Eric Alterman

Facts Are Stupid Things

Eric Alterman on December 22, 2011 - 5:51 PM ET

My New Think Again column is called “As We Leave Iraq, Remember How We Got In” and it’s here.

My new Nation column is called “Cuomo Is Still Governor One Percent” and it’s here.

Happy holidays. Now here’s Reed:

War Is Over (If You Want It)

Eric Alterman on December 16, 2011 - 1:24 PM ET

On this sad day, my Dissent essay on Christopher’s memoir is here and here we argued about the Iraq war on Charlie Rose and here we argued about it again, though as I recall, I didn’t do a very good job and Christopher did, weak as his position may have been. (It’s a small irony that Christopher died on the day the war officially ended.)

My new Think Again column is called “Is Inequality Over? News That’s Not Fit To Print” and it’s here.

My Forward Column on the drift toward Israeli theocracy is here.

Politico Pitfalls, McCarthyite Mendacity

Eric Alterman on December 8, 2011 - 3:18 PM ET

My new Nation column is called “The Proud Liar Mitt Romney Said Today…” (and don’t miss the Barney Frank story at the end).

My new Think Again column is called “Pearl Harbor, Another (Unhappy) Anniversary” and it’s here.

And I’ve got a new Forward column called “Israeli Theocracy vs. Diaspora Democracy,” though I don’t know if it’s up yet, but it begins thusly:

Ad Policy

Up Against the Wall (Street)

Eric Alterman on December 2, 2011 - 12:33 PM ET

My New Think Again column is called "Why Do the Mainstream Media Like the Tea Party More Than Occupy Wall Street?" and it’s here.

So the Grammys are out, and not that I care, but I would just like to point out on behalf of my argument that the Allman Brothers Band are the best collection of musicians playing togther regularly, anywhere, that in the blues category, three of the five nominees are in the band. I’ll bet that never happened before. I would also like to say that while I love Derek Trucks, he is crazily overrated in the new Rolling Stone poll of the 100 best guitarists, while it is criminal that Warren Haynes would be left off all together. Also, being dead is not a good idea if you want to be high on this list (unless your name is “Hendrix, of course.”) My guess is that if Jann had to worry about getting hassled by Jerry Garcia, he would have been in the top fifteen, rather than way down, I can’t even remember where he is. There’s a bunch more about which to complain: (Lou Reed? Are you serious?) But I agree with the top five.

Chick Corea celebrated his 70^th birthday with a month of shows at the Blue Note in Manhattan where he was joined by more musicians echoing more styles than I care to enumerate here. I’m not sure there has ever been a more eclectic composer and performer than Corea. And the weird thing about him is that he is not a jack-of-all trades, but actually a master of them. Part of the secret, apart from obviously, talent and longevity, appear to be egolessness. Corea throws himself into combinations with different kinds of musicians and then becomes just a member of the band. This works better with different combinations depending both on the combination in question as well as the taste of the listener.

Who'll Stop The Rain?

Eric Alterman on November 18, 2011 - 12:41 PM ET

My Think Again column is called “Billionaire Media Moguls vs. Occupy Wall Street” and you can find it here.

Alter-reviews:
John Fogerty plays “Cosmo’s Factory” at the Beacon:

Open All Night

Eric Alterman on November 11, 2011 - 5:44 PM ET

My new Think Again column is called “It’s All Connected (and That’s the Problem)” and it’s here. It’s about a lot of things including Jon Corzine, Grover Norquist and Jennifer Rubin.

My Nation column is apparently called “The Agony and Ecstasy—and 'Disgrace'—of Steve Jobs” and it’s here.

Alter-reviews:

Smiling Through the Apocalypse

Eric Alterman on November 4, 2011 - 1:24 PM ET

My new Think Again column is called “Dowd, Not Coulter, "Falters" and it’s here.

My Forward column of last week was called “Pernicious Attempt To Brand Protest as Anti-Semitic,” and it’s here.

Three short noticings:

Ball of Confusion

Eric Alterman on October 27, 2011 - 3:56 PM ET

My new Think Again column is called “Why Are ‘Liberals’ Such Meanies?” and it is here.
My new Nation column is called “MSM to Liberals: ‘Eww” and it’s here.

Alter-reviews:

Relatively Speaking

Eric Alterman on October 21, 2011 - 12:18 PM ET

My new Think Again column is called “The Continuing Curse of ‘On the One-Handism’” and it’s here.

Speaking of mixed feelings, it would be ontogologically impossible for any writing to be good enough to fully balance some of what has recently called attention to itself from the front of the book in The New Republic, but ever so ironically, the back of the book has, of late, come close. First was John Judis's review of Ron Suskind’s book, which is the only piece I've read anywhere that makes sense of both its strengths and weaknesses (though it was badly mistitled), and in doing so, does the same for the Obama presidency. Now comes this brilliant assessment not only of my esteemed colleague Jeff Jarvis by Evgeny Morozov, but also goes on to poke an ozone layer-style hole in the entire enterprise of the "internet intellectual." It also demonstrates the unhappy truth that takedowns are much more fun to both read and write than praise.

Should it make one feel guilty to enjoy so hostile a review? Well, only feel smarmy in these cases if the case itself is smarmy. I don't think either of these are, though Jehovah knows, Leon Weiseltier does publish more than his share of such takedowns. Still, when they're good, they're really good. Proof being in the pudding, etc., I rather agree with the really nice piece that Norman Birnbaum published about Christopher Lasch and I was glad to see it in The Nation, but it was not nearly as much fun to read as the above.
show more
Related Topics: US Politics | Journalists and Journalism | Media Analysis

Tweet

Time (Money, and the Media) Is on Wall Street's Side, Yes It Is

Eric Alterman on October 13, 2011 - 4:41 PM ET

My new “Think Again” column is called “Crashing Occupy Wall Street” and it’s here.

My new Nation column on the nuttiness of Times pundit Thomas Friedman is here.

My Forward column on my kid’s Commie Humanities reading list is here.
show more
Related Topics: Occupy Wall Street | Activism | Media Analysis

Tweet