Third Estate Sunday Review

The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Monday, October 17, 2022

Margaret Sullivan's tawdry and disappointing book (Ava and C.I.)

Book review time. One thing we can say is: At least we didn't pay for it.

It is NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL: LESSONS (AND WORRIED) FROM AN INK-STAINED LIFE. We got an advance copy. Margaret Sullivan wrote the book. We remember her as a very weak public editor for THE NEW YORK TIMES. Daniel Okrent was the only one who really did work worth praising in that position.

We picked up the book thinking it might explain to us why she was such an awful public editor.

The book explains a lot.

Including the delusions and out-of-touch nature of Sullivan. Life begins and ends with Donald Trump for nutso.

At one point, after the 2016 election, she's puzzled and decides to do her own version of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS -- it's highly amusing but not for the reason she hopes. She ventures into the world and encounters people -- actual people. She is shocked, dismayed to discover they don't believe what she does. Apparently, she'd conned herself into believing she was the standard. She is aghast to discover people who, for example, believe that 9/11 was an inside job. We're aghast to discover that this is the first time Sullivan's ever encountered anyone with that belief.

We're also disgusted that she can't grasp why things like that happen. 9/11? We were not there. We were there for the lies. We were there for Saudi Arabia getting away with murder. We were there when former US Senator Bob Graham (of the Graham family that used to own THE WASHINGTON POST) told a number of us about how the Saudis shouldn't have been flown out of the US. We were there when the 9/11 commission was stacked with people that shouldn't have been on it. And we were there when the Jersey Girls had to fight for any bit of truth the American people got.

We have read the PDB Bully Boy Bush got ahead of 9/11. You know, the one Condi Rice tried to lie about in the public hearing until she was finally forced to provide the title "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US."

When alternate hypotheses pop up, there's usually a reason and it goes to the creation of mistrust.

We find it appalling that a supposed journalist is unaware that some people question the official 9/11 narrative until 2017. What world did this idiot live in?

She and Dan Balz speak. He's a useless piece of garbage (Hey, Dan!) and we say that as two who've known him for years.

The problem, Margaret and Dan insist, with journalism today is that Watergate led to 'gotcha coverage' and this bred mistrust in government.

No, shoulder the stupidity, don't wave it around in front of people.

Tricky Dick authorizing illegal spying, compiling an enemies list, ordering the Watergate break-in and much more bred mistrust in government. These were crimes -- carried out by the government.

Watergate was followed by a brief period of real investigative journalism which quickly stopped -- Katharine Graham, then publisher of THE WASHINGTON POST, gave the notorious speech about how it was time to once again hold journalists in check. A detail that Sullivan also seems unaware of.

Over and over, in this book by a journalist, the media is the problem. Never for suppressing the truth, you understand, but for reporting.

The media, Crazy Sullivan insists, cost Hillary the election in 2016. They shouldn't have been covering the e-mails, she argues. For the first time, a presidential candidate was the subject of a criminal investigation. It was news.

Sullivan really doesn't understand what news -- or journalism -- is.

She tells you how the media could have elected Hillary without ever grasping that it is not the media's role to determine elections. It is the media's role to report on what happens.

She misunderstand her own job.

Which is how we get back to her time at THE NEW YORK TIMES. Even Margaret Sullivan realizes she was awful there and that she is too close to the staff that she is supposed to be monitoring as the public editor. So she quits. It's a shame she ever took the job considering she wasn't up for it. Reading NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL, you have to wonder if she's ever been up to any professional task.

TV: Action

A talented and attractive actor, Josh Duhamel has faced a lot of obstacles in his career. Time and again, hopes fade, opportunities peter out and he's left praised as the best thing in a so-so project. Can BLACKOUT change that?

Better question: Can NETFLIX catch a break?

BLACKOUT is an action film where Josh Duhamel wakes up in the hospital not knowing who he is and quickly learns people are trying to kill him. It's not a new plot twist. Still, it's cute to hear the idiots of The Water Cooler Set maintain it's a rip off of THE BOURNE ADVENTURE and mention Matty Damon as though that was some sort of original twist.

1949's THE CROOKED WAY. 1965's 36 HOURS. 1954's THE LONG WAIT. 1951's THE BLACK WIDOW. 1967's THE CHAMPAGNE MURDERS.

We could go on and on and we can do that because we actually have a knowledge base.

The idiots who see Matt Damon as Adam and THE BOURNE ADVENTURE as the beginning of time, really need to get an education.

These people are trashing NETFLIX and BLACKOUT and telling you this is wrong, wrong, it's a low grade action flick and not what NETFLIX needs.

Excuse us? It was only a few months ago that NETFLIX was being attacked for THE GRAY MAN starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. The problem there, they insisted, was the budget -- $200 million -- and it wasn't even a streaming hit.

Except it was a streaming hit. And in its month of release, it became the most streamed film in 84 countries.

Now they're attacking NETFLIX because BLACKOUT had a $12 million shooting budget. They call it a cheap movie and many other things.

What is BLACKOUT?

It's entertaining action flick that again finds Josh Duhamel sporting his acting chops, likeability and good looks. He is the package.

The film is an action film and it's already a very popular action film. It's been in the top three streamed movies on NETFLIX since it debuted. That's a success. Especially when the film cost only $12 million to shoot.

LOU is another recent film NETFLIX has served up. Also an action flick, it stars Allison Janney in a strong performance. But it's not like it's a breakthrough film. Take away Janney's terse delivery and it's a lot like other action films you've seen.

And that's okay. People streaming an action adventure on NETFLIX are looking for entertainment. LOU is entertaining -- as are BLACKOUT and THE GRAY MAN.

Another bad DISNEY+ MARVEL series

NETFLIX made it look so easy. You hire talented people, they tell a great story and, BOOM!, you've got a great MARVEL series.

Then along comes DISNEY+ -- a 'magical' land built by a Jew-hater and its rotten foundation is more than showing these days.

THE LIFES AND LOVES OF A SHE-HULK is on the latest garbage to show up on DISNEY+.

Again, it shouldn't be this way. When NETFLIX had control of MARVEL properties it made classics like DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES, LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST and THE DEFENDERS.

DISNEY+ takes interesting characters, waters them down and adds a 'twist' -- oh, look, she's talking to the camera1 -- and wrongly believes that they've made satisfying entertainment.

The only DISNEY+ MARVEL series that works and entertains is THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER. WANDAVISION and SHE-HULK and other garbage want to be something other than superhero shows. It's the only genre selling so they try to slip other things inside it and end up satisfying no one.

It's post this or post that. It's garbage and it's trash and has nothing to do with the shows' comic book roots. It's long past time that comic book fans rise up against this nonsense.

Tara Reade is on her own (Dona)

Tara Reade is an unstable and selfish person. Her history of bailing on bills and leaving friends in the lurch does not go to the fact that she was assaulted but does go to the fact that she's neither reliable nor compassionate.

She goes on and on about horses, for example, and I love horses. Grew up with horses. But people who talk like she does? They give me the creeps. I'm sure, for example, Brigitte Bardot is wonderful with animals, but she's also a misanthrope. You get that feeling from Tara -- on a good day.

This site has defended her. If you don't know, Tara was assaulted by Joe Biden when she worked for him back in the day when he was in the US Senate. She says it happened and we believe her. She told friends over the years. Her mother's call-in to THE LARRY KING SHOW backs her up, divorce papers back her up. There is no doubt in our mind that she was assaulted by Joe Biden.

But she's on her own now.

It's not that she's taken to blocking people like Ruth that forces this decision. Ruth left her a Tweet noting how disappointed she was that Tara was promoting a sex offender on her thread.

That is why we're done with her, to be clear, she's promoting Scott Ritter.

She's promoting a man who wants to rape children. Scott Ritter has been arrested multiple times for attempting to find girls to have sex with. He has been to court for it. Convicted of it. Sent to prison for it. And forced to register as a sex offender.

To say that Tara Reade is f**ked up, is an understatement.

She pretends she got therapy. If she truly did, she's a sociopath who is beyond any notion of help.

She was assaulted and she chooses to promote a registered sex offender. She is insane and active in multiple diseases. She is no one to lead and no one to follow.

Across this country, children are at risk and Tara's decision is that a registered sex offender is someone to glorify. RAINN notes:

One in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult.³
82% of all victims under 18 are female.⁴
Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.²

The effects of child sexual abuse can be long-lasting and affect the victim's mental health. Victims are more likely than non-victims to experience the following mental health challenges:⁵

About 4 times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse
About 4 times more likely to experience PTSD as adults
About 3 times more likely to experience a major depressive episode as adults

In a world like this, Tara's sickness tells her to promote a man who is a threat to children, to give him her seal of approval and to say to the world, "Trust him."

Remember that the next time she whines about herself.

She can't be helped and she will pull others down with her. For whatever reasons, she is mentally sick and thinks it is alright to turn a predator loose on others. She has no self-worth and so she assumes the rest of us don't.

Clearly, she thinks she deserved what happened to her and, what's worse, she thinks others deserve it to. That's why she promotes a convicted pedophile.

There is no hope for her.

There is no redemption for her.

The kindest thing to do is to cut her loose and let her drown in the world she's created. A victim who identifies with a predator is a danger to everyone around her.

May she rot in hell for eternity if Scott Ritter is not on some chemical castration drugs currently.

2022 deaths

Each year, people are born and people die. Reader Troy Montgomery e-mailed noting that many community sites note passings and thought we could keep a running link page on that. That's a good idea. We'll try to include this in future editions this year as sites cover additional deaths. You'll note a lot of links go to Ruth because she tends to cover passings more than anyone else in the community. The list may not be complete and the only order for the first twelve is the order of what we remembered while we were doing this -- the order we remembered the deaths in.

1) Sally Kellerman -- see Ruth's "Sally Kellerman"

2) Ronnie Spector -- see Betty's "Ronnie Specter," Ruth's "Ronnie Spector" and C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot"

2) Naomi Judd -- see Kat's "Grace Slick, Naomi Judd," "One more time honoring Naomi Judd" and "Naomi Judd"

3) Sidney Poitier -- see Betty's "A great actor passed -- not a great person, not a great lover, not a great activist"

4) Ray Liotta -- see Ruth's "Ray Liotta"

5) Peter Bogdanovich -- see Stan's "Peter Bogdonavich"

6) Andy Fletcher -- see Kat's "Andy Fletcher"

7) Bo Hopkins -- see Ruth's "Bo Hopkins"

8) William Hurt -- see Ann's "Not sure if I believe Marlee Matlin now"

9) Meat Loaf -- see Kat's "Meat Loaf"

10) Howard Hessman -- see Ruth's "Howard Hessman"

11) Rosa Lee Hawkins -- see Ruth's "Rosa Lee Hawkins"

12) Dwayne Hickman -- see Ruth's "Dwayne Hickman"

13) William Hart -- see Ruth's "William Hart of The Deflonics has passed away"

14) Mark Shields -- see Ruth's "Mark Shields"

15) Nichelle Nichols -- see Ruth's "Nichelle Nichols"

16) Bob Rafelson -- see Ruth's "Bob Rafelson has passed away"

17) Olivia Newton John -- see Kat's "Olivia Newton-John," "Have You Never Been Mellow and a buried treasure," "More on Olivia" and "Olivia Newton-John," Marcia's "ONJ" and "Olivia Newton-John"

18) Lamont Dozier -- see Ruth's "Lamont Dozier grabbed our hearts through our ears"

19) Anne Heche -- see Marcia's "Yes, you belabored the issue long enough (and Anne Heche will be missed)," Rebecca's "anne heche and robin griggs - 2 another world cast members pass away ," and C.I.'s "Walking and Talking (12/12) Movie CLIP - I Love Yo."

20) Jean-Luc Godard -- see Stan's "Jean-Luc Godard"

21) Coolio -- see Kat's "Coolio"

22) Loretta Lynn -- see Ruth's "Loretta Lynn"

23) Angela Lansbury -- see Ruth's "Angela Lansbury"

24) Michael Callan -- see Elaine's ''Michael Callan''

Tweet of the week

The ruling classes must be clear about the opposition to the NATO war in Ukraine and the commitment by Western imperialism to use force to maintain its global hegemony. Let's connect these actions to the mass demonstrations for democracy in Haiti. https://t.co/Jxo03x4r55
— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) October 17, 2022