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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

The Editors Get Edited!

In leiu of a lunch report, which has not been provided to us in timely fashion, the editors provide the following glimpse into the lengths mainstream journalists will go to protect themselves. Consider one Jim DRogatis, transplanted Joisy fanzine writer now lead music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. On Labor Day, "DeRo" wrote a defense of Kanye West's political rants, speculating that the corporate backlash would cost West CD sales (oddly, the piece is nowhere to be found on the Sun-Times site though it's well within its 7-day available archive). One of the MYL staff fired an angry e-mail off to his personal web site. Today the Sun-Times printed part of it. See if you can guess which part:

>>I don't know where to start on your Sun-Times apologism. First, I hate Bush -- I drove miles every Sunday for weeks campaigning for John Kerry. That doesn't excuse the utter bs of your "context" excuse for Kanye West's NBC tirade.

Is race behind the FEMA failure in New Orleans? Yes, at least in-part (though it's not like we haven't seen gross incompetence and cronyism from the Administration before this). Did Bush give a license to kill African-Americans? Jesus, why are we even discussing this? Is AIDS a genocidal plot? What the fuck "context" is there for that Jim? (And if you ever listened to African-American talk radio, you know this is code for "Jewish genocidal plot"). And could the setting be any more inapropriate? Bush/GOP voters/Whites effectively called a bunch of Nazis while watching a ==charitable fundraiser====!

Lost sales my ass -- if I had to bet, I'd suspect this was a calculated move by West to cement his cred as the successor to Chuck D., done on the backs of the flood victims. Instead of letting him get away with it, why not stop the -- dare I say it? -- "quiet racism of soft expectations" and make West as responsible for the things he says as anyone who steps onto the playing field of serious politics? <<

If you guessed paragraph 3, go out tomorrow and buy yourself a yummy lunch!
Comments:
Today I had a ham and smoked turkey on whole grain bread sandwich, an apple and a banana. I also had a glass of diet rite raspberry. I wish the editors would not be so harsh with their "deadlines"!!  
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