Take Maureen Dowd...Please
She's done endless publicity for
a book that no one seems to be buying.
Here, she chats with
Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith (an old friend of mine), and really, her ego is just out of control.
When Smith asks her about Judith Miller, she says that Smith is goading her into a "catfight," and that men love catfights because they always think that the women will be kissing at the end. (Apparently that's a Seinfeld joke.)
Maureen Dowd and Judith Miller kissing is an image that I did not want in my head. Stuck...in my head. I think it's safe to say that the only people who might thusly fantasize are a small group of octogenarians who subscribe to the New York Review of Books and believe that Alger Hiss was innocent.
Later in the interview, Dowd discusses TimesSelect, the newspaper's pay-per-view service for online material. " I feel like Rapunzel behind a wall, you know, up in a castle," Dowd says.
Let's just consider the implications of that self-description for a moment, shall we?
Smith next asks Dowd why she was the sole TimesSelect columnist who did not post an autobiographical video of herself.
Dowd replies, "It just seems a little narcissistic to make a bio video of you, video of yourself. I feel like people reading the column already know."
Hmmm. It's narcissistic to make a biographical introduction of yourself, because you feel that everyone already knows your bio.
Interesting.
Later, Dowd draws extensive analogies between the White House and the Star War movies.
I've long thought that MoDo is the most overrated newspaper columnist in the United States (hell, let's say the world). She's refreshing on the Times Op-Ed page because a) she's the only woman, and brings a different writing style and set of concerns, and b) everyone else is so frigging serious all the time.
But I'm convinced if you took any non-Times writer with a respectable amount of wit and cleverness, and some interest in politics, and dropped them down on that prime NYT real estate, that writer would generate the same level of enthusiasm.
Reading the Times op-ed page is usually like eating your vegetables. Not fun, but good for you. Reading Dowd is like eating dessert first.
Which is fine. There's nothing wrong with a little dessert, as long as you take it in moderation and don't confuse it with anything substantive.
