This is exactly what you’d expect:
A cliched collection of corny “Have you no decency sir?” liberal talking points.
He writes this:
Much the way Americans fear Muslim extremism today, McCarthy and many other politicians and public figures fueled America’s obsession with Communism following World War II.
evidently without a scrap of irony or self-awareness.
But what puts this otherwise predictable litany of bullshit on a “higher” plane?
Well, obviously, Norman Pearlstine leaves out the Venona transcripts and all the other evidence that Joe McCarthy wasn’t just the evil buffoon of liberal mythology.
They all do.
But Norman Pearlstine also happens to be “the vice chairman of Time Inc. Previously, he served as its chief content officer from 2013 to 2016, and as editor in chief from 1995 to 2005.”
So should we be surprised — or not? — that Pearlstine also fails to namecheck former Time employee…
Oh, and by the way, Columbia Journalism Review helpfully provides you with the option of “emailing the author.”
I took advantage of this service, included the questions above, and received an automated reply, not from Norman Pearlstine, but from the female who serves as Managing Editor of CJR, informing me that she is “out of the office until mid-April.”
Journalism is in the best of all possible hands, plebes!
