December 27, 2023
TRIBUNE'S JOHN KASS PURGE IS CENSORSHIP BY CANCELLATION
Journalists, like many creative so-called “artists,” are very jealous and insecure people. They are often extraordinarily envious of the work product of others. They crave adulation and recognition by their peers and pat themselves on the back frequently.
Except, of course, this “creative artist.” I never cared about what anybody thinks of me or my journalistic talents (or, as some claim, lack thereof). I studiously ignore my journalistic opinion/commentator competitors. Most of them are of the Woke/Leftist/conformist variety, anyway. I could name names, but idiocy is subjective, so I don’t need the legal hassle.
Some are propagandists, not journalists, with nary an original thought. Some are activists posing as journalists, pushing for an outcome instead of reporting facts. At least in this column my opinions are based on facts and the analysis thereof. Theirs are based on “feelings” and perceptions. They are part of the herd. And the herd has a fragile ego, deeming opinions contrary to their own to be hurtful and almost akin to violence. The Left does not want to debate; they want to suppress. The same thing occurs on the Right.
However, one writer I admired (and regularly read) was John Kass, formerly of the Chicago Tribune. Kass is a conservative but I think an original thinker. He had an opinion column for decades in the same spot where Mike Royko used to. But his Page 2 placement got bounced to the rearmost editorial pages in 2021, and he took a nice buyout out of the newspaper and moved to Indiana following a pretty bitter and public brouhaha. You can still find him online on his Web site, posting commentary, podcasts and even hawking merchandise. Life after the Tribune.
Kass’s “crime” was that he mocked Lefties way too much and the Chicago Tribune Guild, a union of journalists, said he was spewing anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories in his column on billionaire George Soros’ ties to Kim Foxx and other progressive prosecutors.
He said it was based in fact and took offense. In fact, Soros does fund progressive prosecutors who are soft on crime. There were other complaints that merely writing about Soros is an anti-Semitic dog-whistle. But the details don’t matter.
Kass wasn’t fired. He took a buyout. But to this day he still rallies on his Web site against the Tribune and the guild.
The Left, (and the Right), cannot and will not tolerate being the butt of laughter – even if some of their ideas are idiotic. They deem themselves SERIOUS people with SERIOUS solutions to SERIOUS problems and demand to be taken SERIOUSLY. They insist that everybody do what they tell them to do, and that everybody think like they tell them to think -- because they know best and they ARE RIGHT.
Those who disagree or criticize are unserious people who are deplorable and, of course, racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/misogynistic.
The Left’s problem is that about half the country does have a contrary viewpoint. And instead of rebutting it, some on the Left find it easier to just ignore it by censoring it.
The “context” of Kass’s departure from the paper – and that word is now on every Leftist’s tongue, especially at Harvard – is that Kass’s anti-Woke columns negatively defined the Trib, diminishing readership, and that made the editorial staff uncomfortable and his work “‘antithetical to our values.” While we will never truly know the real reasons why he left, despite what he claims on his site, the only real fact is that he is gone and apparently is still pretty bitter about it.
But it really doesn’t much matter. Those under age 45 don’t read news in print. They view their news on social media. And if they watch their news on legacy TV or cable, they only watch the news they agree with. Surveys have shown that normal people who are not political junkies or careerists think about politics 4 minutes per week, except just before elections.
So purging Kass really doesn’t much matter. What matters is that he may have taken some former readers with him to his site. Because people crave differing points of view and sometimes no left-wing or right-wing newsroom is willing to offer the counterpoint.
RANKING U.S. SECRETARIES OF STATE (SOS): The recent passing of Henry Kissinger at age 100, arguably America’s greatest SOS, got me thinking about the enormous geo-political power of the job and the enormous consequences of those who incompetently misunderstand and misuse that power. “Geo-political” means strategizing a foreign policy which benefits America in the world order at all times. It’s called AMERICA FIRST, a phrase now associated with Trump. The difference is that internationalists want America to be a compliant part of the World Order, like current SOS Antony Blinken, while America Firsters want the U.S. to dominate the World Order, both economically and militarily.
Kissinger, a German Jewish immigrant who fled Hitler’s Europe, understood that Peace-Through-Strength is longer-lasting than Peace-Through-Diplomacy. From WWII through the late 1960s America was obsessed with the Red Menace, as Red China and the USSR subjugated half the world’s population, dominated Eastern Europe and were on the march in Southeast Asia. The domino theory prevailed, meaning that if America did not stop Communist aggression then the world would eventually succumb.
Kissinger thought geo-politically. If the China-Soviet alliance could be fractured by making them rivals, by making them focus on economics, then the world would not succumb. All it took was Nixon meeting Chairman Mao. And America benefited by being Superpower Number One, with no more distractions like Vietnam or Korea, although the Soviets did invade Afghanistan in 1979 before collapsing in 1989 and losing East Europe.
Many SOSs, like Blinken, think domestic-politically, not geo-politically. The goal is to get the president re-elected, clean up (or cloud-up) any messes and serve another term. And then proceed to teach at Harvard, get 50K a-pop for speeches and serve on a bunch of corporate boards. The last SOS to run for president was Hillary Clinton, who lost in 2016. Of the country’s first six presidents, 4 were SOS (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams). The last SOS to be president was Martin Van Buren, who served 1829-31, was elected VP in 1832 and then president in 1836.
Blinken inherited a stable Afghanistan from Trump, but then Biden withdrew U.S. troops and the Taliban took over. Trump/Pompeo geo-politically engineered the Abraham Accords by which Israel’s right to exist was approved by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. But then Hamas blew it up, and Blinken’s job is now to be sort of pro-Israel, sort of pro-Palestinian for a 2-State solution and sort of pro-Ceasefire.
The Ukraine War has been a geo-political triumph, proving that Russia may never re-conquer Eastern Europe. But triumphs often become quagmires. The U.S. has spent $85 billion on military aid, enriching defense contractors. But there is no endgame strategy. Unless Trump is elected.
There have been 71 SOSs since 1790. Of the 71 there have been at least 13 who were geo-political geniuses and at least 12 who were abysmal failures. It has been a long U.S. political tradition to appoint presidential losers as SOS: Clay, Cass, Seward, Blaine, Sherman, Bryan, Muskie, Clinton, Kerry.
THE FLOPS: The 1960 election of JFK was supposed to presage the advent of the “Best and Brightest.” Instead it gave us Dean Rusk (1961-69), who persisted in escalating the Vietnam War until he and LBJ were out the doo Ed Muskie (1980-81) was supposed to clean-up Carter’s Iranian hostage mess. He didn’t. William Jennings Bryan was a Nebraska Populist and Isolationist who lost for president in 1896, 1900 and 1908. Wilson named him SOS in 1913. But he was an anti-European War Pacifist and was gone by 1915. Dean Acheson (1949-53) was SOS when Joe McCarthy claimed (falsely) that the State Dept. was rife with Communists. Acheson became toxic. Clinton and Kerry spent their Obama terms ego-tripping and traveling the world at taxpayer expense, with Clinton prepping for her 2016 run.
THE GENIUSES: Europe would have gone Communist BUT FOR the geo-political wisdom of ex-general George Marshall, Truman’s post-War SOS (1947-49). The Marshall Plan poured $13.3 billion ($173 billion nowadays) into Greece, Italy, Germany, France and Spain to rebuild WWII’s ruins and blunt the communist surge. William Seward (1861-69) intrigued with France to keep Britain from aiding the Southern Confederacy, and also bought Alaska. Secretaries Hay, Lansing, Hull and Baker got America through wars, Dulles through the inception of the Cold War, and Powell through 9/11. Overall, the good exceeded the bad.
Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com
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