Newsweek's Evan Thomas: amoral Cool-Kid

Just heard an interview with Newsweek assistant managing editor Evan Thomas on Imus, and I've decided that this man is a perfect example of an inside-the-Beltway, amoral, "Cool-Kid" journalist. The discussion first centered on the torture of Iraqi prisoners, and then went on to the situation in Fallujah. Imus asked Thomas if we could ever recover in the Arab world from the torture pictures, and Thomas said we could not, but there was no framing of the issue in terms of right and wrong. Then Thomas said that our showing weakness in Fallujah was as bad as the revelations of torture, indicating that that was something from which we could also not recover. This indicates to me that actions and events are judged by Evan Thomas only as they affect the position of the U.S. in the world.

Thomas then spoke of the "seduction" of war, with all the power we have, and said that after 9/11 we all, himself included, wanted to make war on someone. But he said that Iraq is showing us that war has a way of turning bad. There was no apology for the beating of his own journalistic drum, which helped drive us into the tragedy in Iraq.

Imus asked if he had seen Koppel reading the list of our dead soldiers (which Imus had, and thought appropriate), and Thomas said he had not, but that some considered it a "stunt." There was no expression of concern or regret for the dead, or their families. Imus mentioned Joe Wilson's appearance on "Meet the Press" (Imus does not like Wilson), and Thomas said something like, "Oh, he was on there to sell his book?" Thomas repeated the idea of Wilson's selling his book, yet there was not one mention of Wilson's wife being outed as an undercover CIA agent, endangering lives and undermining intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, the discussion turned to Kerry, and the overall tone was that Kerry was just not a Cool Kid. His falling off his bicyle was brought up, and Thomas expressed amazement that W was AWOL and Kerry a war hero, but Kerry, not Bush, was managing to look the bad guy re. Vietnam, pronouncing Kerry "flat-footed" (i.e., not cool). Again, facts and reality, right and wrong, were of no importance -- all that's important is how cool kids (and cool countries, I suppose) play games. Evans's attitude throughout the interview was breezily nonchalant (while trying, I thought, to say what "popular guy" Imus might want to hear)-- and, of course, oh-so-coooool.

...it certainly isnt the impression one would get from reading his biography of RFK.

Just my 2¢....

Ya gotta love em!

Thomas is one of the more liberal journalists. He seems to just reporting observations. Some of them I agree with. Why should he apologize? How is he responsible? Is there a specific piece by Thomas beating the drums for war that you can point to?

or he got into financial troubles in the "Dot Com Bubble," but he has turned to the dark side. I saw him on a C-Span panel about a month ago where he was pretty much backing Bush and his policies and he wrote an article that was pretty much making him sound like Tom Friedman.

He used to be what we might have viewed as a "liberal journalist" but if you read Eric Alterman's book on the media "What Liberal Media" he makes a good case that journalists we "thought" were liberal were in most cases very much "centrists" who only appeared "liberal" because the
right wing of the Repug Party was so far right in the last decade.

Evan Thomas used to be a "thinking person's" journalist. He's now a disappointment. :-(

and I'm aware of his work, and his grandfather Norman. That's why I was so disappointed, and angered, by his appearance this morning. I think there is a Beltway mentality -- the laughing at Bush's WMD jokes, for example -- that discourages expressions of seriousness and caring even in journalists who are serious and caring. Of course, the interview was on Imus's show, but Imus actually conducts pretty serious interviews, with outrageous comments and opinions thrown in, and he was attempting a serious interview with Thomas. There were points Thomas could have made that might have had an effect on some listeners, but he did not. And his tone, which I tried to describe, was the opposite of Sy Hersh's, for example, when Hersh talked to Wolf Blitzer yesterday about the prison torture. Anyone listening to Hersh could hear in his voice his outrage at what occurred, and the seriousness with which those who were watching should regard the incidents.

mentality. Your post is excellent in describing it.

Imus's show is the best place to see it. Even he is infected with it although he wouldn't admit it. He's one of Beltway Boys he derides. It's all a game to them. Cynical and inbred they talk to each other leaving the rest of us out, because we aren't important to them.

:-( I hope a whole new generation of reporters comes out of the internet Blog world and takes these insiders out in the next few years.

although I don't know who first came up with the appellation --

I've always been a critic of how myopic our media has always been. Every world even is view on "how it will affect us"...as though that's the ultimate story.

When we see a bombing in another country, our first reaction is to say how bad it was, and then quickly also add, how good it was to them and not to us. I saw a ton of this reaction to the Spanish train bombings, no wonder those folks voted their warlords out! It was Bunnypants arrogance that led to the bombings and then the Spanish reaction as the people there saw how we were viewed as the ones who brought death to that country and then how our regime turned on that country when it didn't do what WE wanted it to.

The convenient out for these whores is "my audience is American", or "this is an American publication", but that doesn't excuse the arrogance that exudes from inside the beltway that has created a culture of America as some overlord of the rest of the world...superior in every way, and according to this regime, perfect in every way. We NEVER make a mistake. Dare to say we do or even question and you're a traitor.

Just listen to Bunnypants use the term "brown-skinned" as he has recently. Besides it being a code/buzzword to the fundie, it shows his total moral bankruptcy to view all people as people...and not us vs. them and who to exploit and who to protect.

I grew up thinking the U.S. was a very special place, that our society was so much more sophisiticated (not advanced) than others. I'm so ashamed these days.

I used to think he was innucuous. But he is exactly what you said. Someone who can;t see outside of the "cool kid" bubble.

Saw an interview with him a coup;le of years ago, and he was dismissing all critics of corporate free trade as far-left whackos. Absolutely no appreciation of the people who don't blindly accept the corporate status quo.

Just a snooty elitist.

Very good way of looking at their frame of reference, i.e. 8th grade school girl cliques.