I hate to return to the subject of M. Moore so soon, but members of his fan club have objected to the criticisms of the great man in the Q&A with biographer Jesse Larner. As they haven't bothered to read the detailed, cross-referenced set of errors and distortions compiled by Dave Kopel and David Hardy, it's pointless engaging in a discussion with them. Larner, a man of the Left (to put it mildly), is on the other side of the political spectrum from both men, but that doesn't stop him agreeing with their conclusions. (If you haven't already seen it, DC's Ethics & Public Policy Center also has a useful site on F9/11.)
One of my favourite passages in Larner's book is where he outlines a list of some of the reasons Moore has given over the years for his acrimonious departure from the left-wing mag, Mother Jones, which he briefly edited in the 1980s. Most of his colleagues, according to Larner, found him "moody, abusive and unprofessional". Here are Mikey's versions, which tend to vary "to suit the audience he was addressing":
- He wouldn't run an article critical of the Sandinistas.
- The owner wanted a yes-man so he wouldn't have to show up for work.
- MM was planning a critical piece on Mario Cuomo and a series on the West Bank.
- He objected to the dismissal of an ad salesman with ties to a radical party.
- He refused to cooperate with the magazine's violations of union rules. (Remember, we're talking about Mother Jones here, not The Spectator.)
- The publisher was treating female members of staff in a sexist manner.
- He wanted to put a blue-collar columnist's picture on the cover.
- The owner wanted him to run an article on herbal teas.
- The management wanted to turn the magazine into a "People magazine of the Left".
- He had interrupted a discussion about hiring more women and minorities to suggest taking on a working class person.
Take your pick. Can they all be true, or is Moore up to his old scatter-gun tricks again? Larner thinks the real reason he got the boot was that he was out of his depth and couldn't get along with the staff. Surely it couldn't be that simple?