subscriber only? Not very bloggy!

David Brinkley's considered, generous and evenly tempered handling of issues is worthy of some wistful nostalgia.

Too though, such an appreciation will surely receive dismissive scorn, smirks and sneers from our post-structuralist, post-metaphysical and generally post-modern Brahmin class of self-satisfied, self-enamored and self-promoting benefactors and gnostic knowers.

Crisp prose for Brinkley. And fittingly repetitive and vainglorious prose for the solipsists and arrogationists among our political class as well.

The highly leveraged ideological intensity of a Neil Sheehan serves as elemental and storied contrast.

If one wishes to cause a stir within the company of journo-politicos or likeminded partisans (a "stir" that would roughly be on the order of Sigourney Weaver's character Ripley in Aliens when she invades the queen's nest), then one need but pointedly disparage Neil Sheehan's veracity and substance as a journalist - and do so in a manner that is supported by the historical evidence.

Members only? No thanks.

I'm happy to take Dan's word for it that this feature says what he says it does. I'm taking for granted that his nostalgia for Brinkley is for his commentaries. The format and other changes in This Week since Brinkley left the show never struck me as all that significant.

Neil Sheehan's troika of traducements:

1) With David Halberstam helped to ensure Diem's fall in '63 via decided political slants in his news stories. See the ref. in #3 below, also see A Death in November by Ellen J. Hammer. ("A Death in November" is revelatory, is brilliantly told and is well documented; fact is though, as regards Sheehan per se, there's but two or three passing references to this particular traducement.)

2) Redacted the Pentagon Papers for publishing in the NYT, in doing so provided a carefully culled and paraphrased version with a consistently dubious political slant. See here for one example only. Also, if you possess the stamina and intellectual integrity to compare the two versions, see the version published in the NYT (see Amazon, etc.) vs. the Senator Gravel version, online here.

3) Sheehan's "Bright Shining Lie," see here

Neil Sheehan, David Halberstam and a few others are absolutely significant because they represent the once emergent and now dominant journo-politico class and they serve as prototype for that class we are dealing with currently. Don't trust their bright shining lies, don't fall prey to their traducements and self-enamored pieties.