Video: Jonathan Alter shreds author Ron Suskind's credibility on Martin Bashir

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#44599297

[Pirate Smile]

1. I saw that. It was good.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Yes, I saw it as all. It was very good.

Thank you, Jonathan Alter, for speaking up-even though Suskind is your friend.

[Pirate Smile]

4. Here is a bit of the transcript:

Alter vs. Suskind: Not longing for Clinton

On MSNBC, Jonathan Alter — the author of a more sympathetic book on Obama's first year than Ron Suskind's — offers a different theory of the White House:

ANCHOR: What about the claim he makes about Peter Orzag and Larry Summers saying they were "home alone" in the White House. As if the president was disengaged.

ALTER: I heard that "home alone" when I was reporting and talking to many of the same people and they said they couldn't get anybody from the Treasury Department and the key policymakers confirmed. It was three or four people trying to prevent a depression and felt like they were home alone in the book. The context of it is Obama was not up to the job and they longed for Bill Clinton. I have a whole chapter in my book where I talked to all the former Clinton people who now work for Obama. I asked them all, compare Clinton and Obama.

ANCHOR: They said?

ALTER: They gave a sophisticated answer. They thought Clinton was more creative and his policymaking, but they prefer to a person Obama in a crisis, which was what they were in. He was decisive and making as many decisions in a week as Bill Clinton made in a year, and making the decisions crisply. The idea that somehow all the former Clinton officials working for Obama were longing for Bill Clinton because they had this inexperienced president who didn't know what he was doing is not what they were saying at the time. I was talking to not just a few, but pretty much all of the former Clinton people in the White House at high and mid-levels.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0911/Alter_vs_Suskind_Not_longing_for_Clinton.html?showall#

[tridim]

3. I LOL'ed when he said "everything in the book is solid as a brick"

Bricks aren't solid at all, they are porous and very fragile.

[Pirate Smile]

6. Especially after he left out this from Anita Dunn's quote: "I said if it weren’t for the president"

Seems kind of important:

Why Did Ron Suskind Misquote Anita Dunn?

Hmmm. Speaking of whether the Obama White House had the atmosphere of a boys club, Peter Wallsten and Anne Kornblut wrote more about this in the Washington Post yesterday. There really do seem to be legitimate complaints on this score, but on one of the most dramatic quotes about this, there's a striking mismatch between what Ron Suskind heard and what he reported in his book. Here's what he said he was told by former White House communications director Anita Dunn:

Looking back, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace....Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for women.

But here's the full quote:

I remember once I told Valerie that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace....Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.

This doesn't necessarily change the substance of the charge about the White House atmosphere — though it might, depending on what Dunn meant — but it definitely changes what it suggests about Obama himself. Why on earth did Suskind leave that bit out? It's only eight words, and it's not as if he was short on space.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/09/why-did-ron-suskind-misquote-anita-dunn

[11 Bravo]

8. He wanted to use "Thick as a Brick", but Jethro Tull would certainly have sued his ass.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Thick, as a brick

Cue ye olde '70s music NOW.

[dennis4868]

5. thanks for posting....

problem is Alter and some others who have also wrote a book on the WH are not all over the cables bringing out the lies of Suskind.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Alter said it was more of case of accuracy and taking comments out of context.

Not seeing the big picture. Suskind is his friend. He said he liked parts of the book.