Mark Eichenlaub of regimeofterror.com directed me toward this masterpiece of irresponsible speculation and anti-Bush psychosis written by Massimo Calabresi in Time magazine. Here is the first paragraph:
George W. Bush and the Iranians are locked in a diplomatic game of “Who’s crazier?” With six months left in office, no political capital at home or abroad, and a uniformed military ready to rebel at the first talk of a new war, the Bush administration is left with simply the threat of military strikes, kept eternally “on the table” in hopes of bluffing Tehran into a compromise on its nuclear program.
Well, at least Calabresi admits that Bush is being “diplomatic,” right? As for the “who’s crazier” question: It might be of interest to Calebresi (though, it probably isn’t) that writing about Ahmadinejad in this manner could get him executed in Iran. Pretty “crazy,” huh, Massimo? Putting aside Calabresi’s moral ineptitude in equating a proponent of democracy with a proponent of genocide, just where does this journalist get his groundbreaking information from? The U.S. military is on the verge of rebellion? This is Time magazine, after all. Such assertions can’t make it to publication without rigorous fact-checking, can they? I, for one, would like to see the evidence for this deeply troubling claim.
The rest of the piece is equally rich in laughable assertions and ethical abjection, and represents a new low in mainstream media. Looking into Calebresi’s background, yielded this piece from the Yale Daily News about a visit Massimo made to his alma mater last year. The highlights in this article are just as amusing as Massimo’s own Kos-esque rant. In the article, Naina Saligram observed:
In one of the more pointed moments of the evening, Calabresi suggested the world outside Yale is full of people with a “very low level of analytical skill.”
[...]
Some audience members interviewed said they were struck by Calabresi’s candidness.
“I was surprised to hear what Calabresi said about interacting with the public after leaving Yale,” said Paul Broomfield, father of Liz Broomfield ‘08. “Basically, he was saying that outside Yale, everyone is pretty stupid.”
Others interviewed at the talk said they were surprised by Calabresi’s criticism of the state of American politics.
“It was interesting that he had not one positive thing to say about the Bush administration,” Erica Newland ‘08 said.
Great job, Time. Keep the quality up.
