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The Difference Is....
North Miami Beach, FL April 26, 2001
Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
THE DIFFERENCE IS..
In another essay I wrote the names of Mencken, White and Pyle. I pulled
them out of my memory as examples of writers who thought a lot. They wrote
essays - not polemics - and while Mencken was a terrible man with the pen -
he slayed dragons right and left - he was not as biased, bigoted (he was
Anti-Semitic) or benighted as some of the so-called writers of today. I
would not compare him, say to Rush Limbaugh but, then, the latter is
certainly not a writer. He spouts words and thumps his desk a lot.
I think the difference is that the subjects chosen by the good writers of
the past and today are those that expose the human foibles of our leaders,
the general run of people and the great and laughable gaffs of folks like
you and me. The writers that cause us to grin when they expose the trail of
toilet paper on the shoe of a pompous figure are quite different from the
"Hail the Leader - Can't Do Wrong" kind who populate the press of the
"Compassionate Right".
Think of John Leo and Cal Thomas for the models the latter kind. They
never reviewed an act of the leaders of the Republican Right that they
didn't love. The opponents of wish lists of these leaders are summarily
dismissed as criminally minded. Their only saving grace is the skilled and
clever wordsmith, William (never Bill) Safire. He, at least, uses more
logic and facts to back his positions. But, then William Safire, not having
Bill Clinton to kick around any more is less likely to be choleric and
intemperate as he had been for the last eight years.
The difference is there are too few evenhanded commentators who weave
between the bombast and catcalls to call the scene as it really unfolds.
Coloring situations rosily or dark is sometimes a matter of intent. But
deliberately wrenching facts out of context and avoiding patent truths to
tell a tale that serves a master should not be the daily fare of innocent
readers.
I read somewhere that somebody said he knew only what he read in the
newspaper. Some people know only what they read in specific newspapers and
from what flows from specific vitriolic pens. The difference is great.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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