Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

David Brooks and Susan Estrich

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637
from: Susan Estrich

Brill's Content?

Posted Friday, June 19, 1998, at 12:16 PM ET

Dear David:

I didn't see the Carol Browner piece, you're quite right--shades of Mike Espy, poor man, who didn't know he wasn't in Congress any more, where corruption is entirely lawful--but I did see the Glenn Simpson piece. Help. Who's going to do the magazine about the magazine about the press? Getting wrong whether there was one interview or two? Does that mean they talked twice but one wasn't an interview? That they only talked once? You don't have to be a genius, which Steve Brill probably is, to know that a piece like his will be read carefully by those who are its subject--that is, after all, the whole point. So how come so many mistakes? The same fever that affects everyone else??? Scoop fever . . .

I've known Carter Eskew for years, but I didn't know he was doing tobacco--the ads weren't on in Los Angeles. Your colleague is absolutely right--it will be great for his business. If he can do this for tobacco, think what he could do for nuclear waste, toxic chemicals, HMOs, union busters etc. That's where the real money is--not in political campaigns. Less aggravation, too, when you don't have to take calls from the candidate. But is his situation really any different from all the lawyers and lobbyists around town who work for tobacco, including some fairly prominent former liberal Democrats?

Everyone needs a lawyer, I teach my students, but they don't necessarily need you. I think those of us who have the freedom to decide what we want to do, and work in politics, bear responsibility for the choices we make. Our lives are our prayer. How we live, not the words we mouth about sin and values. But I think Carter is typical of the deep denial that keeps this town going--the sense that it's a game, the inability to smell the stench anymore. Too much blue smoke.

Speaking of blue smoke, what do you make of the Patricia Smith story--the columnist for the Boston Globe fired yesterday for making up columns, following on the heels of the even more amazing story of Stephen Glass and his made-up columns. Whatever happened to editing? Why do these people have these jobs? In Glass' case, I think it reflects the desperation to be young and hip. The 45-year-old white women journalists I know who freelance could never get the assignments Glass got, because the 45-year-old men who make the hiring decisions are so desperate for that cool, edgy, hip youth market that standards disappear. Of course Patricia Smith was 40-something; she was also black, in a mostly (understatement) white newspaper . . . could that have anything to do with anything??? It's hard to get a column in the Globe (full disclosure: I run in the Boston Herald, not the Globe).

Here's a riddle. Ginsburg says that the Starr troopers wanted Monica to wire the president. He writes a 19-page letter (too long, plenty of room for more misstatements) saying he didn't. Either he's lying--or his soon-to-be star witness is, neither of which is particularly good for him. Why have the fight now? Maybe he needs Carter Eskew. Maybe he's available.

Conflicts, truth, who knows. It's only rock and roll.

Later,

Susan

P.S. Are you going over to dunk Rahm Emmanuel at the press party I read about in Al Kamen's column? He was invited Wednesday; me, not at all. You? If you go, please dunk Sidney Blumenthal for me.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637
from: Susan Estrich

Brill's Content?

Posted Friday, June 19, 1998, at 12:16 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
David Brooks is a senior editor of the Weekly Standard. Susan Estrich is a law professor at the University of Southern California.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Assessing Sarah Palin
| Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, John Podesta and others weigh in.
Colbert King: She's No HillaryEditorial: Is She Ready for This?
PLUS » PostPartisan: Quick Takes from Opinions