Now I know why shezan thinks so much of Conrad Black

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...THERE HAS BEEN A good deal of revisionist comment recently that Roosevelt's policies did not end the Depression, but as U.S. GDP doubled in his 12 years in office and unemployment declined from roughly 30 percent to 0.5 percent, that case is difficult to sustain (and is in fact, nonsense).
One sentence. Four items of data. One indubitable smackdown. And he wrote it for a conservative magazine, which is an act of courage.

Comments

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Oh, not you too! xhezan, the very person to whom I was reacting, was assaulted on the threshold of her own flat last night. Apparently her furious screeches managed to drive off the attacker, but she has a considerable collection of bruises and bumps to remind her of her enemy. I hate that sort of thing, hate it twice over when it happens to my friends. I hope you're well.

Even when my view of Black was wholly, er, black - Thatcher supporter, billionaire abusing his position, supposed Catholic who was thrice-married - I would never have paired him with Murdoch. The issue with Murdoch is not just what he does, but how he does it: always in a vulgar manner, always appealing to the most debased passions, always with an undercurrent of crude sex and cowardly violence that multiplies any negative impact and negates any positive one any of his stuff may have, because it makes people used to thinking in a debased manner. It is my view that what we call the lad/ladette culture, that is the whiskey-soaked, sex-ridden life of far too many young and middle-aged people in this county, is the direct result of the influcence of his damned papers over decades. He and I came to Britain almost at the same time, I in 1977, he in 1978, and I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the impact of his press. And a newspaper that sells over five million copies in a country of sixty million has a Hell of a lot of influence. It is imitated (never, you may be sure, with any improvement in taste or content); it is passed around; parents, God help us, leave it around for their children to read. All its putridity, its yelling, its moral cowardice (no Murdoch newspaper has ever unearthed a serious scandal), its nudity, its vulgarity, become commonplace within the family.

Now Black could never have been accused of that. Of all his misdeeds, true or supposed, at the Daily Telegraph, none were crimes against editorial content. He favoured good writers. He did not push sex (although, alas, his successors at the Daily Telegraph have). What is more, he turned out himself to be a good writer: when he took it on himself to write a large biography of Franklin D.Roosevelt, not one of his enemies on the left dared to pan it. It was universally, and I think deservedly, well reviewed. If you go to the website of Standpoint magazine, you will find an article about the current economic crisis, authored by him, that is simply one of the best treatments I have read. So yes, my opinion of Conrad Black has been growing. But above all, I repeat, to compare him with the odious Murdoch is like comparing Francisco Franco with Hitler.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking better of Black a few minutes into the article.

I am very sorry to hear about shezan, I hope her injuries heal quickly. I sincerely hope her assailant was not a stalker or permanent enemy who will continue to threaten her.

I myself am well, oddly exhilirated ny the whole experience. I am a little surprised by my physiological and emotional reaction to this event.

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It was actually a woman, taller and younger than shezan but rather thinner, and evidently not expecting her intended victim to fight back AND scream like a banshee.

Incidentally, you might do worse than friend shezan. She is both charming and interesting, even though we disagree on a number of things.