WaPo Book Critic Sneers at 'Self-Important Pipsqueaks' on the Right

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Mark Lewis at Forbes.com wondered "is there anyone among the current crop of right-wing pundits who can bear comparison to" legendary columnist, critic, and curmudgeon H.L. Mencken? "Absolutely nobody," declared Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley, who edited Mencken's posthumous memoir My Life as Author and Editor.

"These people are self-important pipsqueaks," Yardley said, via e-mail. "I don't respect a single one of them, much less think that a single one of them deserves to be compared to H.L.M. I do have a measure of respect for David Brooks, whose knee doesn't seem to jerk in his sleep, but he's no Mencken and I suspect he'd be the first to say so."

Lewis noted that Ann Coulter has declared herself the new Mencken, and that other conservatives have drawn the comparison: P.J. O’Rourke, Mark Steyn, and R. Emmett Tyrrell, (who seems most eager to capture the Menckenesque voice).

It might be fair to argue that no one on today's political journalism radar can match Mencken, the "sage of Baltimore." But it's quite another for this WaPo veteran to lash out so pompously against the "pipsqueaks" on the right.

Lewis also interviewed Mencken biographer Terry Teachout:

"Mencken was every bit as heartless as he made out," Teachout said, via e-mail. "Not on an individual level--he was capable of great personal kindness--but everything that he wrote in Notes on Democracy should be taken seriously as an expression of how he thought the world worked. Another way to put it is that he believed that politics existed in order to block the otherwise inevitable operation of social Darwinism. For that reason, he didn't have any serious expectation that his ideas would ever be adopted in America: He knew that elitism has no appeal in a democracy."

"It's important to keep in mind, though, that Mencken was the furthest thing from a practical political thinker," Teachout added. "He was essentially a literary artist who played with ideas. This doesn't mean that he wasn't serious about those ideas, but it would never have occurred to him to think through how they might be made to work in the real world. That wasn't what he understood to be his job--he was a critic, period."

Teachout kindly reviewed Yardley’s edited Mencken volume in The New York Times back in 1993.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.


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Who?

Who?

Rog... Ditto

Rog...

Ditto that.

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Only William F Buckley know for sure

Roger & bt,

I guess that if only five to ten people have heard of you that makes you "elite" - like Yardley (I've heard of Mencken from reading National Review in the old days). By this definition, we here are "elites". Pass the sherry decanter, if you would be so kind... :) 

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

LOL Chris... Okay...I'm

LOL Chris...

Okay...I'm getting ready to pass you that decanter friend...   ;-)

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Good evening BT

Wasn't Menchken's family the ones who guided Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road?

Jesus Loves You so much He died for you

coco...LOL! There should

coco...LOL!

There should have been a spew alert here with your post!

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Who the hell is this dumbass?

I've never heard of this guy but he sounds like an arrogant jackass.  I guess that says it all.

"To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards of men" -Ella Wheeler Wilcox

And this sites version of

And this sites version of Whack a Mole goes on..

must keep whacking..whack whack whack..damn they keep coming!!

Elitism has no place in

Elitism has no place in democracy which is why democraps are in favor of elitism. As for Mencken he was a vicious antisemite, which is why no republican can hope to be a Mencken, but plenty of leftwing antisemites can hope to stand in his evil shoes.

Not sure what your comment

Not sure what your comment has to do with mine. I was attempting to make a 'meta-comment' about this site.

Unfortunately, they

Unfortunately, they do. This site should probably just give up and disband, huh? But, then, what would you do?

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

Of course not...It's just

Of course not...It's just that some libs are important and some not so much. I doubt anyone ever heard of this guy, so why waste bandwith on him ?

Because liberal bias has

Because liberal bias has permeated all over the media - nationally, locally, well-known - unknown, in big ways - in small ways, news - entertainment, televison - newspapers - magazines - books. Who decides what's important enough? 

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

Ok, but if you want to

Ok, but if you want to document every single instance of liberal bias you find, you're going to lose me..the above story is trivial to me and I have a limited tolerance for trivia.

No such thing as an important lib

All libs suck.  They're a bunch of surrendering, spread the wealth, raise the taxes, biggest government in the world lunatics.  With such idiocy present in America, we will continue to struggle.

"To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards of men" -Ella Wheeler Wilcox