The Commentariat -- May 18, 2014

CW: It pains me to owe an apology to Charles Murray, the charlatan "scholar" of the American Enterprise Institute, but it rends me in two Rumpelstiltskin-style to owe a big mea culpa to David Fucking Brooks. But I do, I do. Yesterday I linked as straight news a satirical article about Murray that claimed he said women had smaller brains than men -- which explained why there were no great female philosophers. He did make the assertion about female philosophers, but he never claimed women had teeny-weeny brains. So, Charles Murray, I apologize. Gulp. And David Brooks, I'm vewwy, vewwy sorry. I am sorriest for misleading readers who trusted me not to lead them astray. Thanks to contributor Lisa for setting me straight.

Annals of Journalism, CYA Edition

NEW. Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The New York Times, released a statement Saturday afternoon detailing his decision to fire the newspaper’s executive editor, Jill Abramson. He was responding to a growing controversy over accusations by Ms. Abramson’s supporters that gender played a role in her dismissal."

... Sulzberger's statement is here. CW: Nothing about her smallish brain. The Times is all for gender equality, Sulzberger sez.

NEW. Dylan Byers of Politico: "New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger fired executive editor Jill Abramson after concluding that she had misled both him and chief executive Mark Thompson during her effort to hire a new co-managing editor, according to two sources with knowledge of the reason for her termination."

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times on the early history of the Koch brothers' political involvement in politics. CW: I was interested to see they were among those influenced by the Powell memo.

David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said in an interview Friday that he is ready and willing to serve on the House Republican committee slated to investigate the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.... In appearance on Rev. Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show on Friday night, Grayson said, 'I would be their worst, worst nightmare. I’d be their worst and last nightmare.'”

Maureen Dowd, following up on Tim Egan's most recent column (linked here May 15), writes an excellent essay about Condoleezza Rice.

Senate Race -- Mississippi-Style

AP: "Authorities say a conservative Mississippi blogger went into a nursing home, photographed the bedridden wife of Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran without permission and posted an image online. Rose Cochran has lived at St. Catherine's Village since 2000 and has dementia. Madison police say 28-year-old Clayton Thomas Kelly of Pearl was arrested Friday and charged with a felony, exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He remained jailed Saturday under $100,000 bond." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "I'm inclined to say this is what happens when you've got a Tea Party candidate who dabbles in neo-confederate and supremacist politics. But boy is this one weird and dirty. Here are the key facts. Incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran's wife has been in a nursing home for more than a decade. Precise details are sketchy but she appears to suffer from some form of advanced dementia and is in precarious health. The Tea Party candidate McDaniel has been dishing out an avalanche of oppo over recent days including a very weird article in Breitbart which in the guise of talking about spending on congressional trips was clearly intended to suggest that Cochran is having an affair." ...

... CW: Excuse me. Are voters supposed to be horrified that a man whose wife has been hospitalized with dementia for 10 years has a relationship with another woman? Is Jane Eyre really relavant in 21st-century Mississippi? Maybe so.

The Commentariat -- May 17, 2014

Your Friday Afternoon News Dump. Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "One day after deflecting calls from unhappy senators to shake up his leadership team, Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, ousted the department’s soon-to-retire head of health care. The move came amid snowballing allegations that veterans hospitals manipulated waiting lists to hide long delays many patients faced to see physicians.... But ... Republican officials quickly pointed out that Dr. [Robert] Petzel’s retirement had already been announced last September — to take effect this year — and that two weeks ago President Obama nominated Dr. Jeffrey A. Murawsky, a senior department official, to replace him." ...

... Dana Milbank: Shinseki must go.

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "With border authorities in South Texas overwhelmed by a surge of young illegal migrants traveling by themselves, the Department of Homeland Security declared a crisis this week and moved to set up an emergency shelter for the youths at an Air Force base in San Antonio, officials said Friday. After seeing children packed in a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Tex., during a visit last Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Monday declared 'a level-four condition of readiness' in the Rio Grande Valley."

** Women Are "Nice Enough," Just Not Too Bright. David Neilson of Newslo: "American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray -- who is an educational advisor to Republican governor candidate Greg Abbott, told an audience at the University of Texas this week that there is no 'evidence' showing that any woman has ever been a 'significant original thinker.' He then said the reason for this was the smaller size of the female brain. 'When you compare the size of a man’s brain with that of a woman, there’s no comparison,' explained Murray. 'It’s not that I have anything against women. They’re nice enough, but it’s just a physical fact that their brains have developed to the same degree that men’s brains have developed.'” Thanks to Julie L. for the link. ...

... CW: Let me just add here that Murray is NYT columnist David Brooks' favorite "scholar." Brooks has cited him extensively & approvingly in his columns (& in his books, I think), & -- if I recall correctly -- they have stroked each other on various Villager symposia & write lovely things about each other on book jacket blurbs. The Times may have fired the "pushy" broad, but Brooks would have to screw Pinch's lady friend at the entrance to 620 8th Ave. to lose his place on the op-ed page. ...

     ... CW UPDATE: Oh noes! I've been punked. See comment in May 18 Commentariat.

Marjorie Connelly of the New York Times: "In response to polling data showing that the Affordable Care Act has become more popular, a prominent Republican pollster said that he expected Republicans to change how they talked about the law. 'After the primaries, expect a shift in Republican candidates’ rhetoric against Obamacare,' said Bill McInturff, a partner in Public Opinion Strategies. 'Only [a] few want to repeal the law; most want to fix and keep it,' he added." ...

... "We Can't Pass Laws Because Obama Won't Enforce Them, Ctd." Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed: "An aide to House Speaker John Boehner rejected Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett’s comments that the administration has a 'commitment' from Boehner to pass immigration reform... "But as the speaker has said repeatedly, it’s difficult to see how we make progress until the American people have faith that President Obama will enforce the law as written,' [said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel]. ...

... CW: Here's an indication of Boehner's "commitment" to immigration reform. Seung Min Kim of Politico: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor won’t allow attempts next week to include a measure on a must-pass defense policy bill that would legalize young undocumented immigrants who serve in the military. A spokesman confirmed Friday that the legislation, known as the Enlist Act, will not be among those debated with the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that sets policy for the Pentagon. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), the Enlist Act’s chief sponsor, had pledged to bring it up as part of the floor battle over the defense bill."

David Dayen of the New Republic: "People power" has put true net neutrality back on the agenda. "The grassroots pressure got tech firms off the sidelines. Over 100 of them, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, publicly opposed [FCC] Chairman [Tom] Wheeler’s rules, arguing that the rules should not allow 'individualized bargaining and discrimination.'”...

... Lee Drutman & Zander Furnas of the Daily Dot have done an analysis of which companies have spent the most $$$ lobbying for & against net neutrality: The biggest oppo spenders: Verizon, AT&T & Comcast.

CW: Glad to read your differing takes yesterday on Tim Egan's column about preserving the "diversity" of commencement speakers. Could we agree that this is carrying political correctness too far?

Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "Embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has no intention of accepting two-thirds of the punishment imposed upon him by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. He may be staying away from his team and the league, but he will not pay the $2.5 million fine levied against him and he will sue the league to retain ownership of the team...."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd.

Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "The controversy over the firing of Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times, continued on Friday as the company’s chief executive [Mark Thompson] sent a letter to senior editors in an effort to further address the reasons for her dismissal." ...

... Here are the New Yorker articles, by Ken Auletta, which Somaiya refers to in his piece linked above: Part 1 and Part 2 of why Pinch fired Jill. Very interesting, if this is the kind of gossip that interests you. CW: Bottom line, I think: the principals are all people who don't play well with others, so firings are hardly surprising. Add to that the Times' long history of misogyny, & Abramson's ouster seemed nearly inevitable. ...

... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "A New York Times spokeswoman demanded on Friday morning that the New Yorker magazine correct a report about the newspaper's firing of executive editor Jill Abramson. The magazine, however, responded by saying its original report was accurate." ...

... Michelle Dean of Gawker: It's the old "If X = Y, then woman = pushy/man = bold" equation. ...

... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "When they tell you it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. In Abramson’s case, it’s about the money and a lawyer. It’s also about being, to put it politely, less than forthcoming with Dean Baquet, her deputy and now successor, regarding her plan to hire Guardian journalist Janine Gibson to be Baquet’s co-managing editor in charge of digital journalism."

A Big Day in Pretend Journalism:

Gail Collins: Everybody's talking about Hillary.

The Commentariat -- May 16, 2014

CW: I'm baaaack! Sort of.

Paul Krugman: The Republican "party's intellectual evolution (or maybe more accurately, its devolution) has reached a point of no return, in which allegiance to false doctrines has become a crucial badge of identity."

Tim Egan: Political correction, from the left & right, is depriving grads "of hearing something that might spoil a view of the world they've already figured out."

News Ledes

AP: "Jeb Stuart Magruder, a Watergate conspirator-turned-minister who claimed in later years to have heard President Richard Nixon order the infamous break-in, has died. He was 79."

New York Times: "The Indian National Congress, which has headed India's government for nearly all the country's post-Independence history, conceded defeat to the opposition leader Narendra Modi on Friday, as voters rendered a crushing verdict on their country's flagging economic growth and a drumbeat of corruption scandals. Election officials had not yet finished counting the 550 million votes cast in the five-week general elections, but the contours of Congress's defeat quickly became clear."