New York Times Death Spiral Watch

In this morning's "humor" category, Robert Waldmann points out that David Brooks manages to get two of three names wrong in one sentence:

Robert's Stochastic thoughts: Two errors in One Sentence in the New York Times: Jonathan Zasloff notes

David Brooks [snip] comes up with this doozy:

All the habits of verbal thuggery that have long been used against critics of affirmative action, like Ward Churchill and Thomas Sowell, and critics of the radical feminism, like Christina Hoff Summers, are now being turned inward by the Democratic front-runners.

Ward Churchill? No, he's the nutcase University of Colorado professor who suggested that the victims of 9/11 were fascists. Brooks means to talk about Ward Connerly, the African-American businessman who sponsored Prop 209, California's anti-affirmative action initiative.

He neglects to mention that the critic of radical feminism is named Christina Hoff Sommers, as is shown by googling Christina Hoff Summers (that is of Germanic not Anglo Saxon ethnicity).

That's two errors in one sentence. No wonder the New York Times is our journal of record.

As Lady Bracknell does not say, "To get one name wrong in a sentence, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to get two names wrong looks like carelessness." Nobody on the New York Times editorial staff reads the thing for mindos. That tells us something: Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?

Speaking of Ward Connerly, and to add a little more levity to the morning, here is Ward Connerly's "God bless the Ku Klux Klan!" video:

Comments

[chris]

Hey its the thought that counts, not the accuracy of the names. Although one needs to admit that neither is worth much coming from Brooks. Anyway "Summers" sounds nicer than "Sommers". Think birds chirping in the trees, etc., etc.

[Keir]

Surely Anglo-Saxons are Germanic in ethnicity?

(Given that, uh, Anglo-Saxon's a Germanic language, and that Anglo-Saxons come from Germanic stock back in the volkerwanderung.)

If we're going to be picky, of course.

[max]

"and critics of the radical feminism, like Christina Hoff Summers"

THE radical feminism? Is there an off-brand/generic/made-in-China version of radical feminism?

Hey! I know! Maybe Christina Hoff S*u*mmers is a critic of THE radical feminism (ok, THE Radical Feminism(R)) and Christina Hoff S*o*mmers is a critic of off-brand/lead-tainted radical feminism (which is the radical feminism that's always getting a price rollback at Walmart, since it only has the tiny instruction sheet and no pictures ("Remove ringtab. Put index mark to dot. Twist wind-up knob until stop. Insert into womanhole (or safe manhole), pull ejection strap. Please to wait 15 minutes for full results."))! So, Brooks might not actually be wrong, just... overdetermined.

It could happen!

Ya know, I bet Ward Connerly, Ward Churchill, Christina Hoff Summers, Christina Hoff Sommers, Thomas Sowell and *both* David Brooks are all united in being opposed to off-brand, trademark-infringing, lead-tainted, subprime radical feminism. Unity!

Also, I think I just gave David Broder an orgasm.

max
['YUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKKKK.']

[piotr]

I think that if the verbal thuggery that Brooks mentions were really memorable he would remember the victims.

However mild or rare or transient the "left criticism" is, it is terrible thuggery.

[Matthew Morse]

If you do a Google search on "Christina Hoff Summers", the first link that actually contains "Summers" instead of "Sommers" is this page. Google searches can be weirdly circular.