I've Been "Discovered" by Discover-the-Network
A few days ago, I pointed readers to David Horowitz's idiotic new venture DISCOVERTHENETWORK.ORG. Apparently, David's gotten some heat for trying to visually link Barak Obama with Mohammed Atta and has added some explanatory text to his "Guide" page. It now also reads:
Here is a typical reaction from the blogger Rox Populi: “Listed along with Bill Moyers, Barbra Streisand and Cornel West, you’ll find the Ayatollah Khomeni, John Walker Lindh and enemy-of-the-state Pete Seeger on the “Individuals” page. Read it for a good laugh. I must admit I haven’t had this much fun since I was handed a Lyndon LaRouche tract that tied the Hapsburgs to the Challenger explosion.”Of course there’s nothing to “read” in the picture grid on the “Individuals” page which is the only page about which Rox Populi cares to comment. The laugh, in other words, is self-reflecting [uh, no]. The picture grid is not a list of anything, except a small fraction of the raw contents of the site. It is an enticement, not a thesis. It does not suggest any connections between these individuals, except in the sense that they all belong in a database about the left.
Because there are no suggested connections between the all the playahs on his site, Horowitz's homepage features a grid linking "Individuals" to "Groups" to "Funders" to "Media" etc.
I "read" the bulleted profiles when I clicked through on the pics provided on the "Individuals" page, which included the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Ayatollah Khomeini, John Walker Lindh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ramzi Yousef, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and Zacarias Moussaoui.
Horowitz also tries to explain away the disgusting inclusion of these characters by making it sound as if it's the reader's fault for misunderstanding his cockeyed format:
... these critics have seized on a quirk in the format, an entirely innocent feature of the site, as an opening for their attacks. This is the “Individuals” search page, which functions as a table of contents for one section of the site. Actually it is even less than that. What they have attacked is a picture grid on the Individuals search page which was intended as a kind of visual enticement to enter the actual profiles of the site. Thus if one were to click on the picture of Barbra Streisand or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or Michael Moore on this page, one would be immediately directed to their individual profile pages.
Right. My mistake. I've been operating under the assumption that using the word "network" about a group of people implies that they have links to each other. Silly me.
Of course, there's more pseudo, half-assed groveling there if you care to take a look.
I guess all of this could be chalked-up to a forgivable misunderstanding. But, Horowitz also goes after Michael Bérubé and has the audacity to accuse him of being "unfunny" and "clumpy." THAT. MUST. NOT. STAND.
Boy, is today like a holy day for bad conservative writers to piss on their betters?
Posted by: Amanda | 22 February 2005 at 07:33
Congratulations on joining the minions of doom. I just have two questions:
1) Why do you hate America so?
2) How can I get invited to the party?
Posted by: NTodd | 22 February 2005 at 10:02
They're going to need a photo of you. I hope they use the Geisha. Is John Stewart on the list?
Posted by: eRobin | 22 February 2005 at 10:09
Oh, how I miss the Geisha. But the current banner incarnation is wicked nice.
Posted by: NTodd | 22 February 2005 at 10:59
Wow. You've got David Horowitz calling you "fringe." Compared to him, that's puts you somewhere out near Pluto.
Posted by: Eli | 22 February 2005 at 11:20
To his mind the graphical presentation is perfectly logical. It's like the little shirts on Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information. It's just compare and contrast to him.
If you're an alcoholic and become a 'dry drunk.' What is it when you go from being in the Black Panthers to being David Horowitz? Purely rhetorical question.
Posted by: Brian | 22 February 2005 at 11:50
Congratulations! I write a column for a newspaper, and I was left off. Now I know how people who didn't get invited to Truman Capote's "Black and White Ball" feel...sniff sniff....
Posted by: Lalock | 22 February 2005 at 13:11
Well Rox Populi had to be included for its entertainment value since the witless whining that is the content of this site has little substantive value...
Posted by: russ | 22 February 2005 at 17:58
Somehow I missed the cut.
Alas.
Posted by: praktike | 22 February 2005 at 19:05
Ha! Russ reminds me of the those people that say they don't get dry British humor and you find yourself backing slowly out of the room whle assuring them kindly that yes, it's not that funny and no, it doesn't mean they're stupid, why would it?
Posted by: Amanda | 22 February 2005 at 21:17
If you put a series of pictures next to one another, our instinct is to find the commonality among them. This juxtaposition of images is the basis of all film and comic book narrative. Claiming that there's no connection between a series of people pictured on a page claiming that there is a vast network of Lefties ruining the world is playing coy to a pathological degree.
Posted by: Keith | 23 February 2005 at 11:16
I'm jealous that you got picked on by David Horowitz. Not as good as getting an actual entry in "Discover the Network," to which we all aspire, but still.
Posted by: Sean | 23 February 2005 at 16:19
Are you liberals going to learn that the fight against AQ is real? And involves the Hollywood elite?
Posted by: you are an idiot | 27 February 2005 at 11:39
No, since we are dumb liberals. Duh.
Dang, now I have me a hankerin' for some babies, what with bein' a godless Communist and all...
Posted by: A boy | 13 March 2005 at 21:41