I'm kind of hurt

Jonathan Chait came to the defense of his New Republic collegue, Ann Coutler fan Elspeth Reeve, on TNR's blog The Plank, dismissing critics of Reeve's essay as "partisan hysterics."

Chait points to only Atrios and Charles Pierce at TAPPED as examples but since Pierce linked to just two bloggers critical of Reeve, Bob Somerby and me, and Atrios linked only to me, I have to think that Chait must mean I'm one of the "other partisan hysterics," my thinking warped as Chait says by "ideological correctness."

If so, I don't mind, although it's kind of funny that a partisan hysteric like me and an objective, completely nonpartisan and unhysterical journalist like Chait seem to think a lot alike when the subject is Joe Lieberman.

Here's me.

Here's Chait.

But if Chait thinks I'm a partisan hysteric, that's his business, but Gee whiz!  Don't you think he could have at least linked to me, since I'm one of his only four examples?

I'm kind of hurt.

What do you mean you don't believe Chait actually followed Atrios' and Pierce's links?  You don't believe he read digby either?  You don't believe guys like Chait actually read the blogs they criticize relentlessly?

When did you get to be so cynical?

Nah.  I'm sure he just thought he was doing me the favor of leaving me to languish in my well-deserved obscurity.  I'm sure he wasn't trying to hide the fact from New Republic readers that criticisms of Reeve's essay might not all have been malevolent outbreaks of partisan hysterics and ideological correctness.

Chait also professes not to have heard of Charles Pierce, which would mean, among other things, he isn't a regular reader of Eric Alterman, where Pierce used to guest-post quite regularly to much applause, The Boston Globe, or the American Prospect where he's now a regular contributor.  But if Chait wants to do himself a big favor and get to know Pierce's work, I recommend he start with this fine collection of journalistic essays, Sports Guy.
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Thanks to Julia for the link to digby.

Greg Sargent responds to Chait at TAPPED.

Comments

[Kevin Wolf]

You're exactly right. Chait dismisses critics of Reeve's ridiculous article but doesn't bother responding to actual criticisms, such as yours.

My take: He's essentially saying that defending Coutler is so provocative it's a laudable goal in and of itself.

[Erik]

I don't know--I'd be proud if I were you.

[digby]

I'm hurting too. Big time. And Chait has even linked to me before. I feel so old and useless.

But I actually think it's something else altogether. The writers at TNR (and Lanny Davis) still don't seem to know the difference between a blog and a comment. My guess is that Chait saw the comments to Reeve's post and decided that the worst of them represent the blogs. Some were quite uncivil. *sniff*

It's also possible that Chait felt called upon to rescue a lady in distress although I admit the only reason I suspect that is because his righteously indignant riposte has a whiff of misplaced chivalry about it. I could be wrong.

[Linkmeister]

You know what's worse? He obviously doesn't listen to "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" either, since Pierce is a semi-regular there as well. We need to sic Felber and Sagal and Rocca and Poundstone on him.

[CTC]

Lance, anytime you feel compelled to not one but two posts about Ann Coulter, it's a sure sign it's time for more Chris The Cop stories.

[Jeff R.]

Chait also professes not to have heard of Charles Pierce

I thought that, too, at first, but Chait was just mocking Pierce for referring to Reeve as "someone named Elspeth Reeve." I'll bet he does know who he is.

Pierce contibutes to the Boston Globe Magazine, I don't recall seeing him in the Globe proper. At the dentist office recently, I picked up Sports Illustrated (probably for the first time in 10 years), and Pierce had a great little sidebar to an article about sports bars. It was about the late, lamented Eliot Lounge in Boston, a sports bar before any ever put those two words together.