[RBG Note; sorry, but we don’t do that on this blog.]

every time you see an article or two you disagree with

No no no! Not “disagree”. It’s time to cancel a subscription when the publication prints lies and partisan spin.

Disagreement, great, sure, I’ll keep reading. Dishonesty and a complete lack of integrity? Cancel, please.

People who lie to you are not worth your time and are actively dangerous. Avoid them. Likewise corporations that lie to you– don’t give them your money. And publications that lie to you? There’s simply no reason to read them– there are always publications with integrity regardless of whether or not you agree with them.

Waving hi to all the Time employees reading this.

Priceless!

Painton was a visiting lecturer in the English department at Mount Holyoke College in the Fall of 2006.

If she won’t talk to Jane or Glenn, I wonder if former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a Mount Holyoke professor) might be persuaded to give her a call and ask her to explain the failure to correct Klein’s and Time’s libel that Pelosi and other House Democrats are backing a bill that “would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target’s calls to be approved by the FISA court.”

Or how about Chris Pyle, another MHC professor, who was instrumental in writing the original FISA law?

Joe Klein, acclaimed writer and political columnist for Time magazine, spoke the evening of November 27 to a capacity crowd in Hooker Auditorium. Earlier in the day he had visited the journalism class taught by the magazine’s executive editor, Priscilla Painton ‘80. Introducing Klein, Painton described him as “a man who loves politics, politicians, and his country. He has an extraordinarily romantic view of what politics can be in this country. He always believes that the next election can surprise him.”

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offic…..amp;full=1

aye @ 42

Joe Klein, acclaimed writer and political columnist for Time magazine, spoke the evening of November 27 to a capacity crowd in Hooker Auditorium. Earlier in the day he had visited the journalism class taught by the magazine’s executive editor, Priscilla Painton ‘80. Introducing Klein, Painton described him as “a man who loves politics, politicians, and his country. He has an extraordinarily romantic view of what politics can be in this country. He always believes that the next election can surprise him.”

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offic…..amp;full=1

Ack! My alma mater! What the hell were they thinking?! And I wish I’d known about this sooner – I would have happily driven down to South Hadley for the talk (in the hopes that he would take questions, of course).

Maddy @ 2:31.

Please tell me you’re merely attempting to emulate anotherliberal’s ironic humor as opposed to missing it altogether.

I took it at face value, The irony flew over my head so fast I didn’t catch the drift. But I am already pissed off when I wake up to still here george, and irony is not on my list of things to be particularly aware of. Feel better now ralphbon?

I wish I could find that animated gif of the little guy typing faster and faster until he starts banging his head on the keyboard. That’s a picture of Glenn right now.

Is this the one?

Joe Klein tends to have this effect on folks who prefer a bit of critical thinking along with their regurgitated pablum.

TO: PRISCILLA PAINTON

Dear Ms. Painton — Surely one of the responsibilities of an editor is to exercise some degree of oversight on the material that crosses one’s desk, no matter how celebrated the author.

Thus, the actual text of the FISA bill:

Section 2 of the RESTORE Act — the very first section after the “Definitions” section:

‘CLARIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE OF NON-UNITED STATES PERSONS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES’

Sec. 105A. (a) Foreign to Foreign Communications-

(1) IN GENERAL – Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, a court order is not required for electronic surveillance directed at the acquisition of the contents of any communication between persons that are not known to be United States persons and are reasonably believed to be located outside the United States for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence information, without respect to whether the communication passes through the United States or the surveillance device is located within the United States.

And Joe Klein’s words on the matter:

I may have made a mistake in my column this week about the FISA legislation passed by the House, although it’s difficult to tell for sure given the technical nature of the bill’s language and fierce disagreements between even moderate Republicans and Democrats on the Committee about what the bill actually does contain.

and

I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who’s right.

What part of “a court order is not required” is “technical language?” In extenuation, I have heard it suggested that Mr. Klein writes as a columnist, not as a journalist. To parse the difference, if he writes as a journalist, he’s simply wrong, and was presumably misled by his sources. In this case, he is merely incompetent, and should be, at the very least, given a leave of absence. If he writes as a columnist, he is either lazy, mendacious or both. In this case he is an affront to the journalistic profession and an active obstacle to the Jeffersonian ideal of a “well-informed citizenry,” and, needless to say, does not deserve to retain his prestigious and more-than-adequately remunerated position. In either case, the image of TIME Magazine has been irrevocably sullied.

An apology and retraction are due to your readers.

Sincerely,

(signature)

heliograph @ 196

“Muffy” Painton went to Mt. Holyoke (class of ‘80). Where did you go to school, darling? Mt. Holyoke alums NEVER make mistakes, darling.

I love FDL, but as a MHC graduate, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t generalize about the kind of alums the college produces… because you’d be wrong, and then you’d need to make a correction :-)
Sincerely,
A Progressive Liberal MHC class of ‘78 grad

I do sincerely apologize to all MHC grads who aren’t arrogant, elitist clowns who can’t own up to a mistake or stand in the way of a “rock star” columnist’s smear of Democrats. Ms. Painton’s flaws and mistakes are her own, I didn’t mean to generalize. I have known MHC alumnae and they were fine, principled people not suffering whatever terrible moral and ethical condition now afflicts Ms. Painton. So no blame to MHC for the sins of one of its alumnae, and no intent to smear any other alums or the institution by association. I was just having a little fun with her absurd posing as an oh-so-serious journamalism professor at MHC.

My only defense is that I was giddy and oxygen-starved from laughing so hard at Ms. Painton’s characterization of Time’s massive, meticulous fact-checking organization that would never, ever allow a single error of fact to slip through the ethical net. God that was funny.