Michael Crichton Slurs New Republic Writer As Child Rapist

[Teaser]

I'm not a big fan "even the liberal" New Republic, but this is way, way, fucking way over the line:

link

excerpts:

That was the last he'd heard from Crichton until he picked his latest novel, Next. Here's what he found:

Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers. Crowley was a wealthy, spoiled Yale graduate and heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. ...

It turned out Crowley's taste in love objects was well known in Washington, but --as was his custom--tried the case vigorously in the press months before the trial, repeatedly characterizing Alex and the child's mother as "fantasizing feminist fundamentalists" who had made up the whole thing from "their sick, twisted imaginations." This, despite a well-documented hospital examination of the child. (Crowley's penis was small, but he had still caused significant tears to the toddler's rectum.)

In an article posted to the New Republic's Web site today, Crowley responded:

The next page contains fleeting references to Crowley as a "weasel" and a "dickhead," and, later, "that political reporter who likes little boys." But that's it--Crowley comes and goes without affecting the plot. He is not a character so much as a voodoo doll. Knowing that Crichton had used prior books to attack very real-seeming people, I was suspicious. Who was this Mick Crowley? A Google search turned up an Irish Workers Party politician in Knocknaheeny, Ireland. But Crowley's tireless advocacy for County Cork's disabled seemed to make him an unlikely target of Crichton's ire. And that's when it dawned on me: I happen to be a Washington political journalist. And, yes, I did attend Yale University. And, come to think of it, I had recently written a critical 3,700-word cover story about Crichton. In lieu of a letter to the editor, Crichton had fictionalized me as a child rapist. And, perhaps worse, falsely branded me a pharmaceutical-industry profiteer.

[leftofthedial]

1. "perhaps worse...

"pharmaceutical-industry profiteer."

:rofl:

[Buzz Clik]

2. Crichton is under the impression he's brilliant and bulletproof.

Ever read his piece of shit about global warming? It was scientifically ridiculous and literary toilet paper.

The flap in the OP doesn't surprise me.

[cali]

3. Over the line doesn't even begin to cover it.

This is so disgusting I don't know what to say. I hope like hell that Crowley has a legal case.

[Teaser]

8. true...

over the top was too tame. I don't know if there is a word to express my disgust with the man.

[valerief]

4. Good god! I was eating my lunch, for chrissakes! nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Let's nominate Crichton to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots.

I just did. Send mail to [e-mail] with the subject "conservative idiot".

[sui generis]

6. Michael Crichton lost me with his stance on global warming

But hey, I love a good fight.

Nothing is over the top in a war of egos. Nothing. As long as news is entertainment and entertainment is news, I'm not going to complain. It's like a MadTV sketch.

[Ian David]

7. When Dante wrote "The Inferno" he put many well-known acquaintances in Hell.

I'm not saying that what Chrichton did was fair, but it's not without precedent.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I modeled a 'villain' after a supervisor once. Was a good way to

exorcise some old demons.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. This isn't much like Dante's inferno.

[devilgrrl]

10. Michael Crichton is without a doubt the most miserable motherfucker alive.

Absolutely miserable! :nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[ComerPerro]

11. I've known for a few years now that he is a douchebag

[Chimichurri]

12. Michael Cretin is a joke - just like the party he excuses.

[RedEarth]

13. That's awful

[brentspeak]

15. Crichton went to Harvard Med school, abandoned medicine a year after graduating

and otherwise denied a Harvard Medical school education to somebody who was actually serious about serving as a physician.

[hedgehog]

17. Not only that, but his first book, The Terminal Man, spread misconceptions

about epilepsy. I've also often wondered who missed out on Harvard medical training because of Crichton.

[blm]

16. I don't like Crowley's own use of bolstering RW lies against Dems, BUT, I won't

support ANY lie from the RW, even if it is against a lawmaker or against a too snarky and often unfair reporter.

RW hacks just go WAY too far. No one, not even Crowley, deserves this bullshit.

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. Crichton's prose is so bush league i can't believe anyone reads that trash

Seriously. That's awful.

[Junkdrawer]

19. Michael Crowley's response is PRICELESS:

....

I confess to having mixed feelings about my sliver of literary immortality. It's impossible not to be grossed out on some level--particularly by the creepy image of the smoldering Crichton, alone in his darkened study, imagining in pornographic detail the rape of a small child. It's uplifting, however, to learn that Next's sales have proved disappointing by Crichton's standards, continuing what an industry newsletter dubs Crichton's "recent pattern of erosion." And I'm looking forward to the choice Crichton will have to make, when asked about the basis for Mick Crowley, between a comically dishonest denial and a confession of his shocking depravity.

Crichton launched his noxious attack from behind the shield of the small penis rule because, I'm sure, he's embarrassed by what he has done. In researching my article, I found a man who has long yearned for intellectual stature beyond the realm of killer dinosaurs and talking monkeys. And Crichton must know that turning a critic into a poorly endowed child rapist won't exactly aid his cause. Ultimately, then, I find myself strangely flattered. To explain why, let me propose a corollary to the small penis rule. Call it the small man rule: If someone offers substantive criticism of an author, and the author responds by hitting below the belt, as it were, then he's conceding that the critic has won.


http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20061225&s=diarist122506