Easterbrook
Posted on June 18th, 2008 by Brad
As I’ve said before, the amazing thing about Gregg Easterbrook isn’t just that he gets paid to be wrong, but that he gets paid to be wrong on such a broad range of topics, from politics to sports to science to film. Reading a Gregg Easterbrook article is like listening to a rousing speech delivered by one John Blutarsky describing America’s resolve in the days after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. Except, instead of getting basic facts wrong about one particular historical event, he gets them wrong about everything. The guy is a bloody polymath of wrongness, on par with Clifford C. Clavin, Jr.
And yet prestigious magazines continue to publish him.
Why?
Easterbrook, like Fred Hiatt, has a way with ellipses. From the report in question…
Baby we love his way…
The difference between Easterbrook and Clavin is that at least Clavin is charming when he says something wrong.
Clavin should have tried his hand at writing – would’ve had a more lucrative career than at the post office.
The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10.
Maybe it will have oil so we can drill on it.
Or poop.
Because he’s rolling…
I’ll bet the answer is blowjobs.
By GREGG EASTERBROOK
June 13, 2008; Page A15
The Democratic National Committee recently ran an ad blasting John McCain for saying the country is “better off” than in 2000. Yet, arguably, except as regards the Iraq war, Mr. McCain’s statement is true.
The stoopid is blinding.
As my mama used to say: when life gives you poop, you make poop juice… or something like that.
The Atlantic is prestigious?
It is when “someone” wants to goad Megan McArdle.
Except, instead of getting basic facts wrong about one particular historical event, he gets them wrong about everything.
There’s your answer: it’s a package deal.
Or: How do we do it? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!
…he gets paid to be wrong, but that he gets paid to be wrong on such a broad range of topics…
Easterbrook: The Orginal Nihilettante
Easterbrook: The Orginal Nihilettante
That is a word I will use.
Why ask why?
Easterbrook is an idiot, yet he bad-mouthed the Patriots, so I’m torn.
Does Gary Ruppert follow sports? Or does he just hang around playgrounds?
OK, Nihilettante just beat out plaguerism as my new favorite word.
Gregg Easterfreak is a media darling because he’s a contrarian. Magazines just love that stuff: We aren’t running out of oil – there’s more available today than ever. The Iraq war is good for America’s image. Our dollar is stronger than all other currencies, the exchange rates simply don’t reflect that reality. And so forth.
Most are, right now, the best-off they have ever been.
I wonder if they have to equalize the air pressure in his head when he’s flying?
Scott Horton at Harpers.
Just for contrast with Easterbrook and Hiatt.
Speaking of “serious” idiots getting published for no apparent logical reason, Michael Gerson’s Al Franken attack in the WaPo is too precious.
Susan, have you been goading Megan again?
Because he’s Old Gregg, and he’s got the ball with the funky teats.
I’ve never read that Kill Bill piece. I can’t imagine any self-respecting publication not FIRING his ass… nevermind letting it go to print.
Zeppo. the woman sits around and announces that the Iraq infrastructure is fine and improving all the time. She has no conscience, no shame, no morals. She annoys me.
Does Gary Ruppert follow sports?
I sure do, sport.
At least Kristol gets to his errors posthaste. Easterbrook stretches out his bullshit taffy over 2,000 words.
His ESPN NFL column is excruciating. The man spends so much time telling us that he finds cheerleaders sexually appealing. We know, dude, we know. Put it back in your pants.
Gregg Easterbrook owes me $20!!
And yet prestigious magazines continue to publish him.
Why?
Because shut up, that’s why.
I’m a zit. Get it?
Phil Dearly always told me that when life gives you shit you make shit salad.
when life gives you poop, you make poop juice… or something like that.
Enema wine?
I think the short answers are
1. People like to read stuff that goes against the prevailing wisdom, facts be damned.
2. Corporations like to hire people who will support their propaganda and legitimize their misinformation. I believe this is where the term “useful idiots” applies.
The idea that news organizations are trying to “get it right” and “report the truth” and care about the accuracy of the information they print (particularly in Op-Eds) just ignores centuries of news media malfeasance. They try to entertain and brainwash the lemmings. That is the way it has always been. It is not likely to change and guys like Greg Easterbrook will remain prosperous and stupid.
Enema wine?
Choda-donnay
Shir-ass
Ca-bum-net
Glutz-traminer
He’s so afraid of me he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Sorry.
Manitochas!
Speaking of enema’s… did/is Larry Sinclair “corroborating” his “evidence’s” at the National “Press'” Club today…?
I caint find nuttin.
PeeJ, the NPR website says 3:00 PM EST. Last item on the daybook.
Lillie, the answer is always blowjobs. Well, at least, that’s always a viable answer.
Is it my imagination or did Greg Easterbrook used to be smarter? I do remember finding Greg Easterbrook intelligent and incisive about 15 years ago. Was he more intelligent then or is Dennis Prager right about teh kidz being politically naive?
is Dennis Prager right
Figure the odds.
PeeJ-
The original time was 7 pm or so. Looks like I won’t get to flash my pass at Larr.
Heh. Holeman Lounge. [Snerk]
Whitehouse.com is giving him a polygraph at 5.
And then Sinclair will claim that his ex-lover Tim Russert faked his death as part of a conspiracy to keep distract the press.
Named in honor of Jeff Gannon.
This website has Sinclair’s “press statement”. They’re also reporting that Sinclair was arrested at the end of his NPC appearance and led away in handcuffs on an outstanding Delaware warrant: http://themitchandnanshow.wordpress.com
Cool. I knew he was wanted in CO. He also said no obama bloggers would get credentials. Said it in a very snotty way, too. I can hardly wait to see what he says is “evidence.”
Don’t hold your breath. Based on the link SomeGuyinNY provided he offered no evidence and instead called on Camp Obama to cough up phone records.
How the hell would he know an “Obama Blogger?”
“Why?”
Perhaps he’s got photos of editors or something.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!
Dioxin cures cancer.
OT: Heeeeeeere’s teh Caliphate:
http://www.newsobserver.com/917/story/1112708.html
The fact is, you liberals have shown you have no grasp of economics, facts, logic or truth. You have nothing but hate and unreason. Your hatred for Bush is a mental illness, but it is not a reason to vote for a black man, merely out of spite. As well, you need to stop caring about a few polar bears when America’s security is on the line. Here in the Heartland, we have our priorities straight. Out there in the fringe land of coastal eleitsm, you have all really lost it.
mitchandnan are now confirming that Sinclair was arrested in DC upon exiting the presser. How nice.
And there goes the wingnut’s last hope of a Haggard-style pile on.
(Which, now that I look at it written down, can be spun in a way I didn’t intend.)
You LIE-bruls mock Mr. Easterbunny, but he knows from Islamosexuals. It was he who brought the dangers of the national Pelican Menace to the fore in an article in the November 1928 article in “American White Man Magazine”, where he argued against the pending Wyoming legislation banning slavery. This is all part and parcel of a chain of events run by the Juice and the Buildin’burgers that will make Shania Law OUR law! Those of us in the Heartland of the USA of America might be willing to use our M1A Battle Rifles™ under the banner of the Cresent, but the guys at the Blood Clot Bar in Butte will never give up “Happy Hour” (such as it is) but they’re ok with wearing those Duncan Donuts scarfs (its Hickory Bug season in Montana and it pays to wrap something around your face when you travel on a Harley).
USA! USA! USA!
Yeah, like wingnuts need facts to start a sHag-in.
In the fat ugly miserable deluded world of the fat ugly miserable deluded wingnut any guy who looks better than they do must be:
1. Gay.
2. After their ass.
Needless to say, the only people wingnuts don’t suspect of wanting to plough them are other wingnuts.
a very public sociologist said,
June 19, 2008 at 0:14
“Why?”
Perhaps he’s got photos of editors or something.
WE demand an apology from the Teh Editorz, post haste!
I’m pretty sure its “plow them”, not that I’d know.
USA!
Because he’s Old Gregg, and he’s got the ball with the funky teats.
Does he have a mangina?
Actually, I don’t want to know.
Obama Blogger.
An Irish blogger from Alabama.
mikey
You have nothing but hate and unreason.
NO one expects the Liberal Inquisition.
Our two weapons are hate, unreason and an unwillingness to accept scripture.
Wait.
Our THREE weapons are hate, unreason, an unwillingness to accept scripture and latte sipping eliteism.
Shit.
Our FOUR weapons are hate, unreason, an unwillingness to accept scripture, latte sipping eliteism and patchouli oil.
Dammit.
I’m going to start over…
mikey
Hoo boy, now the patchoulii haters come out.
FURRIES!
I think I’m just gonna yell that, from time to time, from here on out.
Hope nobody minds…
Does he have a mangina?
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
When patchouli haters are outlawed, only outlaws will hate patchouli. Or patchoulii. Or patchouli³, for that matter.
“WE demand an apology from the Teh Editorz, post haste!”
The Editors cannot be expected to stoop to apologize to the dilettantes and autodidacts around here.
GoatBoy said,
June 19, 2008 at 1:27
“WE demand an apology from the Teh Editorz, post haste!”
The Editors cannot be expected to stoop to apologize to the dilettantes and autodidacts around here.
That’s it, GoatBoy. You want your house put on the National Priorities List? Is that what you want?
Oh kay.
/Tony Montana voice
~
This has to be the work of the Obama campaign. Fucking fuckwads.
I think the Atlantic keeps Easterbrook around to make Megan look smart. I pretty damn sure it’s not blowjobs in his case (I can’t imagine he knows how to give them, considering he doesn’t know anything else).
As for me, I like to make shit pies. You can tell by my shit-eating grin.
Worst persons in the world.
Olbermann quotes Kristol.
And then responds thusly:
Sadly, No!
Just sayin…
mikey
Easterbrook, the same dood who writes preposterous Monday morning QB columns for ESPN, in which he spews hatred for the Pats while naming a cheerleader of the week? A misguided man.
Just…one…more….wetsuit….
fuck.
Why?
Hmm, maybe The Atlantic isn’t being run as a “business” but a “Tax write off” for its parent corporation?
Or maybe Dark Matter is fucking with reality at the quantum level and Easterbrook’s writing is being twisted by the gravimetric fluctuations induced when the Earth (along with the Milky Way galaxy) smacked headlong into Canis Major.
Or maybe it’s just that anybody who reads Easterbook without laughing will also shell out thousands for hair tonic.
You can say anything you want about Wikipedia, but you may very well be missing the real value.
Check it out…
mikey
<a href=””>
I used that page as a reference in the cigarskunk thread.
The fact is, all this talk about sausages has me sweaty.
Shorter Gary Ruppert: When they came for the polar bears, I didn’t say anything because I’m not a polar bear. When the entire ecosystem went belly up and I didn’t have anything to eat any more, I really, really wished I could eat a polar bear.
Shorter Easterbrook on Science: “Haha, that Al Gore is so stupid he was warning about climate change years before I decided I agree with him. And get this — he still flies on planes!”
When the entire ecosystem went belly up and I didn’t have anything to eat any more, I really, really wished I could eat a polar bear.
Yum. Polar Bear Sausages. Tangy and rich, lotsa fat and herbs, and just a soupçon of cayenne…
mikey
I used to be an environmentalist, until Mikey’s polar-bear leberwurst gave me vitamin-A poisoning.
It is, once again, a media plot to make wingnertz appear stupider than they are.
Yum. Polar Bear Sausages. Tangy and rich, lotsa fat and herbs, and just a soupçon of cayenne…
I sense a JanusNode recipe in our near future…
Why?
You know the answer to this. You’ve heard it all your life, already:
MOM: Because, that’s why. What did we send you to that fancy college for — your father working like a dog to keep you there; like an animal; are you listening to what I’m telling you? He did this, this act of love for which he will never, ever, say anything to you — so you could sit around doing this ‘blogging’ and ask about Gregg the Easter Bunny or whatever??
Am I hearing this right? Did I raise a luftmensch?? Sit up straight and answer me when I’m talking; so, you tell me “Why”. Well?? I’m waiting.
YOU: Uh — I dunno. What was the question?
MOM: Ach; wait until your father gets home.
Now I’m really glad I didn’t go to college…
mikey
Polar Bear tastes like Bald Eagle.
I’m pretty sure he does his ESPN.com 20,000 words/week football column for free. I mean that’s the only way I can explain it. That’s where he made those anti-semitic kill bill comments and they cancelled the column only to let him come back 2 years later. it must be for free right? They couldn’t possibly want him, but when a “name” journalist offers a free e-column with no publishing costs you take him up on it.
Gregg Easterfreak is a media darling because he’s a contrarian. Magazines just love that stuff: We aren’t running out of oil – there’s more available today than ever. The Iraq war is good for America’s image. Our dollar is stronger than all other currencies, the exchange rates simply don’t reflect that reality…
Nah, I have long thought that the Easterbrook “brand” is that he’s the perfect Cracked Egghead. Kinda like the “professor” character on Gilligan’s Island. Normal people who might secretly be afraid that they’re not keeping up with the world the way they should can read any “think” piece shat out by Easterbrook, a professional smart person, and understand that Gregg has every single piece of quantifiable information WRONG. This gives the rest of us mopes the warm glow of feeling that, well, maybe we’re not 100% sure of the difference between Sunni and Shiite, but at least we know that Dubya’s Big Iraq Adventure is universally regarded as the benchmark of Epic Fail. Since a considerable part of the paying audience for print media is people who are afraid of Not Keeping Up, there is a good market for plausibly “intelligent” pundits who can be counted upon to dress an infalliable talent for wrongness in a high-gloss coat of long words and semi-colons.
He’s written a few good things in his time–“The Progress Paradox” had some interesting ideas, and the TNR piece “Axle of Evil” is still the definitive short SUV takedown–but man, it’s just swamped with the crap. His football column got old in a huge hurry, too.
Another difference is that Cliff Clavin had an actual job (postal worker) while Easterbrook is a wingnut welfare queen.
my favorite thing that easterbrook wrote appeared in the Atlantic prior to the 2000 election. at the time i didnt know who he was but thought he was a complete idiot. The gist of the artilce was Bush would be great for the environment because he could do things gore couldnt. and gore would also be good for some other reason. basically the entire article is the embodiment of what other commenters have written – all easterbrook does is try and be a contrarian. problem is of course he’s always contrary to reality, facts, and common sense.
hey look, here it is – http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/09/easterbrook.htm
When I picked up the issue of the Atlantic with the Giant Killer Space Rock cover story, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or immediately start typing out bullshit contrarianism in the hope of getting those sweet Brookings dollars.
Easterbrook: The Orginal Nihilettante
Brilliant!
The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10.
Damnit!
Another bogosity-detector, dead from an overdose.
Okay, this is something I also do at times, not wanting to take the time to look stuff up & thus falling back on the whole “possibly” or “may be as high as” or “potentially” fudge – but God knows, I’m not getting PAID for it. Easterschnook is – & therein lies the tragedy. If he had to pay for every whopper he’s published he’d POTENTIALLY be in debt up to the eyebrows … or he might actually bother to do a weird little-known occult ritual known as “fact-checking” prior to reloading his Shovel O’ Brilliance with yet more of Flossy’s byproduct.
A Bullshit-Tax, people – it’s the only way to stop this.
[…] I respect them, but I must set them straight. Or rather, I must allow Brad at Sadly, No to set them straight: As I’ve said before, the amazing thing about Gregg Easterbrook isn’t just that he gets paid to […]
[…] and also: he quotes Gregg Easterbrook as an authority on science. […]