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The Back-Slapping Media Elite

By Russ Smith
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999, at 10:58 AM ET

ELLEN:

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We are on opposite schedules. While you were writing yesterday's last dispatch, I was eating noodles and steamed vegetables from a palatable take-out joint in Tribeca, watching Hardball, and preparing to tuck my almost-5-year-old son into bed. His birthday is next week (ironically, on the same date as my mother, who passed away 16 years ago) and that's all he can talk about.

You didn't respond to my take on Columbine.

On "hate" crimes, I see your point, but I think the media and attention-starved politicians have trivialized the issue. The most publicized "hate" crime in recent memory was the sad death of Matthew Shepard, the gay man in Wyoming. I don't believe that was a "hate" crime designed to send a message to a whole class of people. It was the case of a couple of losers who were drunk, homophobic, and out of control. It doesn't compare to abortion-clinic bombings. In any case, my point remains: What's the point of "hate crime" legislation other than to assuage liberals? For example, I hope Shepard's killers are fried, but they can't be killed twice, right?

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In today's Times, Maureen Dowd comes close, perhaps subconsciously, to endorsing George W. Bush. She writes about the cocaine question, as every pundit is these days, and chastises Bush for not answering that query when he's stated that he's been faithful to his wife. Yet she closes the piece: "He seems to have good instincts, and he knows how to get good advice. But does that qualify him to lead the country? That's the substance abuse we should worry about." Dowd is an odd duck: Most often she writes about Hollywood, fashion, everything trivial, while wrapping it up in some political context. Last Sunday's column about Warren Beatty's running for president (which would be a lot of fun, no?) was typical: She said he won't because as Carly Simon sang so long ago, "He's So Vain." She certainly didn't deserve the Pulitzer (even though it's a bogus award, an example of the media elite slapping each other on the back), especially when Nat Hentoff, now one of the few reasons to read the Voice, was her competitor.

But I'm behind in my work. The classified director from the Voice has just moved over to NYPress and she starts today. She'll need a quick primer in NYPress in-house culture, which I guarantee you is far different from our rival's.

Best,
RUSS