"Sally Quinn, Spiritual Adviser"
Scrapbook Sally Quinn, Spiritual Adviser Readers of the Washington Post were greeted, one recent morning, with an essay by Sally Quinn on why Barack Obama and his family (who have...
...Or at least not overtly...
...Consider E. J. Dionne Jr...
...He didn’t...
...Oddly, THE SCRAPBOOK doesn’t remember picking up even a vibration of this disgust during the campaign, though admittedly we weren’t frequent visitors to the Halperin blog...
...Larry,” we can hear the presidentelect declare, “this weather is gorgeous, isn’t it...
...Once upon a time Quinn was an attractive young blonde who, without any evident professional qualifications, was hired by the editor of the Washington Post (“Nobody’s perfect,” he famously told her) to write stories about the political/ journalistic elite for the Post’s “Style” section...
...Quinn is identified as a “moderator, with Jon Meacham, of On Faith, an online conversation on religion...
...Is it possible that, as a nation, we’re shedding our childlike, rural innocence and becoming more mature, urban, urbane . . .” (Joe Klein, Time, November 24...
...Larry,” replies the president-elect, “I’m delighted to know that you share my passion for a more equitable distribution of economic benefits...
...But there’s more to the story than that...
...After eight years of fearlessly speaking truth to power, afflicting the comfortable, believing the worst, challenging, confronting, criticizing the motives (and questioning the character) of Republicans and the Bush administration, the prayers of the press corps have been answered, and they find themselves in the deliciously awkward position of being shills, hacks, pussycats, apologists, professional liars, sellouts, and suck-ups—not necessarily in that order...
...We may be—this may end up like 2002, 2003, where we weren’t as tough as we should have been [in the run-up to Iraq...
...Obama was impressed during campaign policy discussions that Summers would often pull the conversation away from general talk about economic growth to a concern with the living standards of families with average incomes...
...I got to say this, the media, the media has been really, really biased this campaign, I think...
...Media Bias II While we’re on the subject of media bias, THE SCRAPBOOK has a little therapeutic advice for fellow conservatives...
...I’m starting to have this conversation with other members of the media, who say, you know what...
...Had Halperin been truly disgusted, he could have shared this observation before the election, when it might have actually sparked a debate about this “extreme bias...
...Media Bias I To hear him tell it now, Mark Halperin, the former ABC News political director and current editor at large of Time magazine, was positively outraged at the bias displayed by his colleagues in the mainstream media during their reporting on the 2008 presidential campaign...
...Scrapbook Sally Quinn, Spiritual Adviser Readers of the Washington Post were greeted, one recent morning, with an essay by Sally Quinn on why Barack Obama and his family (who have not attended church since the election) should choose the National Cathedral as their regular place of worship...
...Except for one very brief, very disastrous, excursion as a morning news anchor on CBS—once again, experience was a problem—Quinn continued to write for the Post “Style” section until the aforementioned editor discarded his wife and married Quinn, who ceased writing for the Post and switched to chick-lit novels about the political/journalistic elite, and purchasing and refurbishing baronial estates in Washington and Maryland...
...From there, Halperin wrote about the campaign and analyzed the coverage of it, and many of his posts displayed this trademark grasp of the obvious...
...In an appearance on MSNBC on October 28, Halperin was asked about this proObama bias by Joe Scarborough...
...Answer: First in a series by Sally Quinn...
...Sound familiar...
...Yes, Mr...
...But it also tells us something about the culture (if that is the word) of the nation’s capital that someone like Sally Quinn should be a plausible moderator, along with the editor of a weekly newsmagazine, of an “online conversation on religion” and advising the incoming president about churches...
...President-elect,” responds Professor Summers, “but it might as well be cloudy and raining for families with average incomes...
...But it’s not been a Republican/Democratic bias...
...Jeremiah (“God damn Amerikkka...
...President-elect,” replies Professor Summers...
...It’s the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war,” he said November 21...
...The name of Sally Quinn may not have much resonance outside Greater Washington, but within the Beltway, it conjures up all sorts of picturesque images...
...Don’t get unduly bent out of shape, enjoy the spectacle...
...Halperin ran a blog on Time’s website that touted its coverage of “politics up to the minute...
...THE SCRAPBOOK is willing to set aside, for the moment, the idea of “sacred spaces” in Washington—the motel room where Mayor Marion Barry was arrested while smoking crack...
...The real condemnation of the media came from Scarborough, who snickered at that Nixonian line from Halperin and blasted the pro-Obama bias of the media, pointing out that even Hillary Clinton was a victim of the Obama Love...
...No more Krugmanesque frothing at the mouth...
...Question: What are the seven most feared words at the Washington Post...
...These included an infamous, interminable account of her pilgrimage to Cuba—with obligatory breathless coverage of Fidel Castro and friends—and, when she began consorting with the editor, inspired a famous Washington joke...
...His response...
...The last time they chose a place of worship, after due diligence, they spent 20 years in the congregation of the Rev...
...the parking garage where Bob Woodward met Deep Throat?—and ponder the spectacle of Sally Quinn offering advice on religious practice...
...Aides say that Obama was drawn to [Lawrence] Summers in part because the former Harvard president shares the president-elect’s passion for a more equitable distribution of economic benefits...
...Nominally the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, the cathedral is, as Quinn pointed out, “the place where, in recent years, presidents have gone for the inaugural prayer service the day after being sworn in, where ex-presidents are mourned at their death, where presidents and Americans as a people congregate during moments of crisis...
...The Obama story has] been great for us...
...As for the National Cathedral, we share Quinn’s enthusiasm for the place — architecturally, at least—but would caution Barack and Michelle Obama to give the matter serious consideration...
...Wright...
...Not least, she added, “I am drawn to the cathedral over all of the sacred spaces in Washington because it is the most pluralistic of the places of worship I’ve been to...
...THE SCRAPBOOK believes in redemption, of course...
...A recent essay—“Obama’s Brain Trust”—was so bursting with pride, so full of veneration, so packed with hackneyed admiration and worshipful clich?s, that THE SCRAPBOOK could barely restrain its laughter...
...The result was “extreme bias, extreme proObama coverage...
...Empowered, almost...
...But I think, I think mistakes have been made and people —and people will regret it...
...Yes, Mr...
...Sentences We Didn’t Finish ‘Indeed, as the weeks have passed since the election, I’ve felt—as an urban creature myself—less restricted, less defensive...
...So if anyone tries to set Halperin up as some kind of courageous truth-teller, we’re not buying...
...If Obama wins and goes on to become a hugely successful president, I think, still, people will look back and say it just wasn’t done the right way...
...now the tone is placid, deferential, supportive, anesthetized...
...of the Washington Post, whose columns have tended to sound as if they were vetted by the Democratic National Committee...
...He’s a great story...
...Hmmm...
...Mistakes have been made...
Vol. 14 • December 2008 • No. 12
