THE DEATH OF FIDEL CASTRO Elliott Abrams Fred Barnes Lee Smith

39 Pages·2016·3.74 MB·English

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DECEMBER 12, 2016 $5.99
THE DEATH
OF FIDEL CASTRO
Elliott Abrams
Fred Barnes
Lee Smith
WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM
Contents
December 12, 2016 • Volume 22, Number 14
2 The Scrapbook Heretic hunting, Big Macs, out-of-touch liberals, & more
5 Casual Jonathan V. Last decks the halls
7 Editorial
Governing Matters Most by wiLLiAm KristoL
Articles
8 Trump’s Chumps by Andrew Ferguson
The Fourth Estate, but last in the hearts of their countrymen
11 Cozying Up to the Dictator by Fred bArnes
Jesse Jackson’s trip to Havana
5 12 The Verdict on Castro by Lee smith
Reinaldo Arenas deserves the last word
14 The Fix Was In by geoFFrey normAn
How else account for why I lost?
15 Shall We Gather at the River? by erin mundAhL
The cultural contradictions of the anti-pipeline camp
17 The Regulators’ Bad Day in Court by Abby w. schAchter
A rebuke to the Consumer Product Safety Commission
Features
19
19 History Will Not Absolve Him by eLLiott AbrAms
Fidel Castro, 1926-2016
24 Apathy in the Executive by gerArd ALexAnder & yuvAL Levin
Opportunity or problem?
27 Whose Convenience? by Ann mArLowe
The murky world of bottom-feeding shipping registries
Books & Arts
30 A Rage to Write by Joseph epstein
24
John O’Hara, social chronicler
34 The Spirit of ’45 by stephen miLLer
How Scotland’s defeat made Great Britain a world power
36 Mind the Gap by temmA ehrenFeLd
Philosophers at the intersection of brain and spirit
37 Funny It’s Not by Joe QueenAn
The lost art of writing about something that doesn’t offend somebody
39 Warren and Howard by John podhoretz
And you thought the Spruce Goose was an oversized disaster
36 40 Parody
Benito, we hardly knew ye
COVER BY MICHAEL RAMIREZ
THE SCRAPBOOK
Gaines and Losses
Chip and Joanna Gaines are at the that the BuzzFeed piece had reported Jason Benham’s show Flip It Forward
height of their popularity. They nothing of substance except statements one day after a blog noted that the
host the well-liked remodeling show from the couple’s pastor reaffirming hosts’ father was director of Opera-
Fixer Upper on HGTV, have a bestsell- biblical sexual ethics. The point of the tion Save America, a Christian activ-
ing book, and recently appeared on the story is summed up in this paragraph: ist organization, and that the Benham
cover of People. They are also devout brothers had attended or led abortion
Christians from Waco, Texas, so it was So are the Gaineses against same-sex and same-sex marriage protests.
probably just a matter of time before marriage? And would they ever feature But that was then, and it’s Trump’s
the left launched a cultural inquisition a same-sex couple on the show, as have America now. NBC News reporter
HGTV’s House Hunters and Property
against them. Benjy Sarlin observed of the BuzzFeed
Brothers? Emails to Brock Murphy, the
It happened like this: On Novem- hit, the “HGTV thing gets to some-
public relations director at their com-
ber 26, Kevin Fallon, senior enter- pany, Magnolia, were not returned. thing I heard from Trump voters:
tainment reporter for the Daily Beast, Nor were emails and calls to HGTV’s Fear of being publicly shamed by sud-
tweeted, “My blood-boiling suspicion PR department. den new standard.” BuzzFeed’s edi-
that every couple featured voted for tor, Ben Smith, spent much of the day
Trump has ruined [HGTV’s] House If that sounds like an incredibly engaging critics on Twitter trying to
Hunters for me.” BuzzFeed’s enter- thin reed to hang a story on, consider do damage control, but by the next
tainment reporter Kate Aurthur that in 2013 the satirists at the Onion day the number of voices condemn-
responded, “and Fixer Upper.” On No- ran a piece titled “The Onion Once ing BuzzFeed—even some from the
vember 29, Aurthur posted a story at Again Condemns Actor Eric Bana For left—was a deafening chorus. The
BuzzFeed headlined “Chip and Joanna His Continued Silence On The Issue Washington Post, where just a few years
Gaines’ Church Is Firmly Against Of Gay Marriage.” It was a joke. ago the ombudsman said there was no
Same-Sex Marriage.” The ravenous on- However, Aurthur undoubtedly obligation to report both sides of the
line ecosystem started feasting—it was knew there was already a template in same-sex marriage debate, published
picked up by Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, place for a public shaming campaign. an op-ed by a gay Christian, Brandon
and Jezebel among others. Never mind In 2014, HGTV canceled David and Ambrosino, “BuzzFeed’s hit piece on
Chip and J oanna Gaines is dangerous.”
Ambrosino did not pull punches:
What They Were Thinking
The minds at BuzzFeed are not naive:
They know that the Gaineses and
HGTV are going to have to come out
Normally the fourth scallop would
with a public statement on same-sex
go to the lady or the person paying
marriage. They also know that if the
for the meal. On the other hand…
statement is not 100 percent support-
ive of same-sex marriage, the network
will be pressured to drop them.
I would
Think about that for a moment.
kill for a
Is the suggestion here that 40 per-
martini right
cent of Americans are unemployable
now.
because of their religious convictions
on marriage? That the companies that
employ them deserve to be boycotted
until they yield to the other side of the
debate— a side, we should note, that is
only slightly larger than the one being
shouted down?
As of this writing, HGTV has
taken no action. But it’s clear
from the wide condemnations that Y
BuzzFeed has taken a big hit. Deserv-GETT
edly so. The media’s culture warriors ER /
R
need to learn that you don’t spread GE
N
tolerance, religious or otherwise, by W A
E
Reince Priebus, Donald Trump, and Mitt Romney dine at Jean-Georges restaurant, Nov. 29. constantly hunting for heretics. ♦DR
2 / The Weekly STandard December 12, 2016
The Father
of the Big Mac
It was not a great year for McDon-
ald’s in 2004. The company was
still recovering from a sales slump
and management crisis when a come-
dian/political activist named Morgan
Spurlock released a documentary
(Super Size Me) in which he filmed
himself consuming three McDon-
ald’s meals a day for one month,
thereby gaining 25 pounds and
claiming to suffer from depression.
Then, suddenly, 60-year-old McDon-
ald’s CEO James Cantalupo died of a
heart attack—leading to morbid mer-
riment on the nanny-state left.
Which is why The Scrapbook takes
some melancholy pleasure in noting
the passing last week of Jim Delligat-
ti, a McDonald’s franchise owner in
Pennsylvania and inventor of the Big
Mac. Of course, the Big Mac is not to
everybody’s taste—or, at 540 calories
apiece, the ideal meal on a daily basis.
But even as the fast-food universe con-
tinues to expand, the 50-year-old Big
Mac remains the best-known, and
likely bestselling, fast-food sandwich
in America, probably in the world.
And the source of The Scrapbook’s
“melancholy pleasure,” we hasten to
add, is that Mr. Delligatti was a vener-
able 98 years old when he died.
His long life, in fact, is an object
lesson on two fronts. First, as a fran-
chise owner, he was quick to recognize
that his customers wanted something
the McDonald’s menu didn’t provide; dispute that some of the more notori- Woefully Out of Touch
and the McDonald’s Corporation—for ous offerings out there—those fried
all its vaunted uniformity and central chicken buckets, Denny’s Grand The Scrapbook has slowly begun
control—was smart enough to em- Slam, Big Gulps, etc.—are loaded to grow accustomed to the
brace Delligatti’s innovation. And with calories and sugars and fats and idea that Donald Trump—Donald
second, Delligatti faithfully con- are not especially good for you. But Trump!—is going to be sworn in
sumed his invention for decades. the vast majority of Americans con- next month as president of the Unit-
But once a week or so, according to sume them on an occasional basis— ed States. What we continue to be
his son, and not three times a day, not daily, or three times a week, or shocked by is how out of touch the
like Morgan Spurlock. especially three times a day. Indeed, entire Democratic party appears to be.
In The Scrapbook’s view, that’s a The Scrapbook always assumes that Had we understood just how clueless
minor, but critical, point. Pop cul- its fellow countrymen are consider- they were, the election result might
ture, like Super Size Me, and public ably more sensible—about fast food, not have been so shocking.
nags like ex-New York mayor Mi- among many other things—than the Let’s start with the sitting presi-
chael Bloomberg and the Center for Bloombergs and Spurlocks among us dent. There is always a danger that
Science in the Public Interest, always tend to believe. presidents will become cocooned and
assume the worst of Americans when Of course, Jim Delligatti knew that out of touch after years in the White
it comes to fast food. No one would for nearly a century. ♦ House, and certainly Barack Obama’s
December 12, 2016 The Weekly STandard / 3
arrogance gave reason to believe that campus rape was in many ways an ex-
this might become an issue for him. tension of the White House agenda.
And it has! The president recent- Obama spent a lot of time talking
ly granted an interview to Rolling about campus sexual assault, includ-
Stone that confirmed an astonishing ing pushing fake stats—such as the www.weeklystandard.com
estrangement from the real world. idea that one in five college women
Discussing Trump’s victory, he of- are sexually assaulted—long after the William Kristol, Editor
fered this theory: “Part of it is Fox stats were exposed as meretricious. Fred Barnes, Terry Eastland, Executive Editors
Richard Starr, Deputy Editor
News in every bar and restaurant in (The cynical among us will note that Eric Felten, Managing Editor
big chunks of the country.” the White House push to exagger- Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Ferguson,
Victorino Matus, Lee Smith, Senior Editors
What, pray tell, is he talking about? ate campus sexual assault dovetailed Philip Terzian, Literary Editor
“Hey, barkeep, can you turn off the nicely with the Democratic party’s Kelly Jane Torrance, Deputy Managing Editor
Jay Cost, Stephen F. Hayes, Mark Hemingway,
game—Megyn Kelly is on,” is a state- obsessive quest for the votes of young Matt Labash, Jonathan V. Last,
ment we’re confident has not yet been single women.) Campus sexual assault John McCormack, Senior Writers
Michael Warren, Online Editor
uttered from any barstool in America. is a serious problem—all the more Ethan Epstein, Associate Editor
Occasionally in airports or hospital reason not to hype it, and no reason at Chris Deaton, Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editors
Hannah Yoest, Assistant Literary Editor
waiting rooms, the supposedly neu- all to slander an entire generation of
Priscilla M. Jensen, Assistant Editor
tral CNN is inflicted on unsuspecting young men while you’re at it. Tatiana Lozano, Editorial Assistant
Jenna Lifhits, Alice B. Lloyd, Web Producers
citizens, but opportunities to see Fox, The liberal narrative du jour is that
Philip Chalk, Design Director
much less any cable news, in public fake news sites gamed Facebook’s Barbara Kyttle, Design Assistant
spaces are pretty rare. Fox may be the algorithms to somehow swing the Teri Perry, Executive Assistant
Claudia Anderson, Max Boot, Joseph Bottum,
highest-rated cable news network, but election to Trump. With their hero Tucker Carlson, Matthew Continetti,
its ratings are small potatoes com- president pointing to the “great work” Noemie Emery, Joseph Epstein, David Frum,
David Gelernter, Reuel Marc Gerecht,
pared to network news and minute of Rolling Stone as a counterexample, Michael Goldfarb, Mary Katharine Ham, Brit Hume,
compared with TV entertainment. we’d offer terminal cluelessness as a Frederick W. Kagan, Charles Krauthammer,
Yuval Levin, Tod Lindberg, Micah Mattix,
Also, how many times has Obama more plausible explanation. ♦ Robert Messenger, P. J. O’Rourke,
John Podhoretz, Irwin M. Stelzer,
now singled out Fox News during
Contributing Editors
his presidency? The White House Upscale Graffiti
even tried to shut them out of the
MediaDC
press briefings at one point. Don- A crime report in the Philadel- Ryan McKibben, Chairman
ald Trump has done the same sort phia Inquirer last week caught Stephen R. Sparks, President & Chief Operating Officer
Kathy Schaffhauser, Chief Financial Officer
of thing but with this key differ- The Scrapbook’s eye: David Lindsey, Chief Digital Officer
ence: Whenever Trump attacks, say, Catherine Lowe, Integrated Marketing Director
Duncan Lloyd, an assistant city solic- Alex Rosenwald, Director, Public Relations & Branding
CNN, the e ntire media reflexively itor, was identified in surveillance Mark Walters, Chief Revenue Officer
condemn him. Obama, to very little Nicholas H. B. Swezey, Vice President, Advertising
footage that captured Lloyd and a T. Barry Davis, Senior Director, Advertising
notice, has spent the last eight years second man walking along German- Jason Roberts, Digital Director, Advertising
pretending that the fact millions town Avenue in Chestnut Hill on Waldo Tibbetts, National Account Director
Andrew Kaumeier, Advertising Operations Manager
of people seek out media sources Nov 25. In the footage, Lloyd is seen Brooke McIngvale, Manager, Marketing Services
presenting views opposing him is wearing a blue blazer and holding a Advertising inquiries: 202-293-4900
glass of wine, filming or taking pho- Subscriptions: 1-800-274-7293
an affront.
tos, while a second man spray paints
Rolling Stone also asked Obama
“F— Trump,” on the wall of a newly
about the challenges posed by a frac- opened Fresh Grocer. Tish pe uWbelieshkleyd S wtaenedkalyr d(e (xISceSpNt 1th0e8 3fir-s3t0 w1e3e),k a i nd iJvaisniuoanr oy,f tChliarrdi twy eMeekd iina MGraorucph,,
turing media landscape. In response, fourth week in June, and third week in August) at 1152 15th St., NW, Suite
200, Washington, DC 20005. Periodicals postage paid at Washington,
the president floated the crackpot idea While that’s quite the tableau on DC, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes
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ism continues to this day,” he said. GOP. And boy, was it worth it: Please include your latest magazine mailing label. Allow 3 to 5 weeks for
arrival of first copy and address changes. Canadian/foreign orders require
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The irony, of course, is that Rolling Joe DeFelice, chairman of the Phila- pTheerm Wiseseioknly oSft atnhdea rdc oipsy raig rhetg iostwenreedr.
Stone’s infamously bogus report about delphia Republican Party. ♦ trademark of Clarity Media Group.
4 / The Weekly STandard December 12, 2016
CASUAL
Do You See What I See? roof of his house to trim the entire
structure in dangling icicle lights.
But that’s just the start. As I write
this, I’m gazing out at Rich’s front
lawn. There are 10 reindeer, 5 snow-
G rowing up in mitte middle- blinking, flashing lights; inflatable men, 3 peacocks, an Eiffel Tower,
class New Jersey, I spent lawn sculptures the size of igloos; one and much, much more. Rich’s lawn
much of my adolescence house has an illuminated trio of Star menagerie has grown over the years
riddled with an unbecoming status Wars characters posed as the Three so that it eventually spilled over into
anxiety. I was forever worried that Wise Men on the front lawn. And my his next-door neighbor Michelle’s
not having the right clothes, or the neighbors love to share. property. This year, he outgrew her
right backpack, or the right sunglass- After the first Christmas, when I yard, too. Over the summer, a nice
es, would mark me as not belonging didn’t put up any decorations out- Muslim family from Afghanistan
to the smart set. The fact that there side our house, the lady next door—a moved into the house on the other
was no smart set—and that side of Michelle. Their
if there had been, I wouldn’t front yard is now home to
have belonged anyway—was the overflow of Rich’s over-
lost on me. flow decorations.
This class consciousness And so, shamed by Rich’s
was so pervasive that it even example and my Muslim
influenced my taste in Christ- neighbors’ good cheer and
mas decorations. I grew up in forbearance, this year I
a colored-lights family. But bought a Christmas decora-
when my status anxiety man- tion for the outside of the
ifested around age 14, I per- house. It’s a laser projector
suaded them to switch our that shines thousands of tiny,
tree to white lights. moving red and green dots
This change was not on the façade of the house.
undertaken lightly. You are And this is not just any pro-
either a colored-lights family jector: It’s the one “As Seen
or a white-lights family, and on TV.” Which makes it
changing your Christmas tree extra not-classy.
light color is like changing The overall effect is not
your religion or your political subtle. The lasers aren’t
affiliation—it’s something people do, sweet, Christian Secret Service agent— powerful enough to be seen from space,
at most, once in their lives. But white presented me with a shiny, four-foot- but the box says that you shouldn’t
lights seemed classier to my teenaged tall aluminum Snoopy, ringed by use them if you live within 10 nautical
self, so I petitioned the family, and we blinking lights. I tried to demur, but miles of an airport. If you want to pic-
made the switch. she insisted not only on giving it to ture the aesthetic, imagine the North
My brother and sister were simi- me but helping me set it up, too. I was Pole if Kris Kringle ran a disco that
larly inclined, and the three of us had both touched and horrified. doubled as a strip club.
a bemused contempt for people who When she moved away, blinking It’s tacky. It’s terrible. And I loved it
decorated the exterior of their homes Snoopy went up into the attic, and we so much that five minutes after setting
in what we thought to be an undig- went back to having no Christmas dec- it up, I ordered a second one.
nified manner. Large colored lights, orations. I thought this was perfectly I don’t know if this is a sign that
inflatable Santas, blinking reindeer, normal. My neighbors did not. I’ve finally outgrown my status anxiety.
those ubiquitous, light-up candy- Rich asked me about it a couple Or given up on being part of the smart
canes. To us, the yuletide ideal was years ago. “Is there something wrong?” set. A sociologist might say that I’ve
a single white electric candle in each he asked—in a sympathetic, not sar- simply reanchored my social norms.
window of the house. For whatever castic—tone. “Do you just not like But whatever the case, I’m awfully
reason, it seemed classy. Christmas?” Rich lives in the pipe- cheery this Advent. And next year
I now live on a little cul-de-sac stem next to us and is such an enthu- I might even petition the family to
K
Rin exurban Virginia that is the exact siastic Christmas decorator that he change our tree to colored lights.
A
D CL opposite of classy. My neighborhood spends the weekend before Thanks-
DAVI features the whole parade of horribles: giving every year crawling around the Jonathan V. Last
December 12, 2016 The Weekly STandard / 5
EDITORIAL
Governing Matters Most
W e shall not shock anyone, we shall merely constitutionalism might still have a presidency during
expose ourselves to good-natured or at any rate which we see a reinvigoration of constitutional forms and
harmless ridicule, if we acknowledge that we authorities (as Christopher DeMuth recently put it, “one
were startled, in our callow youth, by a suggestion from a of the many astonishing results of Donald Trump’s presi-
professor. The comment came from Adam Ulam, the dis- dential campaign and the Republican sweep on Election
tinguished scholar of Soviet foreign policy. In response Day is that they have set the stage for a constitutional
to a question in class, he offhandedly noted that Amer- revival”); that a man who has shown little interest in
ica might have been better off, at governing might—might!—turn
least in terms of Cold War policy, out to have some appreciation for
if the loser rather than the winner the importance of governing.
had prevailed in most of the recent On this last point, we take heart
presidential elections. He then went from Donald Trump’s remarks on
on (as I recall) to entertain us with election night: “It’s been what they
a somewhat lighthearted and of call a historic event, but to be really
course speculative account of how a historic, we have to do a great job.
Dewey administration might have And I promise you that I will not
deterred the Korean war, a Steven- let you down. We will do a great
son administration might not have job. We will do a great job.” Ronald
broken with Britain over Suez, a Reagan was a historic president not
Nixon administration might not because he won an election victory
have tempted Khrush chev to pro- over Jimmy Carter. He was a historic
voke the Cuban missile crisis, and president because he did a great job.
a Goldwater administration might He was a historic president because
have kept us out of Vietnam. his economic policies worked, and
I remember being a bit shocked because we won the Cold War.
‘In the world there is no one but the vulgar.’
by all this, though in retrospect Results matter. As the econo-
it’s hard to see why. Except that, as a young man, I was mist Lawrence Lindsey put it recently in a client memo,
presumably in thrall to the common dual fallacy that, after delivering an interesting analysis of the 2016 elec-
somehow, what happened in the past had to have hap- tion results, the fact is that Republicans’ future strategy
pened, and that what happened in the past should have and electoral prospects will be “determined for them by
happened. Or as Machiavelli put it, “the vulgar are taken Trump’s performance. If he delivers what he promised to
in by the appearance and the outcome of a thing, and in Midwestern voters in terms of the economy, the Blue Wall
the world there is no one but the vulgar.” will become purple and maybe slightly reddish—a ticket
Donald Trump’s victory might seem to confirm Machia- to victory. It would also doubtless help the Republicans in
velli’s judgment of the omnipresence of the vulgar. But it’s the rest of the country. But if Trump fails on the economy,
increasingly clear that it will be important, going forward, particularly in the Midwest, the Republicans will be out in
not to judge by mere appearance or short-term outcome. the wilderness for a long time.”
This means, for example, not assuming that just If Trump performs well, if he governs successfully,
because Trump won the election, all his public policies a future Adam Ulam will have a hard time arguing that
are therefore correct, his political judgments infallible, the country would probably have been better off if Trump
or his rhetorical arts irresistible. But it also means not hadn’t won. Donald Trump is all about winning. But now
falling into the reverse set of errors. It means under- winning is all about governing. And as I suspect Machi-
standing that while many of his tweets may be foolish, avelli would admit, or even assert, at the end of the day
several of his appointments may be impressive; that a appearances only take you so far. Reality matters most.
chaotic White House isn’t inconsistent with a successful And so, governing matters most.
administration; that a president who has little interest in —William Kristol
December 12, 2016 The Weekly STandard / 7
Trump’s Chumps lecture to Vice President-elect Pence
from a Broadway stage? If you’ve
forgotten the lecture you probably
remember the tweet that Trump fired
off when he learned about it (“Our
The Fourth Estate, but last in the hearts wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was
harassed last night at the theater by the
of their countrymen. by Andrew Ferguson cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This
should not happen!”). And then you
A mong the many offenses that news by a panting press corps. Politi- might remember the reaction of the
modern architecture has co’s press critic, Jack Shafer, suspects press to Trump’s reaction.
committed against Pennsyl- that Trump’s tweets, even the strange The New Yorker’s Washington cor-
vania Avenue in downtown Washing- ones, are strategically provocative, respondent called Trump’s tweet
ton—America’s main street, we like designed to throw reporters off the “unhinged and bizarre.” News readers
to call it—is a glass ’n’ stone ’n’ steel scent of real Trump stories (his busi- on NPR nearly choked with indigna-
box that houses a museum about news ness entanglements, the settlement of tion. When Trump briefly appeared
gathering called, unfortunately, the the Trump University lawsuit) by giv- in public the next day, the questions
Newseum. Funded by the New from the press pen were all about
York Times, Hearst, ABC News, the tweet. (Aleppo was crumbling,
Comcast, CBS News, Time Warner, children’s hospitals in Syria were
and every worthy journalism non- bombed to rubble . . . but Mr. Pres-
profit in the land, the Newseum is ident-elect, what about Broadway?)
the establishment press’s monu- CNN said Trump had “lashed out”
ment to itself—a mirror into which at “Americans exercising their con-
every mainstream reporter and edi- stitutionally guaranteed right to
tor can peer with an admiring gaze. freedom of expression.” The politi-
From the front of the build- cal correspondent for New York
ing hangs a five-story-high sheet magazine stilled his trembling
of marble inscribed with the First fingers long enough to tweet that
Amendment, in letters that are eas- Trump had offered “a terrifying
ily as tall as an early hominid. You glimpse of how he could attempt
can’t miss it. You’re not supposed to suppress free speech.”
to miss it. The display reflects the My guess is that most people
premise of the museum: that the “free ing them something more immediate, took Trump’s tweet for what it was—
press” mentioned in and protected sensational, and easier to cover. Shafer an unnecessary but well-meaning
by the Constitution is identical to the is probably giving Trump too much rebuke aimed at the bad manners of a
kind of corporate entities that paid for credit, but there’s no doubting that our sanctimonious showbiz fop. The reac-
the museum. president-elect provokes a response tion from the press, on the other hand,
It’s a silly conceit, and only a busi- from his intended audience. offered a terrifying glimpse into how
ness as powerful and unavoidable as And who is that? The common bizarre and unhinged the press can be
national journalism could get away thought is that Trump uses Twitter when Donald Trump mouths off.
with it for so long. But has the jour- to go over the heads of the reporters Then Trump saw a Fox News story
nalistic establishment at last met its who cover him to reach the public (he evidently sees no other kind)
match in the buffoonish figure of Don- unfiltered. Just as often, though, the about an otherwise obscure incident
ald Trump? Consciously or not, Trump reporters are his primary audience; of flag burning. Flag burning should
has used the interregnum between the secondary audience is the general be illegal, he tweeted, and should be
Election Day and Inauguration Day to public, few of whom obsessively check punished with perhaps a penalty of a
subvert and, in some cases, even deal a Twitter account the way reporters year in jail and “loss of citizenship,”
a death blow to many of the standard do. But the public can distinguish however the hell that would work.
conventions of political journalism. between a tweet and the reaction to Details to come: Twitter only gives you
His most famous weapon is the it. For an ordinary person, the news 140 characters, after all.
tweet, those midnight brain belches isn’t merely what Trump tweets, it’s The reaction of mainstream report-
that suddenly erupt from Trump also the hyperventilation he provokes ers and commentators was an unlikely
Tower and are turned into instant from the press. The second is usually mix of sputtering rage and sniffy
crazier than the first. pedantry. They couldn’t have been
Andrew Ferguson is a senior editor Remember when a cast member of angrier if Trump burned the flag him-
at The Weekly STanDarD. the musical Hamilton gave a pompous self. Didn’t Trump know the Supreme
8 / The Weekly STandard December 12, 2016
Court had ruled flag burning consti- to humiliate themselves in a perp walk think might happen tomorrow”—in
tutionally protected speech? Didn’t so they can gaze meaningfully into the other words, from concrete reporting
he know his hero Antonin Scalia sup- eyes of the president-elect. to “analysis and context” to blue-sky
ported that decision? Didn’t Trump The Trump Tower perp walks make speculation. With very little real news
know the president can’t unilaterally for a textbook case of the pseudo- coming from Trump Tower, the pub-
render an action illegal? event: an ostensibly naturally occur- lic gets to see the press forced into its
Let’s assume Trump didn’t know ring episode that in fact is being staged weakest posture, getting excited over
these things—doubtful but possible. to create what appears to be a real news nothing. They look even more desper-
The press’s corrective was appropri- story. A fire is a news story; a press ate than usual. Thanks, Trump!
ate on the merits. But it was comi- conference called by firefighters to dis- Or consider another great conven-
cally overheated. “Donald Trump v. cuss fire prevention is a pseudo-event. tion of political news reporting: the
The First Amendment,” headlined the It’s the same in Trump Tower: When postelection rapprochement. After
Washington Post. New York magazine: Mr. X or Ms. Y is appointed to a real the heat of the campaign, the victor
“Donald Trump Wants You to Burn job, that’s a real news story. When Mr. calls in members of the press, sin-
the Flag While He Burns the Consti- X is “being mentioned” for a job and gly or in groups, to show there are
tution.” The New York Times could the press reports the mentioning as if it no hard feelings and pledge a shining
barely contain its condescension: “Mr. were news, that is a pseudo-event. future of mutual cooperation. By their
Trump, Meet the Constitution.”
Missing in all this was what the
modern press prides itself on providing
its lumbering readers: context. Few of
the horrified reporters and editorialists
seemed to recognize that a large major-
ity of Americans almost certainly share
Trump’s revulsion at flag burning and
would like to see it sanctioned—
and probably regret that the Supreme
Court has foreclosed the option. The
public saw an offensive and unpatriotic
act and the president-elect’s righteous
reaction to it; the press saw the stirrings
of authoritarianism. One view was
moralistic. The other was a paranoid In the 50 years since the historian own testimony, this is what the TV
fantasy. And just as moralistic. Daniel Boorstin coined the phrase, the news readers, personalities, and execu-
news media have become connoisseurs tives expected when Trump summoned
W ith a tweet here and a tweet of pseudo-events, promoting empty the whole flock of peacocks to an audi-
there, and with a reliably hair- occasions manipulated by marketers ence in Trump Tower on November 21.
trigger hysteria from the press only and corporate flacks and political activ- In keeping with the hypocrisy of the
140 characters away, Trump is happily ists and sometimes by the news media establishment media—transparency
driving a wedge between the news themselves. On any given day the bulk for thee but not for me—the meeting
media and their intended customers. of published news is a dog’s break- was off the record. But we do know
As if they weren’t already unpopular fast of pseudo-events. The continu- that the peacocks, prepared for the
enough! The dawning Trump era is ous elevation of non-news into news, usual sucking up, got a dressing down.
pushing the mainstream press further the confusion of the trivial with the An anonymous source described the
and further to the margins of the con- important, is one reason why Ameri- meeting to Daniel Halper of the New
versation Americans think is worth can news reporting is so boring and its York Post. The peacocks tried to ask
paying attention to. practitione rs so often ridiculous. about press arrangements at the Trump
And Trump can be pretty cruel Trump has staged this pseudo- White House, as well as typically vacu-
about this denigration of the press— event in his own lobby, and the dutiful ous questions (“How are you going to
and subtler than you’d expect. Since reporters, who must pretend the perp cope with living in D.C. while your
the election dozens of reporters and walk and the “mentioning” are news, family is in New York?” asked David
camera crews have been corralled don’t know they are being mocked. Muir, ABC’s Doctor of Thinkology).
behind rope lines in the gleaming, Over two generations the press have The president-elect had other things
hideous lobby of Trump Tower. There gone from defining news as “what on his mind. “Trump kept saying,
they are treated to a daily parade of happened yesterday” to “what we ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful,
office-seekers, from David Petraeus think might happen later” to “what dishonest media who got it all wrong.’
to Rudy Giuliani, supplicants willing other unnamed people tell us they He addressed everyone in the room,
December 12, 2016 The Weekly STandard / 9
calling the media dishonest, deceitful among other things, the protection level—let the flack for the Bureau of
liars.” And then the peacocks had to offered by our libel laws. Labor Statistics release the unemploy-
drag their tail feathers back through ment numbers to labor reporters, who
the lobby with everybody watching. I n the elevated stature it claims, the know more about the matter anyway.
Getting tagged as liars isn’t the most corporate press in the United States (President Trump would still think
unnerving thing reporters have heard is supported by the deference public the numbers were rigged, but that’s
from Trump. That prize goes to his figures show it, by a daisy chain of self- another story.)
declaration that as president he would flattery, and by a web of dubious con- And then, after the White House
“open up” libel laws and make them ventions that Trump hopes to subvert. briefings and news conferences are
more like libel law in England where, Mostly these are artifacts contrived for done away with, here’s what could go
as Trump put it, “they have a system the convenience of the press and for its next: the State of the Union address, a
where you can actually sue if someone aggrandizement. Trump hasn’t held a televised pseudo-event, beneficial (and
says something wrong. Our press is formal press conference since summer, interesting) only to the reporters who
allowed to say whatever they want and for example. The longer the president- cover it. SOTU, as it’s cloyingly called,
get away with it.” Again, it’s not clear elect goes without giving a full-dress could vanish for a century with no dis-
that Trump realizes he can’t do any press conference, the more obvious it cernible damage to the functioning of
such thing on his own, even as presi- will become that these stylized specta- self-government.
dent, but—also again—the reaction cles are unnecessary except under the To borrow a tag from the 18th cen-
from the press to his fond fantasy has rarest circumstances. tury, Trump has the chance to govern
swung between dudgeon and delirium. A president cocooned from skepti- as a disestablishmentarian—trying to
Trump, we’re told, wants to “repeal the cal and even disrespectful questioning decertify the establishment media by
First Amendment.” would be intolerable—an affront to extricating them from the exalted posi-
There are lots of differences the country. But an East Room the- tion they have claimed and occupied.
between libel laws in England and in atrical, with the correspondents done Very few reporters think of themselves
the United States. The chief distinc- up in their dress-for-TV best, is not as partisan or ideological. But they do
tion, very simplified, is that when a the only alternative. There’s no rea- think of themselves as indispensable.
famous person sues over a libelous son why a president’s obligation to Disabusing them of this idea would be
statement published in England, the explain himself couldn’t be met with a the ultimate subversion.
news outlet has to prove in court that series of town halls or, better, a weekly Perhaps the most promising
the statement is true; when a similar sitdown with a rotation of intelligent moment came in an interview Trump
libel is published here, the famous per- and knowledgeable interviewers like gave to reporters and editors of the New
son has to show the news outlet knew John Dickerson, Chris Wallace, and York Times. The president-elect came to
it was false—a much harder claim to a bunch of people we’ve never heard their offices—an unaccustomed act of
prove. The effect, thanks to a series of of. As it is, the presidential press con- deference. And he went out of his way
Supreme Court decisions, is to declare ference serves mostly as certification to praise the self-satisfied tradesmen
famous people fair game for pretty ceremony: The reporters get camera arrayed before him. “The Times is,”
much any kind of journalism. As “pub- time, a chance to show off their exper- Trump said, “it’s a great, great Ameri-
lic figures,” they seldom sue even over tise—some questions last more than can jewel. A world jewel.”
a blatantly false report because they’re a minute—and an accreditation as a Which is true. But then he also said
unlikely to win in court. personage to be reckoned with. They this, when asked about the right-wing
It’s a dogma of the national press may even get recognized while weigh- website Breitbart.com and its rela-
that this distinction is an essential ele- ing their fresh kale at Whole Foods. tionship to the far right: “Breitbart
ment of the First Amendment. Yet the It’s not the president’s job to make the cover things, I mean like the New York
country had a remarkably busy and press corps feel important. Times covers things.” You can imagine
freewheeling press before 1964, when A Washington without presiden- Trump’s shrug of indifference. “And
the Supreme Court invented the new tial press conferences is a Washington you know, they have covered some of
arrangement through a piece of judi- in which the grip of the establishment these things, but the New York Times
cial legislation called New York Times press has at last begun to loosen. The covers a lot of these things also. It’s
Co. v. Sullivan. Indeed, then and now, same goes for the equally worthless just a newspaper, essentially.”
both England and the United States daily briefing held in the White House Just a newspaper? Like the Times? I
have a long history of a robust, com- press room by a political appointee wonder whether in that room, at that
petitive, and lively press. And you whose most important job is not to moment, a terrible revelation began
could easily argue that their press is answer serious questions. Anyone to dawn among the Timesfolk, soon to
livelier than ours, precisely because who has sat through these intermi- spread among their colleagues in the
British hacks lack the stuffy self- nable exercises knows that whatever mainstream press: Maybe we are no
importance of the average American information they transmit could bet- longer who we think we are!
newsman, which is encouraged by, ter be explained at a lower bureaucratic Nah. ♦
10 / The Weekly STandard December 12, 2016