Eric Boehlert: The Media's Assault on Reason

[marmar]

from Media Matters:


The media's assault on reason
by Eric Boehlert

How hard is it to figure out if a book has footnotes? When it comes to Al Gore's new, national bestseller, The Assault on Reason (Penguin Press, May 2007), it's trickier than you think for some disdainful members of the Beltway press corps.

On June 10, The Washington Post published an opinion column by Andrew Ferguson about Gore's new book. Personally, I give The Assault on Reason high marks as a spot-on, truth-telling critique of the Bush administration, as well as for the insightful concern Gore expresses about the fragile state of American democracy. Or, "what passes for a national conversation," as Gore puts it.

Not surprisingly though, Ferguson, an editor at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Weekly Standard, disliked the book, waving it off as "a sprawling, untidy blast of indignation."

What was embarrassing for both Ferguson and the Post was that in the very first sentence of his column, Ferguson made a whopping error when he condescendingly observed that The Assault on Reason had no footnotes. (The book is such a mess, footnotes would have been of no use, he suggested.) The problem, according to Ferguson, is that without footnotes readers have no way of checking the sources for the many historical quotes Gore uses in the book, including one on Page 88 from Abraham Lincoln that Ferguson would "love to know where (Gore) found."

In fact, if Ferguson had simply bothered to look, every one of the nearly 300 quotes found in The Assault on Reason is accompanied by an endnote with complete sourcing information, including the quote on Page 88 that Ferguson focuses on. The endnotes consume 20 pages of the book.

But such is life for Al Gore when dealing with the Beltway press, where his vociferous critics cannot be bothered with the simplest fact-checking task, while oblivious media outlets such as the Post print up the errors. .....(snip)

The complete piece is at: http://mediamatters.org/columns/200706120005

[thethinker]

1. That is so funny

Ferguson could not even find the footnotes in a book he was reviewing? The Washington Post should be embarrassed.

[fasttense]

2. You know Ferguson reviewed a book he didn't read.

It is so glaringly obvious he didn't read the book before trashing it. With over 20 pages of footnotes, how can anyone possible miss 20 pages if they read the book?

It might interfere with his fantasy world if he dare read some truth.

[blueworld]

3. A Weekly Standard editor who can't tell a foot from an end?

I'm shocked! :sarcasm: As Eric notes, what makes the entire thing so HIGH-LARYUS, is that Ferguson's entire article is based on his negligence, bias & closed-mindedness. Al Gore couldn't have CRAFTED a more perfect example of rotten journalism damaging democracy in one of the country's most important bird cage liners.

Terry isn't the only Moran. :rofl: :rofl:

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread marmar.

Edit to add, the whole column is worth reading.