I mentioned yesterday how Andrew Sullivan is trying to exploit Iranian bloggers for his own agenda and now Eric Alterman responds to Sullivan’s demands that everyone blog about Iran all the time or else stand guilty of supporting theocracy.
It is really an amazing assertion when you think about it. Not only does Andy think he should be assignment editor for the entire blogworld, but he thinks if you don’t accept his instructions, you’re some sort of left-wing scaredy cat. I see Andy never mentions the 12 million people facing death from starvation in Ethiopia to which Stupid refer below. Does Andy favor mass starvation?
The reason I’ve not mentioned Iran is that I’m too busy (see above) to teach myself enough about it right now to have anything intelligent to say. I realize that caring enough about a topic to actually know what you’re talking about is a foreign concept over there in Sullyland, where goyim lecture Jews about loyalty to Israel and foreigners lecture Americans about patriotism. (Next thing you know he’ll be offering “how-to” lessons on the missionary position.)
But the fact is, there is an assumption on the part of many right-wingers that they, and no one else, should be allowed to decide what topics are appropriate for media debate. It may work on talk radio and cable TV, but not here. Get outta my face, punk.
I see something else as well. Last week Sullivan basically admitted he knew sweet jack about Iran and pleaded with everyone in the blogosphere to send him Iranian links which he quickly posted on his site and then turned around, stuck his tongue out and jeered: Look I’m blogging about Iran and lefties aren’t.
People in Britain joked about the BBC’s John Simpson ‘liberating Kabul’ but Sullivan really does think that his weblog brought down the editor of the New York Times and now he wants to present himself as the centre of the Iranian revolution. A better example of a blogger getting just a bit carried away with his self-importance you could not find.
But add in the fact that Sullivan also wants your money (not to support Iranian students but for his own lifestyle) and the whole thing begins to look rather sick.
And that’s enough about Andrew Sullivan for this week -ed.
Update: No it isn’t. In a poll for the Online Journalism Review guess which blog Sullivan names as the most influential blog in the world. Go on two guesses?