Great Smackdowns in American Publishing

During last year's early primaries Attaturk occasionally went past FoxNews where Susan Estrich is paid to be a so-called "liberal commentator who nods her head in response to whatever canard the in-place right wing shill throws out there". That doesn't make a great acronym, so let's just call them "House Wussy not named Colmes". I noticed that FoxNews recently added to their stable of quislings with Zell Miller and Martin Frost..."Schon und Ausgeglichen" y'all. The two things I most noticed about Estrich are first, she has a massive head and two, Fox seemed to think she is a chameleon because she was consistently shaded in various bizarre colors from purple to bright orange.

So here comes Susan Estrich's email sent out to complain about Michael Kinsley's LA Times editorial page and, I guess, how great "feminist writers" like "the great" Susan Estrich, are passed over for a conservative woman named Charlotte Allen.

Here is a snippet:

It is with great regret that I send you this message, asking you to help me in fighting blatant sex discrimination at The Los Angeles Times...

Michael is an old friend of mine from law school, and I have tried and tried to bring this issue to his attention

Now, she has a point...as Kinsley acknowledges, if only her FoxNews association hadn't given her the ability to lie like Bill O'Reilly and as incompetently as Sean Hannity. Because here comes the smack down from Kinsley:

The only discussion I have had with Susan since starting this job was a very pleasant dinner a few weeks ago. There were some accurate things in her e-mail, some inaccuracies, and some fantasies. I'm not getting into details.

She is right that we should have more women writing for our op-ed page, and she is right that I am bad about answering e-mail, although she is wrong to think that this bad habit is gender-specific. What seems to have popped her cork, however, is an article by a woman that we did run. I'm sorry that she has "never heard of" Charlotte Allen, but I think it may be possible to be a woman even if Susan Estrich has never heard of you. Even a member of the Independent Women's Forum can nevertheless be a woman, perhaps.

If Susan wants to boycott media institutions that don't adequately reflect her progressive feminist values, maybe she should start by resigning from Fox News, where she is a commentator. Interestingly, her bio on the Fox News site credits her as a contributing editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Those highlighted items may be the best smackdown ever, nobbing on both Estrich, while taking a delicious shot at the conservative Independent Women's Forum.

I'm certainly no fan of Charlotte Allen, but I wouldn't ever get in a argument, in print, with Kinsley.