Today's Alterman--Continued

Several readers have wondered why I'm wasting my time with Eric Alterman. (Here's today's attack on me, by the way).

Here's why: I've noticed that a fair number of readers have, shall we say, a slightly inaccurate impression about who I am and what I care about. Where do they get these ideas? From intellectually dishonest bloggers like Alterman. Why intellectually dishonest? Because he sarcastically calls me Time's "most liberal" columnist and never once--not once--links to something "liberal" that I've written. I only appear on his radar screen when I criticize Democrats, which--yes--I sometimes do...but not nearly as often as I've criticized Republicans, especially during the past six years. A fairly flagrant case of bias, I would say.

The first time I met Alterman, nearly twenty years ago, I was under attack by assorted New York liberals for taking the shocking position that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was right: that out-of-wedlock births were helping to destroy the black community. The evidence of the disaster was coming in strong, and liberals refused to even consider the problem--until William Julius Wilson broke the silence with his fine book, The Truly Disadvantaged, and even then Wilson was accused, as I was, of "blaming the victim." In any case, Alterman introduced himself to me at a party around that time and said, "Doesn't it bother you that everybody hates you so much?"

"Not at all," I told him. (Actually, most people kind of liked what I was writing in those days--just none of the people Alterman hung with). I was describing what I saw in the poorest neighborhoods, but I was also regularly writing about creative ideas to solve the problems.

I've taken non-stop crap from Alterman ever since, and tried to ignore it. But now I'm living in his world--your world, the blogosphere--and I'm just not going to let him get away with his persistent intellectual dishonesty. (Even Atrios, with whom i've had some disagreements--to say the least--has linked to posts of mine that he thought worthy).

I'll try not to waste any valuable blogospace on this matter in the future. I won't even link to Alterman's attack on me tomorrow...or whenever. I just wanted you to know that he's not reliable.