Friday, February 12, 2021

Those who trade on their credentials should have knowledge commensurate with the credentail

A mainstay of the mainstream media arrogance and ignorance unintentionally put herself on public display a couple of days ago, demonstrating that there is a difference between the credentialed and the knowledgeable.

From Andrea, Jennifer, and The 2 Williams by Ann Althouse.  Read the whole thing.  

So, yes, the "2 Williams" are Shakespeare and Faulkner. They were in the news last night because Andrea — Andrea Mitchell, the NBC News chief Washington correspondent — tweeted something so mind-bogglingly stupid — stupid, evil, and hilarious — and Jennifer — Jennifer Rubin, the WaPo columnist — lunged horribly after Andrea's tweet. These people — Mitchell and Rubin — are supposed to be the elite, but they are not even elite enough to keep from stumbling over a high-school level literary reference or even to think of making sure — with the quickest Google — they're not making a gaffe. 

Andrea saw what looked like it might be an opportunity to mock Ted Cruz.

He'd gone on Fox News and said: “The Democrats want a week of political theater raging at Donald Trump. Reminds me of Shakespeare. It’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

She tweeted:

@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner

Now, that's a bit restrained in its arrogance, and, of course, stupid. The Faulkner title "The Sound and the Fury" is derived from one of the most famous soliloquies in Shakespeare, which includes the longer phrase deployed by Cruz — "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 

Jennifer immediately galumphs in. Only 6 minutes elapse before she's got this semi-coherent tweet published:

Now that's and it says volumes about his lack of soul. That's Any Thinking Person.

The coherent part is "it says volumes about his lack of soul." And your tweet, Jennifer? What does it say volumes about you? Who the hell do you think you are to make grandiose pronouncements about somebody else's soul? And what did you intend to say about Any Thinking Person? You, the specific person, did not think too hard before belching that out. 

Andrea Mitchell struggles to get herself off the hook with: "I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz." That's not an apology, and it's not a good excuse. Mitchell has a degree in English literature (from the University of Pennsylvania). Stressing American literature can't explain away the mistake.

Read the whole thing.


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