[Orin Kerr, March 22, 2008 at 12:38pm] Trackbacks
Weingarten on the Pundustry:
In the Sunday Washington Post Magazine, humorist Gene Weingarten reports on his experiment wholly immersing himself in Web, TV, radio, and newspaper punditry for 24 hours straight.
Soronel Haetir (mail):

The things people will puts themselves through to make a buck.
3.22.2008 2:44pm
liberty (mail) (www):
You can watch for 5 minutes and know that its like that 24 hours.
3.22.2008 2:56pm
kidblue:
Wonderful essay. I laughed a lot.
3.22.2008 5:34pm
Bill Harshaw (mail) (www):
You're making him an oracle--re: "pundustry".
3.22.2008 6:56pm
Brian G (mail) (www):
Nice work. At first, looking at the headline I thought it was a Labor Law post.
3.22.2008 7:02pm
OrinKerr:
Bill,

When I posted this a few hours ago, there were 8 google hits for "pundustry." Now there are 38, and the #1 hit is this post. Just doing my part....
3.22.2008 7:52pm
wolfefan (mail):
Hello -

People who regularly read Weingarten will know that he'd be pleased to see where "pundustry" winds up re: Google hits.
3.22.2008 8:44pm
Lonetown (mail):
That was humor?

Good humorous opening "in the relentless drone of insipid opinion".

This is the kind of "humor" liberals spew when it doesn't go their way.
3.23.2008 8:30am
Q the Enchanter (mail) (www):
The horror! The horror!
3.23.2008 9:59am
JosephSlater (mail):
Brian G.:

The labor law case/doctrine crossed my mind when I read the subject line too.
3.23.2008 11:16am
PGofHSM (mail) (www):
Lonetown,

That was a non-ironic comment?

Sorry, *what's* not going liberals' way? Weingarten is a humor columnist who occasionally does longer feature pieces. On children's party clowns. You may not find him funny, but I'm not clear on what's particularly liberal about his being unfunny.

Indeed, one of the nice things about this piece is that Weingarten can self-deprecate his own liberalism while making a good point:

'The peril of listening to Limbaugh and O'Reilly at the same time is that you tend to compare them, and these are dangerous waters for an unapologetic, unreconstructed New Deal liberal like me. The comparison makes you actually like Rush. He's funny; O'Reilly is not. Limbaugh teases and baits his political adversaries; O'Reilly sneers and snarls at them. Limbaugh is mock-heroic; O'Reilly is self-righteous. So, when Limbaugh speculates that the Democrats in the House committee went after Roger Clemens because liberals hate cherished American institutions such as churches, the Boy Scouts and baseball, you know he's sorta kidding. When O'Reilly says liberals who oppose torture of prisoners just don't care how many people will die in a terrorist attack, you know he's as serious as an aneurysm.
'Bathed as I am in my new, grudging affection for Rush...'
3.23.2008 9:24pm
Brian G (mail) (www):
Well Joseph, you know what they say, "great minds think alike."
3.24.2008 12:45am