Monomaniacal? Petty? I think so.
For anyone who followed the drama in the comments section after I lambasted Sadly, No! for the substance-free, petty jihad against Megan McArldle, you’ll know that Gavin, from “Sadly, No! investor relations” tried to maintain that all they’re trying to do is criticize and keep a vigilant watch for a “sloppy thinker and a poor writer who’ll take extreme right-wing positions just to stir up controversy.” So, in Sadly, NO!’s quest to honestly engage Megan, they’ve turned to….wait for it….pointing out that she misspelled a word, and then — to make it even worse — corrected it! The horror! The horror!
What makes this entire episode even odder was that Megan was talking a position that could hardly be described “extreme right-wing.” Megan was agreeing with Scott Lemeiux that Muslim women in Quebec should be allowed to go to polling places and vote even if they are veiled. So, does Sadly No! engage her on whether mutliculturalism or respect for religious traditoins should mean making exceptions in the public sphere for practices that are outside societal norms? That carving out these exceptions could lead to a slippery slope whereby certain Islamic traditions and practices get to be implemented as family law in Canada. No, because that would require some in-depth, sustained argument, an ability that Sadly No! is sadly bereft of.
Isn’t it just lame for them to be so desperate to catch Megan making any error, that they can’t even find real things to criticize her for and instead have to resort the most common category of mistake for every blogger, left and right? If they really wanted to pursue bad spelling, grammar and punctuation among the Atlantic blogs, they should probably go after Yglesias, who not only makes spelling and grammatical errors, but seemingly doesn’t really care. Going after someone for poor grammar and spelling in a blog post really is the last refuge of the desperate, going after them even after they’ve corrected said typo in good faith? That’s some noxious combination of dishonesty and vindictiveness that only reflects poorly on those engaging in such lowly criticism.
Uhhhhh. And a substance free rant about a comedy blog not meeting your standards for proper dialogue is an accomplishment?
Gavin isn’t trying to prove McArdle wrong, he’s mocking the very fact she has that gig. He’s not desperate to catch her in an error, he’s pointing out she’s incapable of not making errors. You might as well rail at Colbert for not giving bears equal time to respond to his charges.
It’s a justified expression of disgust that a once important and respectable publication has hired someone who doesn’t even fact check her posts, or even proofread them. Nevermind that, politically, she has no connection to the traditions the Atlantic spent a century plus building, she’s not qualified to be there. She’s a sloppy writer, and doesn’t even qualify as a bad journalist.
But hey, maybe she’ll invite you to the lunch table now.
brad (not bradrocket, miss althouse)
September 11, 2007 at 8:24 am
“He’s not desperate to catch her in an error, he’s pointing out she’s incapable of not making errors.”
See that’s a point people often miss. Many times I’ll read something and think to myself “You know, this writer is infallible. She is literally incapable of error, because I don’t think she’s human. I think she might be an immortal of some kind, maybe a demigod or lesser deity.”
So Gavin’s point was that McArdle is capable of human error? Multiple posts stating the obvious–a daring experiment in blogging!
“doesn’t even qualify as a bad journalist”
Well, that’s good considering that she isn’t a journalist. They pay her, Yglesias, Sullivan, and Douthat to offer up their opinions and observations on things.
paxamericana
September 12, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Oh snap!
Quixote
September 12, 2007 at 11:07 pm
because that would require some in-depth, sustained argument, an ability that Sadly No! is sadly bereft of.
A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the banjo, and doesn’t. -Mark Twain
Gavin M.
September 13, 2007 at 9:15 pm