The Anchoress

Dick Meyer, the Executive Director of CBS Internet Stuff, has appeared in this blog a time or two, most recently when he and Hugh Hewitt engaged in a dust up in which Meyer gallantly defended one of his own.

More recently, I had the enjoyable opportunity of guest-posting at CBS’ blog, The Public Eye, where I was encouraged to write without pulling punches. My experience with Meyer and his crew was quite positive and I have come to understand (as I believe they wished me to understand) that, while they may not be front-and-center in our awareness, there are some very decent people toiling within the walls and dungeons of the eeeevvvillll Mainstream Media.

Mr. Meyer and I disagreed yesterday, privately, on just how noteworthy John Roberts’ “sloppy seconds” remark needed to be. I had strong feelings about how one comports oneself in the White House, and said so. He felt rather less strongly; Public Eye linked to me, and also posted both of Roberts’ statements on the matter, and took a lot of ugly comments, too.

Today, Meyers left a comment of his own over here in my humble establishment.

Miss Anchoress, the wise and cloistered knows my views on this one. I would note, however, that given Robert’s two apologies on CBSNews.com’s Public Eye and a certain humility in judging others that Anchoress shows, you might want to look again at something you wrote earlier:

How are you so sure he no capacity for shame? Because he once used a phrase that you and others found offensie and apologized for it? This gave the Anchoress a glimpse into the man’s soul so clear you make your insight public in good faith? Would you be so hard on someone who use similar language in a similar setting who belongd to a group you respected?

Why, Mr. Meyer, you haven’t been reading little ol’ me long enough! When Conservatives and Republicans say or do stupid things, I get all over them, too. The recent Great Big Debacle Over Harriet Miers found me shaking the admonishing finger at several high-fallutin’ Conservative icons for their comportment, or lack thereof, and I believe when Mr. Cheney used the F word on the Senate floor I was rather peeved, about it, if memory serves!

Why, I’ve even admitted it when my keyboard has gotten carried away and left me with a bit of egg on my pasty Irish face!

As to the rest, well, just as John Roberts’ mouth ran away with him after the debateable irritation of hearing about a new SCOTUS nominee, my keyboard ran away with me, on the arguably less-debateable irritation of hearing “sloppy seconds” being used in the White House, instead of the public house where, even then, I’m not sure it belongs.

Regrettable? Sure. As I re-read what I wrote, I wish I hadn’t referred to the Roberts as “a pig,” per se; I should properly have described his behavior as “piggish.” Moreover, my analysis that the man had no capacity for shame has been, I think, quite deftly disproved by Roberts, himself, so I needn’t belabor addessing it except to say that I am as capable of hot-headed rancor as any journalist, from Dan Rather, storming off the air because his show was delayed, to Walter Cronkite characterizing Americans as “unintelligent” as he did, recently. In moments of passion, or ego or thoughtlessness, we all manage to misspeak or over-do on the criticism. I will go so far as to apologize to Mr. Roberts, right here and now, not for some possibility that he “may” have been offended by my words, as is the contemporary formula, but on the clear recognition and acknowledgement that my own assessment was not only wrong, but ungenerously given. My words were needlessly harsh, and I apologize sincerely, for them.

That said, while both John Roberts and I make the point that “mis-speaking happens” I rarely if ever notice the press allowing such human frailty to exist on the right, without calling attention to it. I recall quite the brouhaha when Candidates Bush and Cheney exchanged what they thought was an off-mike assessment between themselves regarding one NY Times reporter, Adam Clymer. Paraphrasing, the exchange went something like this:

Bush: “That guy is such an asshole.”
Cheney: “Oh, yeah. Big-time.”

I recall something less than a brouhaha (I like the world brouhaha) when Candidate Kerry, also thinking himself off-mike, used the F word concerning his rivals, or when his wife told a reporter to “shove it” and passed out buttons identifying Bush, Cheney and Condoleeza Rice as the “asses of evil.”

Why, even in this little incident on my own humble blog, it seems that - to Mr. Meyer, anyway - the misspeaking from the left (ala Roberts) was infinately less troubling than the misspeaking from the right (ala Pasty Irish). And I’m sure many Anchoress readers will be troubled in precisely the opposite way than he (or they will take me to task for “actually apologizing to a member of the foul and detestible Mainstream Media!”).

It is, I suppose, finally, a matter of perspective and learned prejudice. On both sides.

It’s funny how things work, in the world, sometimes. One side says stupid things, or even DOES stupid and possibly seditious things, like, say…Sandy Berger, walking out of the National Archives with (later destroyed) top-secret documents stashed in his pants…and the story is laughed off as “that’s just Sandy” even as the press busily moves on to the next headline. The other side says stupid things like, “I heard that, too” to Tim Russert, and the story becomes a scandal of momentous proportions eating up volumes of Nexis-Lexis bandwidth and utterly dwarfing the Berger story by any possible standard of comparison.

All of that said, Roberts apologized. Scott McClellen accepted that apology. I covered it and even - to the consternation of some of my emailers, who wrote that Roberts’ whole question, and his explanation and his numerous apologies, were “passive-aggressive” - gave him credit for it and urged that he be taken at his word. (Off-topic aside to those emailers - I have no idea if anything Roberts said or did was “passive-aggressive” but I have found in my life that if someone is behaving in a passive-aggressive manner toward you, then taking that person at his or her word immediately defuses them and robs them of any power over you. That’s the free advice for the day!)

I think taking folks at their word is what right-thinking people do. If Maureen Dowd suggests the world would be better without men, I take her to mean what she says, until she, herself, corrects me and confesses that she really means to say she is feeling sad and lonely and wishes she had a loving partnership. If Helen Thomas says George W. Bush is “evil” and “the worst president I have ever seen,” I take her at her word and simply believe that she was distracted for at least 4 years of the 1970’s. If the American President says he believed all of the pre-war intelligence that everyone else - including his predecessor - always said they believed, about WMD being numerous in Iraq, I take him - and his predecessor - at their words, and do not assume one or the other somehow “lied,” about it.

It is ironic how all of the machines we humans use to ease communications have had the effect - by sheer speed and volume of available outlets - of rendering simple phrases and human mis-speaks into complex plots, conspiracies and meanderings. Sometimes I long for simpler times.

Old tyrants die, new ones arise to take their place. It’s all very troubling, and tiring.
- Harry S Truman