My Impromptus today is headed “Days of the jackals, &c.” The reader will know that I am borrowing from Frederick Forsyth’s novel of 1971: The Day of the Jackal (made into a movie two years later). The book is a political thriller, and brilliant. Heart-stopping. It is about a plot to assassinate de Gaulle.
WFB zeroed in on the brilliance of this book: Everyone knows that de Gaulle died in bed. Everyone knows that he was not assassinated. Nonetheless, your heart is in your throat as you read the book.
A real authorial achievement.
Here in the Corner, rather than publishing mail, I thought I would comment on something that came to my attention yesterday. Our Dominic Pino had written a piece about the Heritage Foundation and its stance on Ukraine (more like a stance against Ukraine). A “New Right” type responded as follows:
The establishment Right hasn’t learned much from or evolved with its own voting base over the last 7 years. It is bound and determined to die on these hills, foolishly adopting a Blame Trump First strategy of denial. The results over the next year and a half may be catastrophic. https://t.co/O0eK1ECcNK
— Matthew J. Peterson (@docMJP) August 23, 2023
Over the last many years, there has been a whole lotta “evolution” goin’ on — true. People who were once free-marketeers have become protectionists. (That is a theme of my column today.) People who once stressed character in office now say, “Never mind.” People who once knew that expansionist dictators had to be checked are singing a very, very different tune.
Bless those who have not “evolved,” merely to keep up with the crowd. Merely to go with the flow.
You may have noticed the phrase “voting base” in that tweet (or whatever Elon is calling a tweet these days). “Voting base” is an interesting phrase to use about a magazine, or other journalistic enterprise (or a think tank). Many, many people treat journalists like politicians, and it’s not the people’s fault: It’s the journalists’, because they act like politicians, many of them.
They cultivate constituencies. They craft applause lines. They plump for parties. They go with the flow. They pander to the “base.” They often sound like they’re running for office.
Court filings in Dominion v. Fox were interesting. “You don’t piss off the base,” said one Fox host. A network executive told a reporter that she (the reporter) needed to do a better job of “respecting our audience.” The reporter’s problem was that she had fact-checked claims made by lawyers for President Trump.
If you don’t tell your audience the truth — as best you can ascertain it — are you respecting the audience?
Irving Kristol, when he edited magazines, refused even to take reader surveys. He thought they were an abdication of editorial responsibility. It was up to editors, he said, to decide what should go in a magazine. And each magazine would find its audience. Let there be a market of media (and other goods).
I have heard it suggested that a magazine follow opinion polls. Its editorial position is to be determined by “the people,” or at least some people.
When WFB came out for the Panama Canal treaties, almost the whole Right was against them. When he came out for drug legalization, almost the whole Right was against it. (I’m not sure the Right was wrong.) And his rebukes of the Birchers were none too popular among “the people,” I assure you.
In talks about journalism, I often advise people, “Find an independent journalist. An honest, forthright journalist. An independent-minded journalist.” Now, “independent-minded” does not mean “moderate” necessarily. Lots of independent-minded people have very, very strong opinions. But these opinions are genuinely their own. They are not arrived at with an eye to what other people may think.
Said Charles Krauthammer, in 2013, “You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think — and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.”
I will repeat: There has been a whole lotta evolution goin’ on. Many a political figure, both in the electoral arena and in the media, has executed a U-turn. You could practically hear the tires screech. But you are entitled to say with Margaret Thatcher: “You turn if you want to.”
“Come out from the world and be separate”! “Be not conformed to this world”! “To thine own self be true” (switching authors)! These things can be very, very hard.
Anyway, I am on the verge of a sermon and had better sign off. (Be sure to dump your wallet into the collection plate.)