Hostile Takeover

David Sirota is at the TPM Cafe Book Club discussing his just-released book Hostile Takeover. And he is appealingly pissed off:

On the right we have networks like Fox News that serve as arms of government propaganda, echoing and reinforcing the dishonest narratives. This is supposedly countered by media figures on the left. But that "left" in the media is largely occupied by out of touch elitists a la Tom Friedman, Joe Klein and Peter Beinart – loafers on the Washington cocktail party circuit who want us to believe that the real problem facing America is that politicians aren't supportive enough of job outsourcing, are actually too populist, or are not sufficiently willing to indiscriminately bomb enough dark-skinned people throughout the world, respectively. From the comfortable confines of their upper crust lifestyles, these folks, of course, never have to experience the real-world consequences of the policies they advocate (which might explain how they can push them so haughtily). Except for a few courageous souls, most of these media opinionmakers – left and right – are clearly more interested in kissing the fat white ass of power, rather than challenging it, for fear of being left off their favorite politicians' Christmas card list.

The only flaw here is that Sirota fails to refer to Peter Beinart by the nickname I have given him. That nickname is Pe-nart.