Ed Driscoll

By Ed Driscoll

Bio

Get Updates From Ed Driscoll

Sadly, it’s behind a subscription firewall, but in the new issue of National Review, Rob Long (who, as he writes, has inadvertently tested NPR’s delicate and rococo sensibilities himself), has a great explanation of why Juan Williams was permanently exiled to the Siberia of Fox News by NPR:

From the smug, deluded bunker of NPR, Fox News is a big, greasy, angry, hate-filled state fair, where right-wing nuttery is passed along like deep-fried Twinkies to an obese and ignorant public. Juan Williams was a crossover artist — everybody loved him on the Brit Hume show on Fox — and that’s usually a good thing. But from the tasteful offices of NPR, it was as if he were conferring, by the power invested in the chyron “Juan Williams, NPR,” a little class to that awful, tacky network. Juan Williams gave Fox News legitimacy. Juan Williams, by his very presence with Bill O’Reilly, made it impossible to paint Fox News as the monotonal mouthpiece of the American Right. So, Juan Williams had to be fired from a network that claims to value diversity of opinion but doesn’t, for bringing diversity of opinion to a network that isn’t supposed to have it but does.

Here’s what’s really going on: Juan Williams broke the class barrier. He refused to stick with his own kind. He started crossing over to the bad part of town, and the group on the good side of town had finally had enough. It’s almost too obvious to point out, but, I mean, ironic, no? What used to be the exclusive province of country-club Republicans — snobbishness, clan rules, punishment for stepping out of line, a paralyzing fear of the great and greasy middle class — is now what drives the fatcat liberals at NPR.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, as if the freakouts from John Kerry, Paul Krugman, George McGovern and other dinosaur “progressives” weren’t enough schadenfreude for conservatives this weekend, the left is melting down on Twitter over this little bon-bon courtesy of ABC:

ABC announced their election night coverage early on and Big Journalism Editor Dana Loesch will join the network in studio for 6 p.m. – 2 a.m. election night; Bigs founder and head of the Breitbart empire Andrew Breitbart will be bringing analysis live from Arizona.

Providing analysis and historical context will be ABC News contributors George WillCokie RobertsDonna Brazile and Matthew Dowd. They will be joined by Ron Brownstein, Editorial Director for the National Journal Group and conservative commentator Dana Loesch.

Man, can you believe ABC would hire someone as partisan as Andrew Breitbart to provide opinion on election night? I’m sure George Stephanopoulos will be resigning in protest from the network at once.

Seriously though, Andrew will likely be retweeting some of the more cheerful missives from the professional left in his performance art Twitter stream (such as these two by otherwise frequently insightful “liberal” NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, whose bitter and clinging tone at the moment matches his scowling Twitter account photo perfectly). But if you need a Cliffs Notes version of the action, Jim Treacher has you covered.

And speaking of first time tragedy, second time farce, Ace wonders if we’re seeing a case of deja PEST all over again.

Update: There’s got to be a morning after….

Update: GE and NBC must be proud as a peacock when they parse the Runyon-esque prose stylings of their self-styled successor to Edward R. Murrow.

PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.

2 Comments, 2 Threads, 1 Trackbacks

  1. 1. VoteOutIncumbents

    I’m gobsmacked! Andrew on ABC!!! Do Vivian Schiller, Cokie Roberts, and Paul Krugman know about this? Bet THEY weren’t consulted.

    Do you suppose ABC might be recognizing a new electoral reality? Maybe, unlike NBC and CBS they are actually interested in attracting viewers?

  2. 2. Tom Grey

    After ABC clobbers NBC & CBS talking PC blah blah in the ratings, I can imagine them actually hiring a real conservative to cover news, and try to get some independents & Reps back from Fox.

    Maybe even a good anti-PC conservative comedian, who can make fun of the other PC folk.

One Trackback to “First Time as Tragedy, Second Time as Farce”