Jon Meacham, standing between us and a regression to savagery

Andrew Ferguson catches former Newsweek editor, Jon Meacham, making a priceless ass of himself in an interview with Jon Stewart (by the way, has “John” with an ‘h’ become déclassé?)

To Jon Stewart—still rapt, still unsmirking—Meacham went on to cast Newsweek’s unhappy fate as an “existential crisis,” confusing the consequences of his own terrible business sense with a calamity afflicting the whole country. “Let me say this,” he said, portentousness rising. “I don’t think we’re the only catcher in the rye between democracy and ignorance, but I think we’re one of them, and I don’t think there are that many standing on the edge of that cliff.” [emphasis mine – Paco] Indeed, Newsweek was one of the few “common denominators left in a fragmented world.” And it’s not his fault that the denominator business isn’t what it used to be.

Meacham’s Daily Show appearance was a bottled sample of the narcissism that is one of the besetting sins of our press establishment, and in large part the cause of its undoing.

Big H/T to Ed Driscoll, who has much more on the subject of weekly news mags.

Not at all related, but a belated happy birthday to Emperor Franz Josef, who was born August 18, 1830.


”You were absolutely right, Sire, to sack the minister. His comment was flippant to the point of being an act of lèse-majesté. Just imagine him gawking at your new hat and uniform and asking if you had abdicated in order to play first-trumpet in a circus band!”