People who know me know that I hate the general level of incompetence and sheer stupidity of what passes for journalism nowadays. I subscribe to the radical belief that articles should be informative, filled with facts, identify sources of information, acknowledge bias when it exists, and unequivocally state when someone is clearly in error (or lying). In other words, journalists should reach past press releases, make some phone calls, interview people, source the people they interview, and check the facts of comments from their sources. Never let quotes stand alone without at least some attempt to actually, you know, see if what they say is true.
Needless to say, I don’t come across this type of reporting very often. This story about Rudy Giuliani from the Village Voice is an example of the best kind of journalism. There were one or two minor things I took issue with, which were basically incidental to the story, but it’s all out there for you to read, evaluate, and (gasp!) walk away from better informed.
My short version of this article? Rudy G is a pompous, political prick who takes credit for things he had nothing to do with, criticizes things he knows nothing about, believes that the proper role of journalists is to regurgitate his talking points and thinks the American people are too stupid to know when he’s lying.
I suppose that’s what passes for “presidential” in today’s Republican party.
We’ve nbeen hlwling about Rudy ourselves for while now. And his wife is an even more interesting piece of work. As a professional social climber, she’s surely reached about the top of her profession.