Still Crazy After All These Years
|
|
If someone had told journalists back in the 1980’s that the media would still be covering Al Sharpton’s feuds with Donald Trump 30 years later, they would have had a good laugh. But here we are, a befuddled public watching as Trump, now President of the United States, tangles with Sharpton, now America’s most influential civil rights leader. This long-running show is playing to a whole new generation of news consumers, like a third remake of “Batman.”
The details of their recent fight, almost too insipid to recount, revolve around Trump’s
battery of racist tweets
disparaging Congressman Elijah Cummings and his district in Baltimore. When Sharpton called him out for his insults, Trump trained his attacks on him. “Al is a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score,” Trump
responded
. “Hates Whites & Cops!”
The media plunged in.
“Sharpton calls Trump's Baltimore attacks racist,”
reported
Reuters
.
“Sharpton: Trump has ‘particular venom’ for black people,’
headlined
Politico
.
“Trump calls Al Sharpton a ‘con man’ who ‘hates whites,’” the
New York Post
screamed
.
“A look at their Twitter feud” offered
USA Today
.
Democratic presidential candidates ran to Sharpton’s defense. “@TheRevAl has dedicated his life to the fight for justice for all,” wrote Elizabeth Warren. Sharpton has “spent his life fighting for what’s right,” said Kamala Harris. He is “a champion in the fight for civil rights,” said Joe Biden.
That was too much for Sharpton’s critics.
“He’s made a career of inciting violence and vomiting lies,”
wrote
Kyle Smith in
The National Review
. “And Democrats have cheered him on.”
“Mr. Sharpton is an ambulance-chasing, anti-Semitic, anti-white race hustler,”
wrote
an incensed Glenn Loury in
The Times,
adding that the
Democratic candidates who rose to Sharpton’s defense “have, yet again, taken Mr. Trump’s bait, handing him another easy victory while yoking themselves to a genuine bigot.”
The jukebox of Sharpton oldies cranked up. Tawana Brawley. Freddy’s Fire. Crown Heights. The Central Park Five.
The Reverend “should still be seen as a notorious hate figure but has somehow escaped that fate,”
wrote
Seth Mandel in the
Washington Post
.
Yet the most recent infractions on that list are several decades old. Sharpton never apologized for those infamous episodes, creating a lasting stain on his reputation. But his politics have grown so mainstream over the past two decades they’re almost boring. He’s proved smarter and more politically agile than his legion of critics. Instead of his clout diminishing with Barack Obama’s departure from the White House, he seems more relevant than ever because the current president seems obsessed with denigrating black people.
And truth be told, no one really wants Al Sharpton to go away. Conservatives love to hate him. Democrats are content to kiss his ring when necessary. And Trump is clearly going through the motions in slamming his old tabloid counterpart.
Sharpton told
The Times
that the last time he and Trump ran into one another was on the set of
Saturday Night Live
in 2015.
“He came with a thumb handshake,” Mr. Sharpton recalled, “and he said, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do, I gotta do what I gotta do.’”
Like partners in an aging music act, they’re still singing the same songs, all these years later.
|
|
Bill de Blasio, Media Punching Bag
|
|
It may not be much longer before Bill de Blasio makes his painful return to his job running New York City. His debate performance Wednesday seems unlikely to revive his stillborn campaign.
When reporters wrote about him at all, they mainly noted the hometown hecklers who greeted de Blasio with demands to fire the police officer in the Eric Garner case. Yet the reviews in the national media continued to reflect the same overt disdain that has been prevalent from the start.
“New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was evidently determined to disprove the oft-repeated refrain that voters gravitate to the candidate they would most wish to have a beer with,”
wrote
Politico
founding editor John Harris. “His face regularly flashed a self-satisfied scowl, as he rasped self-righteously at his rivals.”
“Let’s be honest,”
wrote
Emily Stewart in
Vox
. “Bill de Blasio also is not going to be president.”
But that was generous compared to
the reviews
from columnists and writers for
The Times
who handicapped the debate.
“Winning the bronze cup for most irritating,” wrote Gail Collins.
“Too catty,” said Maureen Dowd.
“His candidacy remains inexplicable,” said Michelle Goldberg.
“He came across as mostly opportunistic and destructive,” said Nicholas Kristof.
“He was his typical irritating and insufferable self,” said Peter Wehner. “He may be the most unlikable presidential candidate in living memory.”
Somewhere, there may be fans of de Blasio's candidacy in the media. For his sake they'd better come out of hiding soon.
|
|
Kimberly Winston
, previously senior executive producer for New York 1, joins Mercury …
Brooke Lorenz
moves from the
Washington Post
to CBS News to become senior manager of communications in Washington, D.C. …
Sophia Kim
joins the New York State Department of Financial Services as press secretary after leaving SKDKnickerbocker …
David Ng
leaves the
Los Angeles Times
to join Breitbart …
Stephanie Sy
, formerly at Yahoo! News, becomes correspondent and West Coast anchor at PBS NewsHour …
Jordan Fabian
moves from
The Hill
to Bloomberg …
Sarah Boxer
, formerly political and field producer at Yahoo! News, becomes a senior producer at CNN…
Jodi Rudoren
, former assistant managing editor at
The
Times
, moves to the
Forward
as editor-in-chief.
|
|
"Better to have a few rats than to be one" -
Baltimore Sun editorial
|
|
Have a career announcement for Here and There? A Quotable quote?
|
|
Kirtzman Strategies is a strategic communications and public affairs firm that works with public officials, nonprofits, companies, tech startups and education organizations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|