Your Liberal Media

Interesting Washington Post op-ed page today. Bob Dole says Gerald Ford was great. David Broder agrees as does George Will. Robert Novak says he wasn't right-wing enough. It's a good thing they give this stuff away for free on the internet, because if I'd paid money for a newspaper and then wound up with a subscription to Pravda I'd be pretty upset.

12/28/06 12:56PM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

I'm shocked, shocked that people say nice things about someone right after he dies. Guess what, after Carter dies, the paper will be filled with tributes to him too. It's not partisanship; it's common courtesy.

The only surprise is Novak's nastiness. Didn't anyone ever teach that guy any manners?

Posted by: Al on December 28, 2006 01:08 PM

Heh, now that Ford's interview with Woodward is public, the protocol of saying nice things about the recently departed has been declared null and void. Lots of class being shown on the Right today.

Posted by: Steve on December 28, 2006 01:21 PM

For once (and I mean once), Al is right. After a politician dies, they need to be remembered as a super-human entity capable of committing no wrong. It's before they die that the media gets to speculate on their sex life, their wardrobe, how their death might affect Senate control even though doctors are currently optimistic, how their middle name means they might have terrorist sympathies, and the like. After death, the only proper response is hagiography, because how else will the media be able to sleep soundly at night, like the President does? It's their treatment of the dead that allows them to feel good about themselves, especially if that person is famous, or dies in an interesting way (climbing side of mountain, building collapse, attack by interesting large animal, etc.)...unless that person is a soldier, in which case they need to be carefully counted in a list and otherwise forgotten. Think of the media, Matt! How else will they justify this coming weekend's lovefest on the morning talk shows as pundits take the time to thank other pundits for writing such nice tributes to the guy who died?

Posted by: jfaberuiuc on December 28, 2006 01:23 PM

Granted, it's not nice to speak ill of the dead before they've fully cooled, and Ford was a decent man, but, as Presidents go, Ford was a lightweight. I would think that a columnist would apply the "if you can't think of anything nice to say" (other than that he was a nice guy) standard to Ford and write about someone or something else.

Posted by: ostap on December 28, 2006 02:01 PM

I think the rule to speak no ill of the dead originates in Judaism or Christianity. It might even be in the Bible. In any case, it's a part of Western Culture and Matt should be aware of it.

Posted by: Fred on December 28, 2006 02:06 PM

But the Post isn't abiding by a "speak no ill" rule -- Novak speaks ill. It's just that Novak is criticizing Ford from the right.

Posted by: Matthew Yglesias on December 28, 2006 02:14 PM

"as Presidents go, Ford was a lightweight."

It's even easier to say nice stuff about a lightweight because they never did anything to offend anyone

Posted by: Half Sigma on December 28, 2006 02:14 PM

I seem to recall (the memory is faint because I was 10 at the time) some fairly positive funereal coverage of Nixon at the time of his death, even in the New York Times. Nothing so revisionist as to omit Watergate/the other massive abuses of presidential power, but stuff along the lines of describing his complicated life, his rising to overcome childhood adversity, etc.

Goes to show that 1) few people are so uniformly evil that there is nothing positive to dredge up for an obituary 2) most people, even liberal media goons, like to accentuate the positive at times of death.

Also, most of the positive remembrances here seem to be coming from those who actually knew Ford, who seemed to be a pretty nice guy. Save for finding some guy who was personally slighted by Ford (Kissenger, perhaps?), I don't know where you'd find death coverage that covers how much of a jerk he was.

Posted by: Ben on December 28, 2006 02:27 PM

I don't mind fairly positive coverage. But you'd think the "liberal" media could find someone for an op-ed who wasn't a right wing pundit.

Posted by: Doug T on December 28, 2006 02:36 PM

I was almost ten when Nixon resigned and twelve when Ford left office but I can recall vividly that he was not considered a "healer" but more of an affable lightweight -- a virtue, to be sure, when compared to his sinister predecessor. The center-right pundits are now clamoring to elevate Ford's reputation because they all yearn for The Good Republican to arrive on the scene, like a messiah, and redeem the country from the Bad Republicans and Even Worse Progressives. This exercise in hagiography, so far from the political reality of the mid-70s, speaks volumes more about our own time and the current Washington commentariat than it does about the brief tenure of the "accidental" 38th President.

Posted by: brklynlibrul on December 28, 2006 02:40 PM

"as Presidents go, Ford was a lightweight."

There's an interesting post on Cato@Liberty about Ford and how active he was with the Veto pen. Put in a better situation, he may have been a more active Executive. Who knows?

Posted by: Dan on December 28, 2006 02:43 PM

I think the issue with Ford isn't so much that newspapers can't say that he was a nice guy (there seems to be genuine consensus on his decency as a person), rather it's letting that respect for his personal decency let one cast a blind eye to his substantive political judgements. Like it or not, his presidency was defined primarily by the pardon of Nixon, and to pretend that that decision was universally regarded as a wise choice is to dent reality. It is perfectly possible to suggest simultaneously that he was a rather good man who may have made a huge political mistake for the country, and the WaPo editorial page isn't getting near that right now with a ten-foot pole, except in the comments to Broder and Will. They are punting their credibility as a fair representation of the opinions out there, which is their entire point in theory.

Posted by: jfaberuiuc on December 28, 2006 02:48 PM

Guess what, after Carter dies, the paper will be filled with tributes to him too.

No, the papers will be filled with pieces complaining that while Carter was basically a good guy, in his post-presidency he Went Too Far.

Posted by: alkali on December 28, 2006 02:55 PM

In my opinion, this 'being nice' can be taken too far. Undeserved exhorbitant praise may be as much of an insult to the dead as well-deserved litany of his failings.

Posted by: gregor on December 28, 2006 02:56 PM

I remember admiring the comment in the New Yorker (which probably really can be fairly called "liberal") after Nixon's death referring to his daughters as "always the best argument for the man" or words to that effect. To my knowledge that is a completely fair statement (strange to think that of all the presidents of my life time Nixon may have shown as a parent as much as anyone) and the more effective as a partial eulogy because it is precise and unexpected. Much better than the "nice guy" stuff they seem to be embalming Ford with.

Posted by: Gene O'Grady on December 28, 2006 03:07 PM

Nice, MY -- Ive long referred to it as the "Washington Pravda." After reading that illustrious rag all of my life, I finally determined sometime in 2001 that it really is just a rag. Thank goodness for googlenews and all the rest.

Posted by: dc on December 28, 2006 03:39 PM

Washington Post is fast turning into the Wall Street Journal. Its news pages give the readers the news. Its editorial and op-ed pages are wall to wall wingnuts.

Posted by: DonB on December 28, 2006 04:14 PM

Alkali,

I want some of what you're smoking. Name for me one MSM outlet that will critize Jimmy Carter's post 1980 work after he passes.

While Ford's memorializing has focused on his ability to heal a nation and Reagan's was his ability to get America's swagger back, Carter's will affectionately be how he was more influential in his post presidency than when he was in office.

Posted by: Warbonnet on December 28, 2006 05:51 PM

I recently read a wonderful history on Ford's presidency, Yanek Mieczkowski's _Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s_. I highly recommend it:

http://www.amazon.com/Gerald-Challenges-1970s-Yanek-Mieczkowski/dp/0813123496

Posted by: Rice grad student on December 28, 2006 06:06 PM

Ford wasn't great.

As Truman was to WW2 so was Ford to Watergate. Truman rose to the challenge of WW2 and so his accidental presidency is remembered fondly. The tawdriness of Watergate diminished Ford's scant chance of a decent legacy. And Ford didn't help matters by playing politics with the pardon: Nixon needn't have served a minute of prison time, but he really shouldn't have been afforded the cover of denial.

Every modest man who's given more than he can handle doesn't become a King Arthur. Some become Chester A. Arthur.

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on December 28, 2006 06:06 PM

The most interesting thing (aside from Novak's predictable statements that Ford's real mistake was in not being as right-wing as Attila the Hun) is Will's reference to Ford helping boost Dole's "distinguished career". That, to put it mildly, is not what he was saying about Dole at the time; he spent most of the 1976 general campaign ridiculing Dole, in a tone of raw contempt, for such stunts as Dole's references to the "Democrat Party" and his announcement during the Vice Presidential debate that FDR was responsible for unnecessarily getting us into WW II (a statement which, by the way, was also indicated by the Harris Poll to have swung about 2% of the electorate to Carter, making it another one of the multiple factors that had to coincide to lose the election for Ford).

As in some other respects (the unexplained changes in his views of FDR and Reagan, for instance, and his more recent teeter-tottering on whether the death penalty is a good thing or an outrage), Will seems to working on the assumption that no one will remember what he said earlier. Some of us, however, do.

Posted by: BruceMoomaw on December 28, 2006 11:53 PM

The job of every Republican president is to make his predecessor look good.

Posted by: Buce on December 29, 2006 12:09 AM

the descent of the nation is witnessed and accompanied by the descentof the press and none has gone downhill more spectacularly than the Washington Post. I periodically email Froomkin that he demeans himself working for Washington Post. Meyerson as well. Maybe Pincus.

Posted by: della Rovere on December 29, 2006 12:35 AM

Ford became president in August 1974. Eight months later, on April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. Anyone here remember the chaos of the helicopters evacuating Americans and allies from the roof of the American embassy? The killing, imprisonment, and "re-education" of Vietnamese who had worked with us? Ford had ten months to assure an orderly evacuation and the protection of our friends. Instead, he did nothing, resulting in humiliation for America and a clear warning to anyone foolish enough to work for us: Don't believe our promises. In the end we will abandon you.

Posted by: JR on December 29, 2006 12:47 AM

With Ford you knew he wouldn't do anything crazy. He could sleep well at night.

I can't say that about the current occupant.

Next to the current occupant he looks like a giant.

Posted by: Nan on December 29, 2006 01:57 AM

Yeah... I was looking for insightful commentary after I picked up a copy of WaPo at the gym. Why anyone would like to read Broder, Will, or Novak is beyond me. Reading Bob Dole and the guy who worked as Ford's communications director is fine... they were close to Ford.

I guess it's to be expected since the guy died. But don't liberals have opinions too??? That's why I don't subscribe to the so-called liberal Washington Post.

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Why anyone would like to read Broder, Will, or Novak is beyond me. Reading Bob Dole and the guy who worked as Ford's communications director is fine... they were close to Ford.

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