He Has a List! A List!
Posted on August 21st, 2012 in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
“What we’re dealing with here is a very carefully orchestrated campaign to try and discredit [my article] by those who are ideologically loyal to the president.”
—Niall Ferguson, today, on Bloomberg TV.
A very carefully orchestrated campaign? I don’t think I got that memo.
4 Responses
8/21/2012 1:38 pm
I assume that many of the blog’s regulars are being quiet because it’s uncouth to endorse these critiques of a colleague, but Ferguson’s responses are really bad and making things worse. He’s moving into Glenn Beck territory with this stuff and dragging Harvard’s reputation with him.
It’s funny - this is the kind of irresponsibility that Summers imagined Cornel West embodying, but it’s this clown he actually hired who’s behaving in an embarrassing way.
8/21/2012 6:32 pm
mad must be talking about someone else, given the number of uncouth critiques I have offered of my colleagues. But FWIW: I just can’t quite figure out what to say to whom on this one that hasn’t already been said. It gets back to the dilemma I had about Porter. I feel the university, or we on the faculty, or someone ACADEMIC should say that Ferguson’s a disgrace (sorry, NF — facts and details are what we WANT from academics; if we just wanted broad opinions about political figures, formed without a logical deduction from actual facts, we could turn to Limbaugh instead). But DeLong goes over the top calling for the equivalent of disbarment from the profession; any such process would inevitably get used against various unpopular figures.
8/21/2012 7:28 pm
So sad that shame no longer seems to work. He has made a fool of himself, but simply revels in his celebrity and profit-a Kardashian with tenure.
8/22/2012 10:05 am
Mad—I like the Cornel West irony! Nice pick-up there.
Yes, I too have wondered why there haven’t been more comments, particularly given traffic data. My hunch is that, by and large, 02138 folks don’t want to get anywhere near this particular train wreck.