Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Has Andrew Sullivan Been Muzzled by The Atlantic?

So it appears that Sullivan's earlier claim that no one is telling him what he can and can't write about might not be strictly true. He now posts a "quote of the day" which translates to roughly "About which one cannot speak, one must be silent."

This suggests that Sullivan has been in some way disciplined by management at The Atlantic. Surely this is enough to interest a mainstream media reporter? Right?

Seriously, is there a more interesting media story out there right now than one of the nation's oldest journals having an internal dispute over a staffer's writing, causing said staffer to temporarily cease work, and then post a barely-veiled dissent?

Oh, well, maybe there is. But still! America's media beat writers must be able to fight two conflicts simultaneously! If they can't, they're just daring rogue journalists to behave badly . . .

Update: The great Ace is all over this, with a comment from a tipster who claims to work at The Atlantic. (Ace has no idea if the tipster is genuine, fyi.)

Update 2: Sullivan seems to be back posting at The Atlantic, but has yet to mention Sarah Palin. I'm sure some industrious reader could tell me how many times he's posted about her since her nomination. We can then see how long he goes until mentioning her again.

Update 3: Big news! Sullivan is back on the Trig Palin story and he must have uncovered some new evidence, because he's now certain that Trig is Sarah Palin's child:

Say all you want about Sarah Palin's non-existent record on foreign policy, series of public lies, non-existent vetting and absurd, unprecedented shielding from the press. At least we know this for sure: she went through the psychological, emotional and spiritual test of eight months of pregnancy and a painful, difficult, endless labor for a cause she believes in.


Did he get a gander at the hospital records during his time out off?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you follow the links, you'll find that the tipster's IP address comes from a DC suburb. Not dispositive, but interesting enough, surely, that somebody might pick up a bloody phone and call David Bradley.

Anonymous said...

What the tipster reported makes a great deal of sense, though that doesn't mean it's true.

But if it is, then seems to me that soon the powers that be at The Atlantic will decide to get rid of Sullivan. He isn't doing the work they pay him for, and that is grounds for termination in any business.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Andy is back with a regular post this morning. Was there any truth to the musings over at Ace and elsewhere? Maybe? But at the end of the day if The Atlantic was able to get Sullivan to keep away from Palin rumors then I'd say that is good enough.

Mark said...

He is blogging a lot this morning - just nothing campaign related. Before it was pretty much all Palin all the time, now he he seems to be going to great lengths to avoid the topic. Spooky.

Mark said...

Not very long - first Palin post since the hiatus!

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/why-trig-matter.html

Anonymous said...

What - another post about Sullivan?! What kind of tennis blog is this?

Where's your post about Roger Federer? Or are you too embarrassed by your prediction after Wimbledon that the "age of Federer is over"?

Mark said...

Last time I'll do this, I promise, but it looks like Sullivan is coming out swinging on Palin:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/sarah-palins-fi.html

Anonymous said...

Mark,

I don't think too many people cared whether Sullivan took cheap shots at Palin. That is fine. If he wants to stoop to Mo-Do levels that is fine. What I think most people were shocked by was Sullivan's posts regarding unsubstantiated rumors and his insane predictions that boggled the mind.
If he wants to call Palin inexperienced or dumb or ugly or whatever, I'm fine with that, though it is kinda beneath him. But The Atlantic should not tolerate the following:

- Insinuating Trig is not Palin's son, but his grandson

- Insinuating Palin had an affair

- Calling Palin a "Manchurian Candidate" (this was, of all the things Sullivan wrote, the worst. It is more about McCain and his time as a POW than it is about Palin. Has the man never seen the movie? He was insinuating that John McCain was brainwashed by the Vietnamese and was ultimately going to destroy this country. That is what is meant by Manchurian Candidate)

- Predict McCain would drop out of the election.

It appears as though someone said something to him, and he got the message.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe any of this, I've been reading Sullivan for years and he's just not the type to get all crazy about stuff...

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Anonymous said...

I believe it was the great philosopher of the early 1990s, Beavis, who once said
"oh-no, god damnit"

Sullivan is getting awful close to Trig Trutherism again:

"It may be false. It may be true. But nothing has been proved,"
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/quote-for-th-15.html

and then there is this:

"What else is she lying about?"
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-lies-of-sar.html

Whether or not he's been told to lay off or whether he's done so on his own, I think he's pathologically incapable of restraint. It's simply a matter of time before he's back to the full-on Palin Trutherism and hopefully, hopefully, out the door of The Atlantic.