Friday, September 2, 2011

Is Steven Weber The Worst Writer on The Huffington Post?

It would be quite the badge of shame wouldn't it, what with Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn writing material for the same publication. I've printed below the first few paragraphs of Weber's new article for The Huffington Post...There is a lot more of it but I grew weary trudging through the mistakes of fact, logic, grammar and the sheer bravado of Weber's horrible prose. I know the point he's trying to make and politically I'm largely on board with him but doesn't The Huffington Post have a copy department or fact checkers or is Weber just too much of an egomaniac to be edited? Have a read for yourself...what would you fix if you were a copy editor for the HuffPo?
...
Just came back from The Europe Place, having wandered about with family in tow (and vice versa), mainly making our way through Barcelona and Scotland, two cities steeped in history and art, drenched with passion and pride.


These are mature places, the denizens going about their business not as material-obsessed drones but as active participants in their respective cultures, able and articulate representatives of their countries. They are places whose maturity has enabled them to achieved a sort of balance of all the disparate elements which otherwise might threaten to swamp a national psyche and make it an unreasoning, destructive presence in the international sociopolitical scheme. In other words, it's nice there! (A side note: if the Earth is ever invaded by aliens, just send in some Scots. Those aliens -- or what's left of them -- will be limping back to their home planet within a few hours.).


And from that objective geographical perspective, I saw America from a, whattayou call it? Ah, yes: a parallax view (Another side note: great film by Warren Beatty by the same name. See it, why don't you?).


And fellow travelers I'm telling you, to understand the state of our own union, it's a view that really needs to be seen.


For, to return home from being abroad is to see America as it is and marvel at the mess it's become, like looking at a celebrity from a strictly verboten angle and seeing the scars, the stitches, the ooze. Which I myself have done, but never before a meal.


And one sees most clearly the utterly biased corporate media using all manner of cannily manipulative techniques to corral the nation towards its own selfish aim: to ensure profit at the expense of people. And one sees this only after having been removed from the sheep-dip that is American corporate media submersion. Only it's not parasites being cleansed from the sheep's wool, it's the ability to know when the wool's been pulled over its eyes...

53 comments:

Peter Rozovsky said...

He's a retard writing for morons.

Of course, AOL paid $315 million for the Huffington Post, so who are the real morons?
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

1. Scotland's not a city
2. Scotland and Catalonia aren't actually sovereign countries, hence no messy foreign policy complications
3. The subject in that last sentence was what exactly?
4. THE Parallax View is a film by Alan Pakula starring Warren Beatty (I'm surprized he didn't say Ned)

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

The irony is that his point, I think, is about the dumbing down of America by corporate institutions and their helots.

You don't need to be Herbert Marcuse or Noam Chomsky to see that The Huffington Post is part of the problem not the solution.

adrian mckinty said...

Anon

Thank you for that! I got those, although I'd probably give him a pass on the film title...

There are a couple of others as well.

adrian mckinty said...

Anon

And don't be so Anon, I don't think the guy from Wings is going to hunt you down and come after you.

seana said...

Now, now, Peter. He isn't a retard, he's an actor. And the Huffington Post audience aren't morons--witness Adrian.

But Weber definitely got the wrong end of the stick as to what makes for an interesting article.

The Europe Place. Seems like it should have a trademark symbol after it.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

He certainly got the wrong end of the stick about the nature of Scotland. It might have been a mistake to generalise about a place after spending a few days in the bright Edinburgh sunshine during the festival.

Spend a few days in Dundee in November and then get back to me Steven...

seana said...

I'm very curious about the hiring of actors as writers by Huffington. It's not impossible that they'd be good writers, but it really is a different craft.

Peter Rozovsky said...

You're right; he appears really to be an actor. I had assumed he was some dumb man in the street.

Yeah, here's a guy writing for a publication owned by AOL, that forces you to reveal private data without payment if you want to post a comment, and he's writing about corporate hooligans?

I can say without fear of having second thoughts later that that is the worst piece of writing I have ever read.

seana said...

I can see it being a contender, but that's a pretty bold assertion, considering that you must have come across some doozies in your time. To me, it is of a piece with the few Bono pieces I've actually read, and suffers from the same self-delusion.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Seana, Bono is like Bill James compared to this guy.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

That's a bold statement, I may be there with you, but we mustn't forget the true horror show that is the prose stylings of Paul Hewson.

seana said...

Nope.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

And Bono at least has the copy department of the NYT working for him who might have corrected stuff like this:

"They are places whose maturity has enabled them to achieved a sort of balance of all the disparate elements which otherwise might threaten to swamp a national psyche and make it an unreasoning, destructive presence in the international sociopolitical scheme."

Peter Rozovsky said...

I stand by my statement. Though I will not willingly expose myself to Bono's writing again, I do recall from previous experience that, while his ego is monstrous and his writing intellectually incoherent, he (or, as Adrian suggests, the Times' copy desk) can put together a grammatically coherent sentence. That's more than this guy can do.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

No one can accuse me of avoiding the dark side. Chiaroscuro is my middle name.

Why do I say this?

After I put that link to Bono's piece I went over there and listened to Bono read his own editorial out loud as one of the Times's multimedia options.

At least he has corrected the name of the person who arranged My Way for Sinatra but alas he has learned little else. He is proud of what he has written and it shows. He thinks he's goddman Seamus Heaney or something.

seana said...

I'm thinking Mr. Weber probably read James' The Ambassadors and has rendered it for our modern capacities. It's noble, really.

Bono just has that much more rope to hang himself with, is all.

That clinking, clicking, clashing crashing line has unfortunately been etched in my memory.

Anonymous said...

Anon

A plague on you McKinty for that Bono link!

Some kind of warning next time, please.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Adrian, you're a sick f--- to expose yourself to that.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

Or possibly The Golden Bowl.

adrian mckinty said...

Anon

You're right I should have warned you.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

The things I do in the interests of truth.

Interestingly Bono starts off reading his editorial word for word but then near the end he relaxes a little and starts riffing on his brilliance, adding little bits here and there, you know, like Miles Davis.

dpougher said...

Bono wrote a piece for our paper after having lunch with the editor but it was delivered with the condition that not one - NOT ONE - word was to be changed. But we're an English language publication so there had to be alterations. Rather a lot actually.
But at least Bono knows Scotland isn't a city.

adrian mckinty said...

I should also make clear...

Steven Weber: not a bad person, just a horrible writer.

Bono: Satan incarnate.

adrian mckinty said...

David

Of course he does. He's a canny little fellow. I'll bet he knows the corporate tax rates of every country in Europe, including Scotland.

Peter Rozovsky said...

The things I do in the interests of truth.

It did occur to me that if I ever wrote fiction, I probably would not write noir. I just can’t look as deeply into the heart of darkness as you seem to be able to.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

As a way of tying things up here's one of Steven Weber's "able and articulate representatives of their countries" singing a version of Bono's beloved My Way.

Well, ok, it's only a couple of seconds right at the end.

And yes I can understand every word but I imagine that few people not from Scotland, N.Ireland or the north of England would be able to do so.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Nope, not listening. I'm not up to it right now.

Lew Archer said...

I'm pretty sure he said nice people from a nice place will kill you. But, what do I know? I'm not an actor.

Peter Rozovsky said...

I mentioned that I had not heard of Weber before. I also has assumed from his wretched prose and immature reaction to criticism that he was some young kid, probably not yet out of his twenties, but the man is fifty-one years old!

Remind me of this if I ever appear snotty or condescending toward young people for the way they talk or write.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

I wouldn't have gone after him if he had been some snot nosed kid. I follow Mencken in this..."comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable."

I abide by the same policy in my book reviews, if it's a first time author and I hate the book, I just won't review it.

adrian mckinty said...

Lew

The Scottish guy?

He's saying that he's not a drunk, not a wine drinker and that the dole office guy can take his gyro and stuff it.

Peter Rozovsky said...

I meant that he was 50, not 51. I wouldn't want Weber or the Huffington Post to accuse me of sloppiness.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

If thats what it says on Wikipedia or wherever then it probably means he's about 57.

finley peter dunne said...

Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable

Peter Rozovsky said...

Could be. In any case, he's no kid, as I'd thought after reading his piece and seeing the tiny picture that accompanied it.

John McFetridge said...

Well, HuffPo has now picked up the, "Did Gov. Perry have an innocent man executed," story and its's pretty good, though you do have to read the New Yorker story it links to.

Though it's pretty depressing.

adrian mckinty said...

finley

yup.

adrian mckinty said...

Peter

I imagine having to memorise many many horrible lines of dialogue can't be good for your prose or your brain.

adrian mckinty said...

John

Oh I think the evidence is overwhelming, he certainly executed an innocent man and then attempted to have it covered up. Perry thinks that there is a worldwide conspiracy of scientists to hide the truth about global warming, he also believes in a homosexual conspiracy to destroy the American family, but a conspiracy to cover up Texas's flawed record on executions?

adrian mckinty said...

John

And for all my complaints about The New Yorker, it's still a real newspaper with standards whereas the Huffington Post is not.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Adrian, we can bitch all we want about the degeneracy of celebrity culture, but Ariana Huffington was smart enough to turn -– I mean, to leverage -– it into something she could sell for $315 million. She had chutzpah and seichel.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

You know finley peter dunne has a Wikipedia entry and a lot of amusing quotes you might like.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Hmm, what television or movie actors have written well? Carrie Fisher and Ethan Hawke are published novelists. I haven't read their books, and certainly not their raw manuscripts.

seana said...

Rab C. Nesbitt. I wonder what his Huffington Post article would look like.

Rastamick61 said...

HoughPo is Writing With the Stars now ? Between them and AOL you can meet all your Kardashian needs and then run out and vote for corporate tax breaks and your own outsourcing. The Rick Perry execution isn't all. Cameron Todd Willingham. Cameron Todd Willingham. Cameron Todd Willingham.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/25/cameron_todd_willingham_rick_perry

Everyone needs to know the name and the fact that Perry squashed the investigation when it became apparent that the subsidized cotton grower, aka gov. Goodhair, did, in fact, have an innocent man put to death. He even out- executed Kennebunkport's village idiot 234 - 152. I guess because they both love Jesus so much ?

Seamus Heaney ? My son Sean dodged being named for him thanks to a red light outside of Mercy Hospital where my wife second guessed the name and suggested we go with my name instead. The light turned green and she delivered him about 25 minutes later. Peace, what a great blog this is.

Rastamick61 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
adrian mckinty said...

Rasta

Well as Peter points out it's to Ariana Huffington's credit that she's able to generate all this free content and sell it to advertisers and readers.

The problem is that the content is largely filler, soft porn, pseudo science, the ignorant opinions of celebrities etc. Almost no hard reporting, no scoops, no insight, nothing like that and as proper newspapers go down to the tubes (like my old employer The Rocky Mountain news) the HuffPo goes from stength to strength.


Seamus and Sean are both good names.

Rastamick61 said...

The RMN was a staple in the car ride from Leadville to Vail. That and Lucero's liquor store in Minturn. Sad to see it evaporate as it did. Americans, sadly, tend to think Seamus is a good name for their lab or setter.

The Kid In The Front Row said...

You're right. But Weber gets away with it because he's a very cool dude!

The Kid In The Front Row said...

He just can't write, maybe.

CCWeasel said...

Read Weber's tweets on Twitter. He's an adolescent when on twitter, he's an adolescent playing a grownup on HuffPo. He's full of venom... Not a cool dude.

Dan said...

Oh my....this is car crash stuff....you know you shouldn't really look but you keep peeking. A little. With this though I found myself saying 'what the fuck...?' a lot.
At least with a car crash the victims have a fighting chance if the ambo turns up quickly and they are tended to by medical professionals. With this though I would be reporting that the victim 'died at the scene'.
That said, it is one thing to write badly, but it is downright irresponsible to publish such tripe. Were the editors out to lunch? Who was in charge here??
Good for a quick laff though hehehe