Why the Ben Rhodes profile in the New York Times Magazine is just gross.

So a narrative about a narrative about a narrative....

 

You must be talking about the coordinated response from the left, attacking Samuels.

 

Ahha Samels taught long-form narrative writing at nyu.

"Rhodes knew who I was. How do I know that? Because the White House is equipped with Google. And because Rhodes told me so himself. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at N.Y.U., where I taught, and he appreciates longform narrative journalism, which is what I do."

 

No, my issues with the original story had nothing to do with the revelation (and, really, was this a revelation to anyone? Aaron Sorkin made it a central theme of West Wing 20 years ago) about the selling of presidential policy through the development of a narrative.

My issues were with Rhodes' eagerness to have the story written in the first place, his tone-deaf quotes patting himself on the back and the way the obviously enamored wannabe, Samuels, lapped it all up.

 

Hey, he's the most honest guy in D.C.

 

By any means necessary:

"Rhodes readily admitted to me that the work he does is a potentially dangerous distortion of democracy, but he also felt that it had become a necessary evil, caused by the fracturing of the 20th-century mass audience and the decline of the American press."

 

This must have been Ben Rhodes idea:
“With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well,” President Barack Obama said at the White House on Jan. 17—without disclosing the $400 million cash payment.

 

The ends justify the means. The arrogant foundation of modern American liberalism.