Conjecture and Divide

I favor un-uniting the states of America into two color-coded constitutionally-independent countries as much as the next Washington Square drum circle participant. I'll even go as far to say that if there was a Manhattan Separatist movement I would wholeheartedly support the cause by live blog-rolling it and barreling down Broadway in a Mitzvah Tank with a megaphone. Still, I'm uneasy with Gawker's Jesse Oxfeld using his Peter Jennings tribute for a platform to roll-up a copy of The New Yorker and smack it across the faces of Bush's Bumblefuck Brigade.

Jennings was an anchor for the blue states. This is not to say that his politics leaned one way or another, or that he somehow provided a friendlier newscast for liberal causes than for conservative ones; we have no idea of his personal views. What we mean is that Jennings showed, as John Kerry couldn’t in the last election, that there’s a value in being smart and sophisticated. While Brokaw was always the all-American, just-folks, nice guy, Jennings was worldy and urbane and unafraid to be a bit of an intellectual. That seems to be the incorrect mien for success in this country today, but, for those of us actually do appreciate the smart and sophisticated — for New Yorkers, in other words — it was nice to see one of us spend so long on top.

Oxfeld would probably say they're too dumb to know what hit them (and maybe that's true) but to suggest Jennings was only appreciated by "smart and sophisticated New Yorkers" is not only the biggest pile of horseshit this side of Central Park South, but it's also a huge disservice to the man's career and accomplishments.