Columnist Says Conservative Jewish Pundits Are Out of the Mainstream

[Robbien]

Source: Editor and Publisher

NEW YORK The politics of many Jewish pundits are way to the right of the U.S. Jewish population, says Eric Alterman in a column for The Nation magazine's Jan. 7/14 issue.

"Today's topic is the paradox -- or one of them, anyway -- of American Jewish political behavior," Alterman wrote. "They think like enlightened liberals yet allow belligerent right-wingers and neocons who frequently demonize, distort, and denounce their values to speak for them in the U.S. political arena.

"Don't take my word for it. According to the American Jewish Committee's 2007 survey of American Jewry ... a majority of Jews in this country oppose virtually every aspect of the Bush administration/neocon agenda. Not only do they disapprove of the administration's handling of its 'campaign against terrorism' (59-31%), they believe by a 67-to-27 margin that we should never have invaded Iraq. They are unimpressed by the 'surge' -- 68% say it has either made no difference or made things worse, and by a 57-to-35% majority they oppose an attack on Iran...."

Yet, said Alterman, the views of conservative Jewish pundits are often aired "by pliant and frequently clueless mainstream media that empower these right-wingers to speak for a people with values diametrically opposed to theirs."

He added: "As with so much of American life, the far-right minority is better funded and better disciplined than the liberal majority."


Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003689236

[C_U_L8R]

1. i like that word... liberal majority

we need to use our numbers more strategically.... i guess that takes leaders

[Acadia Blue]

13. The conservative media is out of the mainstream, and I like that

word too.

[Xipe Totec]

2. That's why Billy's Kristol got shattered,

and the Kraut got Hammered

Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month. Mr. Krauthammer confirmed the news to Off the Record, and a spokeswoman for Time said Mr. Kristol’s contract would not be renewed

(snip)

The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.

:rofl:

http://www.observer.com/2007/kristol-krauthammer-are-out-time

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I agree with his assessment....I think most of the so-called Pundits are to the right of the public.

[western mass]

4. Has the ADL...

declared him an anti-semite yet?

[Mosaic]

5. Wolf Blitzer is another one to watch out for

He constantly insults his audience by sneaking in Bill O' Reillyeske neocon right wing philosophy into his news reporting and interviews with world leaders and assorted politicians.

CNN would do well to replace him with someone more in line with the liberal mainstream.

[Doctor_J]

6. In the MSM, right wing Jews outnumber sane ones by about 10:1

just like gentiles...

[LeftishBrit]

7. Interesting. I get the impression that the same is true of Christians

Most Christians whom I know are quite left-wing; but journalists and politicians who emphasize Christiaity tend to be right-wing.

Very likely also true of Muslims.

[libodem]

8. I should just stay out of this

but...I've felt sympathetic toward the Jewish people my whole life. ( I'm a flamin' white liberal, for God's sake) It sure seems these days, that there are some Right-wingers out there, with a super-agenda, making my friends look less like victims and more like perpetrators. Just sayin'.

[Robbien]

11. Yep. These pundits are doing much more harm than good

for the Jewish community.

[tom_paine]

16. That's the whole point. Our Elitist Bushie Mouthpieces don't speak for us

any more that Hannity and O'Reilly and Coulter speak for the majority of White Christians.

We are all snared by the Bush Lie Machine and Propaganda Mills. Money and technology makes actual people obsolete. False Realities can be built so thoroughly that they are indistinguishable from the real thing.

African-American are next. The Bush Pay Korps is already shelling out millions to buy off those who can be bought off. No race, creed or color is immune. We are all susceptible and we have all gone down.

African-American beware...you are next. It will be even crazier to watch that. Because while Whites are 60-40% left-leaning, and Jews are 70-30% left-leaning, African-Americans are 90-10% left-leaning.

But really, the Orwellian upside-downness of it all seems natural, if you're not aware to the chains slithering around our nation as we speak.

Yes, one day African-Americans, too, will find themselves wholly represented inthe media bythe 10% of their Bushie Lunatic Liars...Jesse Petersen and others.

Unless they and we can reverse these trends and restore the Old American Republic, a daunting task in which our odds of success are long.

But that doesn't mean we should EVER giveup. Resist the Bushie Monsters with your last breath.

[entanglement]

18. I think I can explain why

People's views of the Jews are severely bimodal - clustered toward extreme one or the other.
On the one hand you have the old anti-Semitic view, chock full of every conceivable form of anti-Jewish hate and venom (thankfully a minority view in the present times). The other, more prevalent one reduces Jewish people to almost cartoonish objects, only worthy of sympathy as perpetual victims, attributing nothing but goodness and positive characteristics to them and in the process (unwillingly) denying them agency to act like real humans with failings. If you'd held such a one-sided view, the right-wing utterances of a Pipes or a Podhoretz would undoubtedly form a jarring contrast to your (dare I say stereotypical) ideal of "what a Jew should be like". In other words, you sympathized, but sympathy is hardly synonymous with understanding. I hope the disintegration of this ideal doesn't lead you in the other direction, though.

To be honest, my journey to political awareness has taken me through places I wish I hadn't been. I am the wiser for my mistakes, and try hard not to judge any ethnic/racial/religious/linguistic group by the actions of its members, good or bad, taken singly or in aggregate. Such an exercise would be moral and intellectual folly and an affront to the very concept of individuality - how does one 'square' the political insights of a Marx, the genius of Einstein and the melody of Mendelssohn with the genocidal ruthlessness of a Kissinger anyhow?


:)
entanglement

[Hardrada]

19. Or, for another example: Hegel, Goethe, Bach, von Humboldt,

Hitler??

[fascisthunter]

9. Conservative Christian, Conservative Jew, Conservative Atheists

All conservative are solely represented with very little from the middle or left.

[NJCher]

10. ***breaking***

and on a similar note, Clarence Thomas does not represent the views of
African-Americans.



Cher

[UTUSN]

12. O.K., along the same lines.... Hispanic columnist(2) & Irish-Catholic pundits

are disproportionately to the wingnut, too.

This is what has gotten me called Hispanophobe and Irishophobe and Catholicophobe before.


I can only think of two Hispanic columnists, Ruben NAVARRETTE & Linda CHAVEZ (why doesn't she use her husband's surname?), but all the other Hispanic wingnuts---Gonzo, Miguel ESTRADA, the Cubans-of-the-first-generation---would fit in the same catetory. Idiot outlets like CNN look for NAVARRETTE for being "different" or "non-traditional"---meaning, OUT OF SYNC!1

I've long wanted to do a thread on the Irish-Catholic pundits, how many of them there are, and like this thread's topic, how out of step from their home group they are, but have been deterred from the scars of other flamefests, like on he-who-shall-be-nameless----O.K., it's CHAVEZ!1

Just a partial list: Tweety, Pat BUCHANAN, Bay BUCHANAN, BARNICLE, O'LOOFAH, HANNITY, G.E.RUSSERT... there're MORE, MANY more..., including some surnames I don't recognize as Irish, although I suspect it's the Catholic school imprint that is the trigger.

About the only exception I can think of is DONAHUE.

[kenfrequed]

14. Kiss the whip

I suppose there might be a pragmatism in the right wing lean. After all who wants to be on the sharpy edged side of nationalist psychotic fascism again?

[JerseygirlCT]

15. Just anecdotal, but this would fit with my experience, certainly nt

[sutz12]

17. Personally, I think all conservative religious pundits are 'out of the mainstream'

:shrug:

[BushOut06]

20. Is this really Late Breaking News?

I'm not sure if this should really fall under the realm of LBN or not. Maybe better suited for General Discussion perhaps?