYT a representation of "The Liberal Media"? We can find good examples like Krugman (of whom I approve), but on balance they aren't doing progressivism enough good as counter-weight to Faux, the WT, etc.
Can't Connect With Database...
Uh, I mean Frist!
The campaign critic-to-food critic point is well taken—I'd just add that there's a class issue here, too. The sort of person comfortable rating fine dining experiences in New York is a world removed, by education and experience and allegiance, from the concerns of the masses of Americans who vote (and don't vote) for President. It's rare to find a critique of media bias based on the notion of class bias, but that's clearly something indicated here.
Will Bruni be allowed to use cutlery?
"This is damn good turkee!"
"The Texas Souffle was magnificent!"
"When I got the bill, it was filled with fuzzy math."
"I highly recommend this place, none of the gay wait staff are married."
"The brown skinned busboy was especially subservient."
"The Freedom Fries were crispy, not a drop of grease."
Maybe Frank could cover both by doing a piece on "Cafeteria Catholics"?
Yeah, it's kind of funny how, given all the things we did learn about Bush from our press in the 2000 campaign -- his fondness for making up nicknames, how regular a guy he was, how popular he was in Texas, how bipartisan he was -- Bruni and others failed to pick up on some other equally important things.
Like how comfortable he was with lying and deception, how eager he was to engage in smear campaigns, how incompetent he was at management and policy, how incapable he was at admitting his mistakes.
I'm SO glad we have our media around to probe, describe, and analyze our candidates for us. How else we would ever figure out whom to choose, all on our own?
Cheney_USA,
Sorry...broke up a great riff.
"The maitre 'd, George Tenet, showed me to the best table in the place."
"Judith Miller's services under the table were four-star.
The class-based "critique of media bias" is something you hear from Fox. Of course, like everything else from that propaganda outlet, it's a faux adherence to class - Bill O'Reilly thinks he has the common touch, when he's really just a blowhard, and a few blowhards are also by happenstance working class.
The Seattle P.I.'s food critic is the retired Sports Editor. He's a fine writer, knows food and reviews places all over the class scale. I have to disagree with our host on this matter in principle, but I think he's right in this instance.
"Do not order the Daily Bait 'n Switch Special, it sounds delicious but always is disappointing and costs more than what the waiter quotes you."
Hors de' Vours, bitch!
.
FOR THE LAST TIME -- THE NEW YORK TIMES IS NOT A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER ! !!!!!!
IT'S CENTER-RIGHT FISHWRAP TURNED HARD-RIGHT FISHWRAP!!!!
And management would like nothing better than for Paul Krugman to end up like Jeff Schmalz.
When Bush and company have to finally eat crow, I wonder what Bruni will tell us about the feast...
"This establishment specializes, not in the faddish Low Carb diet, but in the High Crap diet. I LOVED IT! I ate it up!"
Is there any real evidence for Judith Miller sleeping with her sources?
Honestly, it's an insult to the food critic profession. Compare it to other professional food critics who slaved for years in cooking school and are knowledgeable on a level beyond being a consumer.
I hope Kerry doesn't win.
I so want Bush to be allowed to destroy America.
He's doing such a great job of it now.
Please allow him to finish.
You're doing your part by harping on inanity, Atrios.
Thanks.
Keep up the work!
That said, if it were Johnny Apple, I'd have had no quarrel. That's a man who knows his food, and writes about it well.
As another example, Randy Cohen, billed in the Times Magazine as "The Ethicist", came to that job with no special background in ethics. He is a journalist.
(On the other hand, it's well known that being a journalist requires an extremely high level of ethical integrity.)
Now even their damned RESTAURANT reviews aren't trustworthy? Dammit!
I'd rather have the wine critic covering politics. "Kerry's foreign policy has a very robust body with just a slight sweet aftertaste. Sure to please everyone at the table."
"By contrast the dry acid of Bush's stale rhetoric had everyone rushing to cleanse their palate"
(use patrician stentor with a slight French accent for best results)
Don't forget the cheese!
"(On the other hand, it's well known that being a journalist requires an extremely high level of ethical integrity.)"
ROTFLMFAO
OT, via Suburban Guerilla
Instant Hummer Karma in SF
Bruni as food critic? What will he say about the two tons of pretzels I'm shipping to the White House?
Coming soon to a paper near you...the weekend Religion section layout editor becomes chief science correspondent...
"Is there any real evidence for Judith Miller sleeping with her sources?"
This Weapon of Mass Destruction fell out of her purse.
Well, I've heard people critique Frank Rich of the Times, saying what does a Theatre Critic know about current events.
[NPR Commentator Daniel Schorr]
And then too, there's Scott Rosenberg over at Salon: former Theatre Critic now doing geek and current events commentary and editing Salon.
So it's not clear to me that the specialities should have no crossover. It's more a question of the individual's intelligence and experience.
OT
THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY
HA HA HA
THIS IS SO FUNNY, WE COULD SHUTTLE IX/XI WIDOWS TO THIS FUCKER'S FRONT LAWN
"
Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that his wife often needles him about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden - often just after they wake up.
"When I walk out of the bedroom in the morning, my wife frequently rolls over and says, 'Where's UBL?'" he said, referring to the spelling "Usama".
"
Ready-to-die centrists, get cynical: law and order, to include the safety and security of the United States, do not matter to these people. We would expect Bush playing around like this ("bring 'em on"), but this is Rumsfeld joking about Osama.
So more of us will die for their callousness. Analysis should begin there, not "what we might be doing not quite as effectively as we could."
Actually, few food critics are actual cooks. Most are writers first. It's a lot easier to find a writer who understands food, rather than a cook who can write.
I still think Atrios is missing my point. This isn't just a promotion, but a reward. It will put money in his pocket and get him on TV. It's like hitting the Times reporting lotto.
Also, I would bet Bruni will spend more time eating in Flushing than the fine restaurants of midtown. The emphasis at most of the papers, not just the Times, is in mid-range restaurants, not upscale ones. So it's more likely to be someone eating in Park Slope and Astoria than high french cuisine.
So it's far less class based than you think.
Those of you (like me) who been having trouble viewing the Farenheit 9/11 trailer at the official site will be very pleased to know (like I was) that you can watch it at Apple's Quick Time siteright here.
1. Randy Cohen was never a journalist prior to the NYT gig. He was a comedy writer for Letterman, and helped craft the Rosie O'Donnell Show.
2. Steve, one thing about restaurant critics is that you don't appear on tv. They try to keep their anonymity -- which, in Bruni's case will be tough since he's already been photographed, but he won't be attracting unnecessary attention.
3. A food critic's life is not easy. Imagine having to go out every single night for dinner, largely being away from your family. And then you've got to exercise constantly to not pork out.
Sheikh, that was pretty fucking funny.
Nothing in the world is as satisfying to me as the sight of some asshole who's just cut me off, getting pulled over by the highway patrol, because I know where they hide and he doesn't. Heh. That was just as good.
Have you seen FUH2.com? S'good stuff.
A.
I've just been reading the NYT food section. Gee. Bad advice on how to freeze stuff (9/10 ways to get sick by not doing it right - but the Times -said- so), one of the writers discovered a joint that sells something new called "Sushi" and somebody else explains what to do with rhubarb.
Certainly perks up my day to know the NYT is as au courant with the foodies as they are au fait with the politicos.
Has everyone forgotten about A.J. Liebling? A great food writer and reporter, who wrote one of the greatest campaign books ever, "The Earl of Louisiana". A brilliant critic of the press, as well.
Gods, k&y, you're hot today. I was about to post that BBC article about Rumsfeld and his wife... clearly you and I share a sense of humour.
... it's like re-assigning pedophile priests.......
OMG, Sheikh Yerbouti, that's one hell of a story. Thanks!
To be fair, I think we all have skills and interests that we don't use at our current jobs. Just because a man can fill both positions doen't mean that they're the same discipline, or that he's treating them like they are.
Just sayin'
Rob
To be fair, I think we all have skills and interests that we don't use at our current jobs. Just because a man can fill both positions doen't mean that they're the same discipline, or that he's treating them like they are.
Just sayin'
Rob
Wow, what a soul-satisfying boobie symphony! Thanks woot!
do you want lies with that burger.
That's exactly what I thought Atrios was saying the first time--political correspondant, food critic, arts and crafts columnist...basically all the same, right?
As Adam mentioned, Johnny Apple covered campaign politics back in the '92 race and eventually he became a travel/food critic. So, it happens to the best and most colorful wrtiers at the Times.
Apple did write a few filings from either Iowa or New Hampshire on the Democratic brouhaha earlier this year. That was surprising but refreshing to read his take on it.
So, to dog Bruni or the Times for his Bruni's new gig has to be put into the context of precendents. It has happened before.
Not that I'm defending the SCLM's free ride for Bush. I ain't doing that.
I might not know much about fine dining, but I sure like to eat Republican cock, drink Republican come, and slurp Republican asshole! Yum!
In modern politics, just as in fine dining -- presentation is everything.
Frank Bruni probably kept hearing the word's "Eat Shit and Die!!" so many times being thrown at him that it probably convinced him that eating is his specialty?
Next thing we know he'll be stuck writing obituaries as the next step in the process.
MYOB'
.
To be fair, I think we all have skills and interests that we don't use at our current jobs. Just because a man can fill both positions doen't mean that they're the same discipline, or that he's treating them like they are.
Just sayin'
Rob
I knew what you were saying first time around, At-man.
Bruni is a man of taste and refinement, just the kind of man to invite to your next dinner party if you're also inviting diplomats and trust-fund kool kids.
Meantime, most of America is checking each and every pocket to see if there is spare change somewhere for an extra meal out at a fast food joint.
Bruni, essentially, is a dandy -- when what we need in journalism is a Mark Twain or two.
Thea-thanks, we try. And then we give up and spin around in office chairs until our heads hurt. Because we are by then knocking them together. But we digress. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Alessandra Stanley went from foreign correspondent to TV critic.
There's a certain appropriateness to the change in jobs. Per Daily Howler, Margaret Carlson explained in her book why W got such better press coverage than Gore: the food on his plane! "There were Dove bars and designer water on demand, and a bathroom stocked like Martha Stewart’s guest suite. Dinner at seven featured lobster ravioli."
Love to see Dubya in the kind of suite Martha appears to be facing!
I'd rather have the wine critic covering politics. "Kerry's foreign policy has a very robust body with just a slight sweet aftertaste. Sure to please everyone at the table."
"By contrast the dry acid of Bush's stale rhetoric had everyone rushing to cleanse their palate"
(use patrician stentor with a slight French accent for best results)
mikeysez"
Would he perhaps sound like Christopher Walkens' SNL Continental?
... it's like re-assigning pedophile priests.......
cdj | Email | Homepage | 06.04.04 - 5:38 pm | #
This nails it.
Perhaps I don't know how these things are done, but aren't food critics supposed to be recruited from the ranks of the unphotographed, so that the restaurant in question doesn't know that it is being evaluated? Every food joint in Manhattan is going to have a photo of Bruni's ugly mug in the kitchen:
http://www.dreamofitaly.com/
imag...uni_article.jpg
Bruni's love letters to Bush balanced by Kit Seelye's lies about Al Gore.
Huh? What do you mean by "balanced," Atrios? That was as balanced toward Gore as two 100 lb weights on Bush's side of the teeter-tooter and zero lbs on Gore's side! But, hell, I knew what you meant.
And, yes, I agree that 2004 is shaping up the same way. When the press gets used to fellating the Rethug candidates, you know they can't just stop. Otherwise, people might actually start paying attention to what they're saying and about whom they're saying it.
Allow me to interject what may be a unique perspective here.
I was the political correspondent for a suburban Philadelphia daily in the early 1980s. I covered a congressional race in 1982 that drew a lot of national attention as a potential referendum on the Reagan revolution because a Democrat who was unseated in the 1980 Reagan landslide was attempting to regain his seat. In the course of that campaign I met and interviewed Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Jack Kemp, Julian Bond and a host of other national political figures. I found myself rubbing elbows with top political reporters from the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, CBS, McNeil-Lehrer, etc. They struck me for the most part as hard-working people with a real sense of integrity and reponsibility. Nobody looked down their nose at me as the local yokel.
A few years later, I moved to Kansas City and spent seven years as the restaurant critic for the KC Star.
The point is, a journalist is a generalist. Those who take the job seriously and have a sense of responsibility immerse themselves in the subject, learn everything they can, hold tight to their humility, never forget that their capacity to be wrong is limitless, and work like hell to overcome that capacity for wrongness to the best of their ability. You do that whether you write about restaurants, presidential politics or the local sewer and water authority. Despite all the criticism of the Beltway Heathers I read here, on Kos and elsewhere, it has been my experience that most of the journalists I have encountered as competitors or coworkers have strived to meet that standard. I will hasten to add that most did not work in either Washington or New York.
Whether Frank Bruni has tried to meet that standard, or whether he believes he is above it, only he can look into himself and answer. The evidence one sees from the outside doesn't lend itself to that interpretation.
One more point: I met a NY Times food writer once in Kansas City. She was attending a major national culinary conference here. I walked up to her during a break to introduce myself, and stood there waiting patiently for about 10 minutes while she finished a conversation. I stepped up and introduced myself. "Hello," she said coldly, then turned on her heel and strode briskly away. She was the only one who ever gave me the "local yokel" treatment. Maybe it's something that comes with the Times paycheck. Maybe it's the Times that made Howard Raines an insufferable a****le and not the other way around.
JMart
Make that HOWELL Raines, not Howard.
See -- some of us DO try to get it right and clean up the messes we leave.
"Is there any real evidence for Judith Miller sleeping with her sources?"
See Steve Gilliard's blog a few days back. Miller was well known for sleeping with Les Aspin, then reporting scoops that had to come from him. I guess she's repeated the pattern.
Yeah, well. I find it rather troubling that Dan Akroyd owns the House of Blues.
But who from the Times riding shotgun on the Big Bush Bus O' Lies this time?
Definitely not a demotion. You get to eat $300 meals every night. Also, status-wise it's one of the most coveted jobs in newspapering. The most prestigious paper in the food capital of the world.
A friend of mine here in Wash DC used to go to restaurants and say he was a friend of Phillis Richman's, when she was covering the restaurant scene for Wash Post. He used to get the best service.
The point's a good one, despite the fact that a restaraunt critic with a PhD in philoosphy wrote one of the best books of media criticism ever--*Good News, Bad News* by Jeremy Iggers, restaraunt critic of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Exceptions prove [show the limits of] the rule.
"Is there any real evidence for Judith Miller sleeping with her sources?"
See Steve Gilliard's blog a few days back. Miller was well known for sleeping with Les Aspin, then reporting scoops that had to come from him. I guess she's repeated the pattern.
Judith actually lived with Les Aspin, so that is nothing. The rumor is she slept with most of her sources; that's her way of cultivating sources. She lived in middle east for long time and i think she slept with most of the big wigs there. I wish I were one of her sources.
Allow me to interject what may be a unique perspective here.
I was the political correspondent for a suburban Philadelphia daily in the early 1980s. I covered a congressional race in 1982 ...
(snip)
A few years later, I moved to Kansas City and spent seven years as the restaurant critic for the KC Star.
i
Jmart- Yes, politics and food mix.
Calvin Trillin, a great humorist that writes for New Yorker and the Nation is a great food writer.
Now, if Nigella Lawson (Brit model-like food writer that has a show on Style TV and writes for NYT) ever comes to Wash DC, I would like to show her a restaurant or two... a trick or two.
Hmmm.
Jmart what is there to critique here in KC other than the latest BBQ joint to open it's doors?
The best thing to happen to KC was the rush of Indian/Pakistani restaurants that opened and ran from 99-03'.
Curry, when done right, can be a treat.
But other than that, where are the Greek restaurants and the French?
Of course we know why there are no French cruisine joints, but there are very few places around here that serve food from the 'swarthy' nations.
And Johnson County is the worst of the lot. You can find 20-30 restaurants around the Metcalf-119th street area of Overland Park that have essentially the same menu!!
What about Cajun food?
What about real Chinese, not that Andy's Wok or Bo Lings' crap!
You want to know what my wife and I would like? A real Chinese or Japanese themed restaurant. The kind where the surroundings look like you're either in China or Japan. The service could dress and the background music sound like you're really in those surroundings. Nothing makes Lo Mein noodles taste terrible like hearing Garth Brooks blasting over the restaurant speakers!!!!
Give me a break!
The problem with Kansas City is that everything here feals like it's been assimilated by redneck borg drones!!
MYOB'
.
MYOB, come to milwaukee. for some reason a lot of puerto ricans and mexicans come here and we have very authentic mexican food. we got serbian, we got korean, we got thai, we got mid-eastern. and of course we have german.
and of course we are fat enough to prove we like food.
ecoast, if you were getting great service, she wasn't doing her job. Her job is to be anonymous, so you just receive the same service and quality of food as the potential patrons for whom you're writing.
JMart: fair enough.
DAMN! A food thread and I was busy cooking a f****n' night.
As someone who has been on both sides of food critic's fork, Frank Bruni did not get demoted.
Food writing at the NYTs is the Holy Grail for those who love food as a craft or art. But since Bruni's politcal reporting on Junior was one giant act of felatio, I think he will be better suited in the Dining section. One those pages he can use his little power trip for good and evil without thwarting the will of the electorate.
And Jmart. Would the critic who snubbed you have the initials RR? I've met her. She's a self involved bitch who would be lost without her Food Lovers Companion. (Oddly though, I enjoy her feature food writing, just not her criticism. She sucks.)
One note: there are two jobs at the Times with food, one is the restaurant reviewer, and that is done by people with food training. That person goes on TV occasionally, with their identity hidden. Ruth Reichl, Bryan Miller, Mimi Sheraton were all food professionals before being hired at the Times.
The other job is the job Molly O'Neil, former Yankee Paul's sister had. Which is as a food critic. It does not require anonymity or training as a chef.
What this person does is write about food, like Calvin Trillan did. They talk about food trends, interview people, discuss trends. It's a job which requires writing and reporting skills more than a chef's training.
So it is unlikely that Bruni would be telling you how great Masa is. What he will do is tell you how they get fish and serve it. The restaurant reviewer job is a great job for someone who knows cooking. The food critic job is great for someone who can report and write well.
Maybe the NY Times is recognizing the similarities between Bush and Robespierre?
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
- Robespierre
However, as his power increased, his popularity waned. On May 7 Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, advocated a new state religion and recommended the Convention to acknowledge the existence of God; on June 8 the inaugural Festival of the Supreme being took place. Meanwhile, the pace of the guillotine grew faster; public finance and government generally drifted to ruin, and Saint-Just demanded the creation of a dictatorship in the person of Robespierre. On July 26, the dictator delivered a long harangue complaining that he was being accused of crimes unjustly. The Convention, after at first obediently passing his decrees, next rescinded them and referred his proposals to the committees.
Steve, it's unlikely, but true: Bruni is the restaurant critic, replacing William Grimes.
"Judith Miller's services under the table were four-star.
cheney_usa
oh, please Mr. Cheney. We all know the blow jobs are on the menu, but not to be discussed.
Nobody can write about food like Calvin Trillin.
O! His hymn to pan-fried chicken.... Perfection.
For some reason, http://www.thispot.com/project-
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