The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Times, They Are A-Faking

Posted on | July 31, 2012 | 8 Comments

Imagine you’re a handsome young up-and-coming journalist with a Columbia University neuroscience degree.

Imagine you write for prestigious publications — the Wall Street Journal, Wired, the New Yorker — and land a book deal that seems destined to make you the next Malcolm Gladwell.

Imagine your third book starts with a chapter about Bob Dylan.

Imagine you decide to just make up some quotes from Dylan.

Imagine you get caught.

Imagine you get fired.

Advice to journalists: Don’t make up stuff about Dylan. Make up stuff about Sarah Palin. “Nobody will ever fire you for that,” said Joe Maginniss.

Yeah, I just made up that quote. Sue me.

Category: Journalism

Comments

8 Responses to “The Times, They Are A-Faking”

  1. PGlenn
    July 31st, 2012 @ 8:13 am

    Maybe the kid really did interview Dylan, but when he got home and tried to transcribe Dylan’s quotes, he couldn’t make sense out of them.

    Kid journalist: “What was it like growing up in Minnesota?”

    Dylan: “Heyyhhnn, mayyhhh waz yeahh . . .”

    [note: I’m a Dylan fan]. 

  2. Bob Belvedere
    July 31st, 2012 @ 8:29 am

    How does it feel?

  3. Tuesday Morning News and Links | Darth Chipmunk
    July 31st, 2012 @ 8:59 am

    […] The Other McCain: The Times, They Are A-Faking […]

  4. PGlenn
    July 31st, 2012 @ 9:20 am

    Right on – that song describes it just about perfectly.

  5. rosalie
    July 31st, 2012 @ 10:01 am

    Your advice to journalists is so true.  He’d still have a job if it had been about Palin.

  6. The GOP School of Media Relations : The Other McCain
    July 31st, 2012 @ 1:21 pm

    […] are under no obligation to be absolutely neutral, but they are under an obligation to be honest.Bob Dylan once said that, I think.Category: Election 2012, Media Bias, Mitt RomneyComments http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob […]

  7. McGehee
    July 31st, 2012 @ 2:22 pm

     Hell, he’d’ve gottten a promotion.

  8. Malclave
    July 31st, 2012 @ 7:47 pm

    Bob Dylan didn’t say that.  Someone else made that happen.