Gessen makes frequent trips to Russia on business. When you witness a journalist working so hard to make themselves the story, you start wondering what matters most to them-the truth out there in the world that needs to be investigated and reported or keeping the limelight fixed firmly on themselves. Gessen “fled” Russia over the course of two or three years, generating an endless series of interviews and op-ed pieces about her “escape” as she was slowly packing her bags or whatever she was doing during her seemingly endless, slow-motion “flight to freedom.” The nonsensicality of this claim would be apparent only to people like me and my Russian reporter friend Sergey, who watched as Ms. It is nonsense, however, to say she “fled” because she was “persecuted” personally. She had every right and reason to do this, and if I were in her position I might have done the same thing. Gessen, for example, did not exactly “flee” Russia, but chose to leave because she felt her non-traditional family would be safer in the US, where she emigrated with her own birth family when she was fourteen. It would probably surprise NPR’s listeners to learn that Ms. At the same time, parts of the Russian national and Russian émigré chattering class feel so utterly flummoxed by the way events have been unfolding in the last four or five years that they have gone, almost reflexively, into heavy spin mode while also trying to install themselves, in the west, as the go-to people when it comes to all matters Russian. It is not at all a straighforward question of dual loyalties or having been “flipped,” of course, but the genuine discomfort many Russians and Russian émigrés feel about the dire direction Russia has taken under Vladimir Putin. Chen, just as I can see no point flapping one’s lips about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election until Robert Mueller’s investigation has been completed. I could see no point whatsoever to NPR’s interview with Ms. No, the bottom line is that reporters like Masha Gessen and Julia Ioffe, for whatever reason, want to control the public discourse on Russia in the US, so they have to reach over and over again for the bag of tricks, perfected in their worst incarnations by pseudo-intellectual mags like the New Republic and Atlantic Monthly in the nineties, that counter-intuitive reporting gets you, the reporter, the most attention, even if your counter-intuitive argument is utterly worthless when examined on the merits. “The bottom line is that Americans elected Trump,” claims Gessen in the interview. Here is the interview itself, broadcast earlier today on NPR. Here, they are, today, in full “Russophile” mode. Two cases in point are ace reporters Julia Ioffe and Masha Gessen, * who seem to go back and forth all over the place on the “Russia question,” depending on the venue and the day. Meanwhile, the unhappy, far-flung, unfunky human shards of the collapsing new building once known as the Soviet Union are almost never on point, because the ones among them who clearly think they are the smartest, cleverest, and most cosmopolitan have been in semi-permanent national self-defense mode after it transpired the Kremlin tried its flat-out best to intervene in the 2016 US presidential election. I am happy to say I saw the group perform at a club in Seattle in 1991 or 1992, and it was the most positive, funkiest show I have ever seen anywhere. The Tribe were always on point, although Phife, sadly, died in March 2016. So just clean out your ears and just check the word See, I’m far from a bully and I ain’t a punkĮxtremity in rhythm, yeah that’s what you heard You see, my aura’s positive I don’t promote no junk I come correct in full effect have all my hoes in checkĪnd before I get the butt the jim must be erect On job remaining, no I’m chaining cause I misbehave I’m just a fly MC who’s five foot three and very brave They get vexed, I roll next, can’t none contest me You’d be a fool to reply that Phife is not the manĬause you know and I know that you know who I amĪ special shot of peace goes out to all my pals, you seeĪnd a middle finger goes for all you punk MC’sĬause I love it when you wack MC’s despise me I slayed that body in El Segundo then push it along Now if you say my style is wack that’s where you’re dead wrong My crew is never ever wack because we stand strong I’m like an Energizer ’cause, you see, I last long Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram Now here’s a funky introduction of how nice I am
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |