Praise War = Profit

I cannot think of a more reifying and yet depressing article about the media I've read this year than this story in Radar Magazine.

If you were a War-Whore about Iraq in 2002/2003, even when it is patently obvious you were monstrously wrong -- it has been FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC for your career.

If you were a strong opponent and proven absolutely correct, your career has essentially been scuttled. Now where is this more accurately stated than in regard to Robert Scheer and the L.A. Times.

I've stated this generally many times -- as have many, many, many other progressives, but to see it so starkly in print, and to know it could be supplmented with dozens of other examples is truly depressing and reflective of our militarized, imperial state.

Juan Cole on the same article sums it up well:

This is because punditry is not about being right or wrong or exhibiting good judgment. It is about producing and reproducing elite American political discourse for the masses. It is more important that they can continue to justify changing elite policy than that they supported past policies that didn't work out very well.

These hacks should be shamed and shunned in polite society.