.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism

To dissolve, submerge, and cause to disappear the political or governmental system in the economic system by reducing, simplifying, decentralizing and suppressing, one after another, all the wheels of this great machine, which is called the Government or the State. --Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution

My Photo
Name:
Location: Northwest Arkansas, United States

Friday, August 05, 2011

Two Letters to Lawrence O'Donnell

These are two emails I sent to Lawrence O'Donnell -- thelastword@msnbc.com -- regarding this incident.


Reason and the Police

August 3, 2011
Dear Mr. O'Donnell:

Before you called the Reason staff "right-wing Republicans" and asserted they never criticized the police, perhaps you should have Googled "site:reason.com police" or "site:reason.com 'radley balko'" to see what they've actually written about the police.

Well, better late than never. Now you should do the above-mentioned searches -- followed up by a retraction and an apology.

This is the sort of canard that, if anyone else had done it, you would have used as fodder for a rewrite and demanded a public apology for. If you fail to do so in this instance, you should be ashamed.

Sincerely,
Kevin Carson

Tu Quoque
August 6, 2011
Dear Mr. O'Donnell:

Remember earlier this year when you aired footage of Gov. Christie telling an ordinary woman in his audience that his schooling choices were "none of her business," followed by footage of him politely explaining the reasons for his schooling choices to a Fox News host? You said the difference was that the talking head show host was entitled to courtesy because he was somebody; the ordinary woman wasn't because she was nobody.

Fast forward to your remarks about Reason magazine's coverage of the police. Now, I know you're a smart man. There's no doubt in my mind you've found out by now that Reason does -- and more specifically Radley Balko -- does, in fact, do very extensive coverage of police abuses. In fact, as I'm sure you've found out, Balko has the best claim to being the Internet go-to guy on the subject. And I have no doubt you've realized that you screwed up enormously, and that there's a somewhat embarrassing kerfluffle about it in the libertarian blogosphere.

So what to do about it? If you'd made the erroneous accusation against Somebody, you'd have already apologized -- as you've done many times before under similar circumstances when the target had a high enough profile. But since the target was Nobody -- a commentator from a comparatively marginal political movement most of your audience is familiar with only second-hand -- you can afford to just stonewall and wait for the issue to go away.

Does that about sum it up?

Sincerely,
Kevin Carson

4 Comments:

Blogger Todd S. said...

Fingers crossed that this incident will actually raise people's awareness of how little they actually know about the broader libertarian movement. Though I have to admit my fingers are starting to cramp.

August 06, 2011 9:07 AM  
Blogger ianmathwiz7 said...

How did you post a letter written on the 6th on a blog post written on the 5th?

Also, has this person responded/issued a redaction, to your knowledge?

~Ian

September 05, 2011 10:32 PM  
Blogger Kevin Carson said...

I think it's something to do with Blogger's time settings. Otherwise IDK.

I don't think O'Donnell's ever responded, but I could be wrong. I don't watch him as much as I used to, because I get tired of waving my hands at the TV trying to get him to talk faster.

September 06, 2011 12:29 AM  
Blogger ianmathwiz7 said...

>I get tired of waving my hands at the TV trying to get him to talk faster.<

I have an image in my head of Ben Stein trying to talk about how we need to increase military spending.

~Ian

September 06, 2011 11:23 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home