Tag: joe conason
Friends And Colleagues Mourn Admired Media Critic Eric Boehlert, 57

Friends And Colleagues Mourn Admired Media Critic Eric Boehlert, 57

Eric Boehlert, the incisive and prodigious media analyst who became one of the most respected critics of right-wing disinformation and mainstream fecklessness, died on Monday evening in a tragic bicycle accident. He was struck by a commuter train while cycling in Montclair, New Jersey, where he lived with his wife Tracy Breslin and children Ben and Jane. He was 57 years old.

His dear friend, journalist and filmmaker Soledad O’Brien, announced his passing on Twitter, describing him as “a fierce and fearless defender of the truth,” and “an awesome human being, handsome/cool/witty dude who kicked ass on our behalf. Crazy devotion to facts, context, and good reporting, enemy of BS, fake news.” He was, she wrote, “Brutal to bad media on Twitter, sweetest guy in real life.” She was far from alone in that assessment.

To readers of The National Memo, Eric was a familiar and welcome byline whose writing appeared in these pages nearly from the beginning a decade ago. He was a former colleague of editor Joe Conason at Salon.com and a longtime friend.

“We were always thrilled to share Eric's articles,” said Conason, “first from Media Matters for America, later from Daily Kos – and over the past two years, he honored us by allowing frequent reprints from the PressRun site that he created in 2020.”

Kind and warm as well as astute, Eric was broadly admired despite the fact that he routinely published harsh judgments on the work of other outlets and reporters. He didn’t take himself too seriously but believed deeply that improving political media was crucial to the survival of a democratic society. He worked hard at that mission. And wherever he worked, he was loved for his humor, generosity, and friendship.

In the hours following his death, hundreds of tributes appeared on social media, where he had long been a powerful presence.

Media Matters, Salon, and Daily Kos issued moving statements recalling his contributions to their pages.


James Fallows, both a pathbreaking journalist and a penetrating critic of press myopia, explained why he will be missed. “I had met Eric only once in ‘real life. But I corresponded with him with increasing frequency over the years, especially this past year, and considered him a conscience and inspiration,” wrote Fallows on his own Substack. “He was fearless and absolutely unsparing in his writing about this era’s mainstream press.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted her appreciation of Eric, who began to exercise his independence from herd journalism when her husband was president.

Articulate and telegenic, Eric made many appearances on all kinds of media -- he was a popular guest on major television broadcasts but often lent his talents to far smaller independent media outlets. Among those who featured him most frequently was MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid.


America

Republicans Talk ’Secession," But Who Would That Hurt?

The loudest sound on the American far right today is the angry whining emitted by sore losers who claim their candidate was defrauded but know for a fact that he was simply defeated. Their tune is grating, but their seditious words are troubling, with supporters of President Donald Trump repeatedly warning of "civil war" and even "secession." Fans of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh hear those ominous words every day now.

Presumably, such divisive sentiment is why many "conservatives" are so enamored of Confederate flags and other such symbols of treason. If the democratic process doesn't give them what they want, they threaten bloodshed and the destruction of the nation to which they once pretended to pledge allegiance.

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#EndorseThis: Remembering The Legendary Reporter Who First Exposed Donald Trump

#EndorseThis: Remembering The Legendary Reporter Who First Exposed Donald Trump


Wayne Barrett was a legendary investigative journalist, whose early reporting on Donald Trump's "moral larceny" blazed the way for every news outlet that has ever given serious coverage to the 45th president and his misdeeds. Sadly, my old colleague Wayne didn't live to report on Trump's presidency, passing away on the night before his inauguration in January 2017. But now Bold Type Books has issued a new anthology of Wayne's work -- including his pathbreaking stories on Trump and Rudy Giuliani -- with new essays by many of his colleagues (and a preface contributed by me).

Without Compromise: The Brave Journalism That First Exposed Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the American Epidemic of Corruption is "indispensable," said New Yorker investigative ace Jane Mayer, who added that Wayne's stories "are essential reading, alive with fresh insights and information illuminating today's politics, and remind us that rigorous journalism is still democracy's best defense."

Recently I discussed Without Compromise and Wayne with Lisa Birnbach, renowned author and journalist, for her superb podcast 5 Things That Make Life Better. If you're interested in how investigative reporters work and why they do their often thankless jobs -- along with other pertinent and impertinent topics -- follow the links to this episode of Lisa's podcast. It's on every podcast platform (and I recommend subscribing).

Apple Podcasts:http://bit.ly/LB120ApplePodcasts

Spotify:http://bit.ly/LB120Spotify

Google Podcasts:http://bit.ly/LB120GooGlePodcasts

Stitcher:http://bit.ly/LB120Stitcher

iHeart Podcasts:http://bitly.ws/ank3

YouTube:http://bit.ly/LB120YouTube


Politics In The Spirit

Politics In The Spirit

The spirit of goodwill can take us by surprise in this season, without respect to religion (or even politics). And while such a moment may not quite become an epiphany, it can still make us think again about our lives and times. Which is what happened to me over the weekend before Christmas.

Visiting the nation’s capital, as we do every year at this time, I was invited by friends to attend a holiday party hosted by an eminent conservative writer – someone whom I knew only as a political opponent of long standing. Our last encounter, on a radio show before the 2016 election, had not concluded on friendly terms, at least in my recollection. I held a caricature of him in my mind and assumed he would feel similarly toward me – although during the intervening years he had turned against the Trump-dominated Republican Party and its reprehensible leader.

The writer assured my friends that I’d be welcome at his party, so I went along, still thinking this might become a highly uncomfortable situation because of past conflicts.

When I arrived, however, he and his wife both greeted me warmly. He graciously took the time to introduce me to other guests, and as we talked, his sincere friendliness was undeniable and uplifting. 

I began to realize, as I should have much sooner, that his political journey had cost him something important. Like so many of the Republicans (and former Republicans) who have turned away from Trump, he had forfeited many friends and relationships in a wrenching experience that had changed his life. He had been forced to confront deeply troubling aspects of his own political affiliations and of people to whom he had once been close. Reading the messages we exchanged in the days that followed, I felt a twinge of unexpected empathy for this man.

For liberals, the Never-Trump conservatives have presented a series of these conundrums. Each of them is an individual, with her or his own ideology, career, and future aspirations. Some of them have faced quite squarely the moral compromises that eventually led to Trump and Trumpism, including a history of Republican racial pandering that dates back to the Nixon era; others have not. 

And so far, very few of these conservative Trump critics have asked themselves what responsibility they may bear for the decades of exaggerated animus against Hillary Clinton, whose demonization by the right and its media opened the way for Trump. While many of the Never-Trumpers probably voted for her, and almost all of them have confessed we’d be far better off if she were president today, their own culpability in framing her as “Crooked Hillary,” in Trump’s infamous phrasing, remains a largely unacknowledged responsibility. (The same is still true of the mainstream media, which so eagerly cooperated in distorting her image.) 

Reckoning with those old quarrels will have to wait. For now, we look forward to a new year when we will have a chance to free our democracy from the curse of Trump. Every hand will be needed. My own strong impulse is to welcome new allies, assume their good motivations, and treat them generously, without regard to the past. That is not only the spirit of Christmas but the spirit of America, a nation that has freed generations of people to reinvent themselves and build a new society.

 Someday when Trump is gone, we may yet find ourselves debating intensely again with those who are now at our side opposing him. When that day comes, it will be good if we can remember that our adversaries need not be our enemies, and that we should practice politics with decency and kindness. We will need to include everyone willing to share in that spirit, no matter their errors.

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