« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
French Middle School Child Victim of Media Slant
The kids I teach English to wanted to know who I would vote eventually vote for. I mentioned that I was leaning toward Hillary. That was months ago, but it must have made an impression because today, June 2nd, one of my students from two years ago came up to me in the hall and told me that Clinton wanted to assassinate Obama.
He's a kid. He's not careful about what he says, but neither is French television or French newspapers. The insinuations are ugly. I took the time to set that 13-year-old straight, but it was like putting out a match in a forest fire.
I remember reading Ayn Rand ... along with Hermann Hesse and Wolfe... when I was in college in the states. There was this truly evil, oily character in Fountainhead, a journalist who manipulated the masses. That's been happening so much this year. It's distressful.
So many people could not have resisted the Glitzkrieg only to have it end like this. I think "change" may be coming faster than anyone thought. And that change will be inside the Democratic Party.
Comments (3)
Is this an excerpt from the upcoming "How to Generalize" manual?
From one 13-y.o. French kid straight to "evil, oily" journalists who manipulate the masses? You'll have to do better than that.
June 2, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, it's the French. When's the last time the French media covered America without a good wine and a coffee? It's the drama that interests them and the style of the drama. That's what makes it a great place to hang out -- enjoyed best if you don't speak French perhaps, or at least pretend that you don't know what they saying.
June 2, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean Ellsworth Toohey, champion of the mediocre and disabled. Sort of like Vonnegut in Harrison Bergeron, I guess Rand was arguing that there is a tension between hte average and the exceptional.
For some reason I've always remembered that within the book, Toohey wrote Sermons in Stone, presumably an argument for neo-Gothic rather than Modern. Modern can be exceptional, but usually isn't.
June 2, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment