Posted 10:46 AM by Gene

Dr. Johnson reminds us that "in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath," and we seem to have a prime example here, and Newsweek's new PR superstar Devin is the kind of writer who if he had penned this under oath would be found in contempt even if he told the whole truth. I confess I wouldn't have noticed or remarked on this posthumous backscratching but for a line that rankled me to anger, a line typical of a very CW magazine that once sold it with the line "Unconventional wisdom." "They shouldn’t do anything about the violence in movies,” said this late former editor after Columbine, “because violence is entertaining.” So entertaining that Gregg Easterbrook took to The New Republic to blast Newsweek among other news organizations for its show-biz-toadying attitude. (Guns, we can be sure, weren't quite as entertaining.)

Which somehow reminds me of the rag's late movie and theater blurbist whom I will merely call The Flack. In his last ten years he never, never wrote an unfavorable review, unless everybody else panned it first. One writer noted that the guy once complained that the lighting in a nude scene was too dim. He is now completely forgotten except among those easily bruised by bad writing, and the folks who lay out the quotes in movie and theater ads, and the latter must remember him, one suspects, with more than a touch of scorn.

Such are the hacks that write for Newsweek.

P.S. This PR superstar is the same salesman who wrote the cover ad for the Matrix sequels. Some hacks defy shame.

P.P.S. Said publicist is a Duke alumnus ('98) and has lent his name to the "advisory board" of something called Duke Magazine (the obsolete Clay Felker ['51] is its putative chairman) along with two people whose name would be more appropriate for him: Footlick.

P.P.P.S. A subplot to this garbage is that the ol' deceased hack editor gave our junior publicist an appreciation of Scotch. Anyone for AA?