Alterman Gets It Handed To Him

To Eric Alterman's credit (small though it may be), he did print John Cloud's oh-so-on-target response to his criticism of Time's Ann Coulter package, and the resulting spectacle is most entertaining. The classic pattern is followed here: Alterman spews invective all over Coulter and Cloud, engaging in the very vile, disgusting behavior he would tag on her; then when Cloud calls him on it, he pretends Cloud is nursing a personal dislike of him.

Then we are informed by the Boy Blunder (in comparing himself to Coulter):

...we both have B.A.s from Cornell...I went on to earn an M.A. in international relations from Yale and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford. I�ve written six books, two published by university presses, containing many thousands of footnotes. None of these books have been substantially challenged on the basis of the evidence they employ, even by those who strongly disagree with my arguments. This is not true of Coulter.

I am also a professor of journalism at the City University of New York, a senior fellow of two think tanks, a professional blogger for the most trafficked Internet news site in the world and the media columnist for oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. I am pretty sure none of the above is true of Coulter, either.

Wow, looking at that, I can honestly say...what a waste of an education, both for Alterman and his poor students (much less anyone foolish enough to plop down any money for his 'scholarly' books, which, of course, have been challenged often and effectively - remember - don't laugh - this supposed paragon of honesty is the guy who wrote 'What Liberal Media?'). Then Alterman, incredibly, claims he doesn't go around spewing hate speech like Coulter (this from the guy who wished for a bomb to be planted at Republican headquarters and called Prime Minister Sharon a 'sorry sonofabitch').

Eric Alterman taking the high road is like Homer Simpson going vegan...it ain't gonna happen, today, tomorrow, or ever...