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12 September 2002  

Puncturing Idiocy

Scott Rosenberg attacks Damian Penny for his criticism of Salon's disgusting "Forbidden thoughts about 9/11" feature. The response is filled with evidence of poor thinking skills (criticism isn't equivalent to a desire to take away your freedom "to publish stuff," Mr. Rosenberg), but I want to concentrate on his point that

an orthodoxy has coalesced around 9/11, and... one good role of journalism is to puncture orthodoxies... [T]he range of human response to 9/11 was a lot wider than that reflected in the media orgy of 9/11 retrospectives.... [I]t's probably a lot healthier to air such responses than to pretend that they don't exist.

"Puncturing orthodoxy" as a guiding principle is excusable in a rebellious teenager, but not a professional journalist. Journalism is about telling the truth. If you think falsehoods have gained the status of orthodoxy, then fine, puncture away — and be prepared to back up your views with arguments. But if you simply want the catharsis of spewing the most depraved thoughts that happen to enter your mind, well, there are good psychologists for that kind of thing. Don't get me wrong: inappropriate thoughts are nothing to be ashamed of. It's proudly publishing them to the world while babbling about orthodoxy puncturing that a respectable person should be embarrassed about.

Update: Tim Blair weighs in with forbidden thoughts on Salon.

11:35 AM |

Sorry, America

Now that Jean Chrétien has announced he will retire next year, our Prime Minister has no compunction about making his most idiotic and nauseating views public:

I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relation to the poor world and necessarily will be looked upon as being arrogant and self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. The 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more....

There is a moment when you are very powerful. I said that in New York one day. It was on Wall Street. It was a crowd of capitalists, of course, and they were complaining because [Canada] had normal relations with Cuba, and this and that, and we cannot do everything we want. And I said that day — if I recall, I used probably these words — when you are powerful like you are, you guys, it is the time to be nice.

At least this explains his insistence on signing Kyoto, which is expected to have a big negative impact on our economy. Because it will narrow the gap between us and 3rd world countries, he apparently sees it as a terrorism-fighting measure.

09:20 AM |