An Interview with John Cloud

Atrios mentioned this interview with John Cloud the other day without much commentary (other than to say that it is bad) so I decided to take a look...

Bad doesn't begin to describe it.

A few exerpts:

In response criticism that the story was a whitewash intended to lure conservative readers:

A few weeks ago, we put Jeffrey Sachs' book on how to end poverty on the cover. I mean, is that going to be a huge seller for conservatives?

Well Johnny, where do I begin with that one? Despite the fact that I think most conservatives are, well, stupid, I don't really think a lot of them are indifferent to poverty. With the exception of the high brackets, I just think that most of them are easily led around by the indifferent (or downright hostile) politicians they vote in... Marc Maron likes to call them "sheeple." Furthermore, a lot of these same folks poll very highly on the importance of this and related issues.

But all that aside, who cares if it is a "right" or a "left" issue? What ultimately matters is how you treat the subject. Cloud also points to having Michael Moore on the cover, but in stark contrast to the tone of the Coulter article, the Moore article followed a more questioning line, complete with the cover title of "Is this good for America?" The number of people from one side or the other and the people they were doesn't matter... it is what you say, how good your reporting is, etc.

Cloud also bristles at Eric Alterman's blistering dismissal:

Plus, who are their sources for this? Did Alterman do any reporting before he made this assertion? I think a pertinent thing about Alterman is that he has said publicly that he will not engage Ann Coulter in debate. He won't go on television with her. So his solution to Ann Coulter is to act as though she doesn't exist ... I don't agree with that approach to people that we don't necessarily like. I think you engage those people in open debate, you get those people to talk about their ideas, and then you weigh those ideas.

Dude, Alterman has done more reporting on people like Coulter than you could muster in 30 years... and it is not like there is a derth of material on Coulter and her lies and outrageous behavior that is easily available to him and other people (which makes Cloud's Google comment on Coulter simply retarded).

And what would debating a moron like Coulter serve? Coulter has no ideas... she just sits there and spews vitriol and hate without actually trying to advance any intellectual position. Has Cloud ever seen Alterman's interview on Dennis Miller's show? Consider how insulting and worthless an experience it was due to Miller's abject disinterest in actually trying to think... a similar scenerio with Coulter would be 100 times worse.

It gets worse:

I think maybe Eric and Ann are in the same bunch. They also, by the way, use the same language. He calls Ann Coulter a name-caller, but he doesn't do anything in that screed against me except use sort of fancy name-calling.

Him and his fancy-pants language and stuff!

David Brock, who knew Ann Coulter from years ago, goes to a book that's years old, and prints some mistakes from that book, and of course [there are] mistakes. And a lot of them are corrected. If you go out and you buy a copy of Slander now, you won't find those mistakes in it, because the publisher has corrected them.

I would love to have Cloud as a professor for a class... I could lie and cheat all I wanted on my term papers, but as long as I submitted a revised copy (which would be done by my TA and not me) when I was caught then no worries! (Nevermind that Slander and Treason are not the only Coulter works rife with lies, and that they are infamous for a lot more than factual errors)

The New York Times quote [her "only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."] she said to another reporter, George Gurley. She said at the time that it was a joke. You can say it was a despicable joke or that it's not a very funny joke. But if she's kidding around with another reporter, and says something to him that he puts at the end of his article, am I then obligated to print that in my article?

Was she really kidding? When asked about it, Coulter later said "Of course I regret it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'"

Hah hah. Very funny.

My job in this story was not to be a fact-checker.

That pretty says it all.

Update: MediaMatters has more...