Sort of Slacker Friday

By Eric Alterman

We've got a new Think Again column called "Scarborough's Fare" here and my new Nation column, "Gaza Agonistes" is here.

You will not find many people with less sympathy for Sumner Redstone, the insanely egomaniacal, right-wing head of Viacom. That's why it's a shame that in order to "get" him, Portfolio published such an amateurish hatchet job on the guy by ex-gossip writer, Lloyd Grove, here. I tell my students there's a simple rule for how to identify a crappy hatchet-job from a more skillful one; does it contain blind negative quotes that do not contain any facts that were obtainable on the record. Look what Grove lets his sources get away with, shamelessly, and quite early in the piece: "A prominent talent agent trashes Redstone as "the most disliked man in Hollywood." A former Viacom executive calls him "a scumbag," while another claims he's "the most egocentric human being you could ever run across."

The rest of it is what you would expect from a gossipeuse: heavy on titillation about Redstone's marriage and the decorations in his house; nothing at all about the questions should a piece might raise about the manner in which the most powerful titans of media business go about doing their business. Compare to Michael Wolff's reporting on Rupert Murdoch in Vanity Fair--which is no less gossipy--well, compared to almost anything, it stinks. But it's also too bad, because Redstone cooperated with the reporter and now the chance to explore these issues with him in a smart, hard-headed fashion will forever be lost. ...

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January 16, 2009

It Was a Very Good Year...

By Eric Alterman

We've got a new Think Again column called "Scarborough's Fare" here and my new Nation column, "Gaza Agonistes" is here. I contributed to the Brennan Center's symposium on suggestions for President Obama here.

I need to let you know that I've been planning to run the letters, per usual, but the first week's batch were lost somewhere in cyberspace. So if they are still relevant, please resend to Altercationmail@gmail.com In the meantime, the rest of today's Altercation is about music and movies, etc, which is the way things are going to be sometimes, for now. And away we go....

Robert Gordon, and the Fab Faux, live:

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January 15, 2009

Just Another PCS* (Bateman's Back...)

By Eric Alterman

Hello Altercators, old and new. LTC Bob here, just checking in to the new place.

All this Altercation moving around these past few years really has not bugged me too much. The reason is fairly obvious if you know who I am, or perhaps more specifically, what I am. Among other things (writer, father, historian, husband, singer-of-bad-songs, university professor), I am a professional US Army infantry officer, and I have been for almost twenty years now. That's what that little "LTC" in front of my name means. I am a Lieutenant Colonel, and that is the way that the Army abbreviates that rank.** This matters, you see, because be it peace or war, we soldiers are America's gypsies. Indeed, by the time my oldest daughter was nine years old she had lived in Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, New York, and was in the midst of moving to her sixth state, Virginia. That is just the way it is for Soldiers and their families. Packing up and moving is so much a part of the experience that it ceases to be unique in any way. So one more Altercation jump really does not make too much of a difference on this end, my motivation remains the same.

I write for Eric's page because, well, I think that it is important that people should have some knowledge of, and connection to, their own military. To that end I figured it just made sense to write for the audience least likely to have a whole lot of experience with or personal direct connections to the military in general and the Army in particular. At the same time I hope to demystify where needed, explain some things, and express outrage when appropriate...mostly on issues relating either to the US military or some of my other afflictions, notably journalism and history. All of which brought me to Eric's page via my buddy (and former running mate) Pierce.

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January 12, 2009

Slacker Friday

By Eric Alterman

We have a new Think Again column here called "Mainstream Media Malpractice" and I wrote a new Moment column here that they called "The Secular Spirit of Judaism."

This week on Moyers:

Bill Moyers sits down with United Steelworkers' International President Leo Gerard to discuss seeking economic justice for workers in the middle of an economic crisis and how he sees the future of American manufacturing. Gerard shares his thoughts on how unions will fare under the Obama administration, what kind of stimulus might be needed and what the future of American industry might look like.

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January 9, 2009

Altercation 3.0

By Eric Alterman

So here we are again.... Welcome to Altercation, 3.0. We began back in May 2002, when, Joan Connell, then the opinion editor of MSNBC.com, now online editor here at The Nation, asked me to create what would be the first blog created for and sponsored by a mainstream media organization. It rested there until September 2006, when it moved to Media Matters for America, where, again, we stayed for a while, before packing up at the end of 2008 and landing here.

For those of you keeping score, that's more than six and a half years of daily blogging. And for those of you who are not keeping score at home, well, I am. And I'm tired. And even though I've been known to lean on the weekly Pierce here, the occasional Lt. Col Bob there, Siva, every once in a while, and George Zornick more and more, of late, I'm tired. This blog is going to be an intermittent one, rather than a daily one, though I think you can probably depend on Thursdays and Fridays.

What's more, there's too much stuff happening right now to know where to begin. I mean, Economic apocalypse? Gaza? Caroline Kennedy? Blagojevich? Rangel? Richardson? Matthews/Morning Joe and Ann ******* Coulter? Just thinking about it gives me a migraine. I'm thinking we might do more music and movies and stuff than politics, at least for a little while, But before we do, well, here's something I'm thinking right now. Barack Obama has made two absolutely sterling appointments in the past few days (or has leaked them). One is Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, who is slated to become a top regulatory official, You can read about that HERE.

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January 8, 2009

Altercation Begins January 8

By Eric Alterman

Is this the right room for an argument? Monty Python's funnymen famously asked. It's the right room, but it's not ready yet

Eric Alterman's blog, Altercation, takes up residence here on January 8. You can expect the same mix of politics, music, culture, reviews and attitude, guest bloggers and interesting mail from opinionated readers.

Until then, hold your arguments.

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January 5, 2009