So, Sullivan apparently was so shocked by the rough yanking of his long beautiful locks that he was speechless for a few days.
Then he replied with this little blurb :
{...}(Speaking of which, Philip Nobile will be on O'Reilly tonight. Can you imagine the derision of Tripp's thesis that will ensue? Let's just see if Nobile says what he once wrote: that he believes that most Lincoln historians have been homophobes and that Lincoln was certainly bisexual. And let's see whether he discloses - as he didn't in the Standard - that after he quit the Tripp project, he tried to sell a rival book making the same case.)
As Jonathan says: "Is that a surrender?"
I think it might be.
While Sully is a fantastic master of rhetoric and one who obviously not only enjoys maintaining his corner, but also feels the need to vigorously defend it, I've noticed he's not entirely the practicioner of intellectual honesty that he claims to be. While I'm sure he simply believes that it's a waste of his time to reply to something like this, it's not exactly honest is it, after ripping Nobile a new one, to neglect to let his readers know that Nobile replied to his charges and threw a few of his own out there? This is not the first time this has happened, either. For a man who preaches regularly that "the revolution will be blogged," and that the blogosphere is changing how things are done, well, hmmm. It leads one to wonder just how much the revolution will be blogged if it makes Sully look bad. He's getting increasingly touchy about taking lumps, yet makes no moves to moderate his opinions. His blog is turning into a benevolent dictatorship rather than a thriving democracy and it's getting to be annoying.
Sully hasn't replied to Nobile's shot across his bow, and has, in essence, let the debate peter out in the utter cacophany that is the blogosphere, while maintaining his original position. He knows how to let it slide, in other words, knowing something new and interesting will take its place shortly. With this move, he has done his readers a disservice. If I only read Sullivan, I wouldn't know about this, would I? How many of his readers only read his blog and haven't taken a dip into the vast world of internet content? I have a feeling there are a quite a few of them out there.
Posted by Kathy at January 19, 2005 12:43 PM