' Bob Tyrell
Jewish World Review Feb. 3, 2005 / 24 Shevat 5765

Bob Tyrrell

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The runaway winner of the treasured Worst Book of the Year award


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | It is award time in America. In all the precincts of intellectual and cultural endeavor, the hubbub is beginning. Even in sport, the excitement is being felt.

Will this year's Most Valuable Player in the NFL be a defensive player, an offensive player or an acquitted rapist? And, of course, there are the Pulitzers. The ones I follow most closely are the Pulitzers for fiction and for journalism, though the two categories have become blurred in recent years.

This year, I am told that the Pulitzer Prize Committee has tightened up its requirements, ensuring that the leading contenders for fiction are even more obscure than in the past, and possibly even more delightfully trivial. Moreover, it is almost guaranteed that none of this year's Pulitzers in journalism will go to plagiarists or even to simple fabricators. Many otherwise likely candidates have died or are studying for the bar.

Some, for instance, The New York Times' most prodigious faker, Jayson Blair, have written sufficiently dreadful nonfiction books to put them in the running for this year's J. Gordon Coogler Award for the Worst Book of the Year. Yet the Coogler Committee has its standards. Its distinguished judges will not consider a writer who has been found guilty of journalistic irregularity, and being a plagiarist certainly constitutes journalistic irregularity, as does working for the New York Times.

OK, OK, all you New York Times journalists out there, that was just an easy joke. There is no reason for those scowls. I am just having a little fun, and I know the day will come again when we open our Times for something other than those marmoreal obituaries that remain your strength.

Anyway, this year's Coogler has already been chosen. The committee took a chance. It has conferred this year's Worst Book of the Year award on an author who has become a revered American institution. A man honored by the intelligentsia of televisionland as "a humorist who makes you think." He is candid, tough-minded and possessed of an infallible feces detector. He is also innovative. He is Jon Stewart, the star of "The Daily Show," which appears on Comedy Central and is not to be missed by televisionland's sophisticates and troubled 17-year-olds.

Stewart has with a small team of gag writers written "America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction." It is a satire, a pasquinade, a hoot at the American polity, a bemanuring of the High and Mighty. Stewart is extremely learned, knowing every nook and cranny of pop culture and most of the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum of Brown University. He is the talk show equivalent of the television football commentator who knows "the stats" on every ballplayer in the NFL and can throw in a heart-warming anecdote on each, even the convicted felons.

That is why it is so risky for the J. Gordon Coogler Award Committee to give its Worst Book of the Year award to Stewart. He is almost a Holy Person to the idolizers of pop culture. Like Michael Kinsley, He Makes You Laugh, which raises the question of why Kinsley did not get a television show on Comedy Central.

Here are some of Stewart's incomparable laughquakes from America. "Though Ronald Reagan (1980-1989) was not considered Kennedyesque, many historians believe he was among our most Reaganesque commanders-in-chief." — page 38. "The name of Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) became synonymous with an era, not unlike his colleague Rep. Pleistocene (D-MN)." — page 61. "The one area Kerry was decidedly unKennedyesque was with the ladies. He lost his virginity his senior year only after an intense lobbying and letter-writing campaign aimed at persuading the school slut to 'grant him franking privileges'" — page 5.

Oh, and there is another made-for-television joke on page 192 about the lone protestor at Tiananmen Square suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. What did I tell you about Stewart's feces detector?

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Now, admittedly, Stewart is also a bit of an idealist. Students of media will for many years marvel at his appearance on the moribund CNN show "Crossfire," where in the guise of a 21st century muckraker he accused an astonished Paul Begala and his sidekick Tucker Carlson of "hurting America." "Stop, stop, stop, stop, hurting America," this later-day Ida Tarbell implored.

And what was it that the two talking heads were guilty of? They were "helping the politicians and the corporations." What Stewart has against the corporations or, for that matter, the politicians was never made clear, but he did seem to be very irate about the superficiality of "Crossfire," where the so-called liberal Begala has been pitted against Carlson, the Mini-Con.

Now he has this infantile book as his intellectual legacy. Alas, it has made him the Coogler Laureate for 2004. If you really think he is any more sophisticated than these other creatures of televisionland, Begala and Carlson, read the book. It will not take long. It is mostly pictures.

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JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.

01/24/05: Unthought through
01/14/05: Dan Rather's unlamented departure
01/06/05: Dean's destiny
12/30/04: How to end the current hysteria over painkillers
12/16/04: The Left always gets its man
12/09/04: Progressives!?
12/06/04: Kofi's got his Kojo working
11/25/04: Tough guys who make their own rules
11/18/04: Now Behold the Liberal Crack-Up
11/11/04: Dems behind the values 8-ball
11/04/04: Diabolizing a perfectly agreeable gentleman didn't work for the party of a perfectly dreadful candidate
10/28/04: Black Cats and the Braggart
10/21/04: The Fantasist Candidate
10/14/04: Label Avoidance
10/06/04: Are these debates a waste of time?
10/04/04: What would our neo-peaceniks have said about the Emir of Bokhara?
09/23/04: Russians know a thing or two about terrorist preemption
09/20/04: The 'Shark Tale' Mafiosi
09/09/04: When They're 64
09/02/04: No Chicago
08/27/04: Judgment and character
08/19/04: Foreign policy is just another of their partisan obsessions
08/12/04: Missing Nixon
08/05/04: Is boxing down for the count?
07/30/04: The cranky convention
07/22/04: France is on the march — so don't dare get out of line
07/15/04: Who's to Run the CIA?
07/08/04: Heroes and celebs: Don't ruin latest 'star'
07/01/04: Gentlemen do not begin a government in the middle of the week
06/24/04: If they only mastered the art of lying
06/18/04: Fie on the French and Germans
06/10/04: Reagan on the Rock
06/03/04: Once again the conservative fuddy duddies are vindicated
05/28/04: Rev. Al eats up City Hall
05/20/04: Pasty prison pastimes
05/13/04: Loss of perspective
05/06/04: Right in the Krischer: Rush Limbaugh's tormentor has yet to hear from everyone on the First Amendment right
04/29/04: It is 1992 all over again, and I rejoice
04/15/04: There seems to be two George W's
04/08/04: Kennedy & Kerry
04/01/04: Sen. Jean Francois' fun and games are only starting — poor Dems
03/25/04: What really explains the rancor arising in this election year?
03/19/04: College daze
03/11/04: The understandably confused are confused
03/04/04: Hillary, the loyalest of the loyal
02/19/04: Hannity's optimism
02/12/04: The moron vote
02/05/04: At least Lieberman stood for something
01/29/04: Surprised by the government vendetta against Rush?
01/15/04: Eight Angry Men
01/09/04: Doc, the greatest swim coach of all time
01/02/04: It’s lying time again
12/29/03: Alternative "Person of the Year"
12/18/03: Dean and me
12/11/03: Long live Bob Bartley
12/04/03: "Hit 'em when they're down!"
12/01/03: The Wright Stuff
11/13/03: How wrong the naysayers and the utopians have been
11/06/03: Will I be banned from America's campuses?
10/30/03: They don't care about restraint
10/24/03: "The Reagans" and the evidence of a historic life
10/17/03: The Moron Vote
10/09/03: The politics of groping and the groping of politics
10/03/03: Is there a witch doctor in the house?
09/26/03: Funny Girly-Boy
09/18/03: Send Arafat to Paris!
09/15/03: The soi-disant party of Latinos comes down hard on a successful Latino
09/05/03: Placating the carpers
08/29/03: A melange of one-issue enthusiasts will win?
08/07/03: Angry partisans
07/31/03: Why no ‘holy cities ’ in America?
07/25/03: They underestimate not only the president, but the American people
07/18/03: The irascible, bigoted Harry Truman was a product of his times
07/11/03: A grand affair of hot colors and surprisingly sedate audience participation
07/04/03: In search of anti-Americanism and the perfect bullfight
06/26/03: Calling on London
06/20/03: Too upsetting for the evening news?
06/12/03: Rain(es)ing Clintoon myths
06/05/03: Hillary-ous is pathetic
05/29/03: Shakedown
05/22/03: End of the last great persecution of the 20th century?
05/15/03 :‘Grey’ turns to grim at Times
05/08/03: The only intellectual force in Western history to gain moral superiority by being wrong
05/01/03: Dinning with Tom Wolfe: More lessons in nusual aspects of American life, hitherto ignored
04/28/03: Ambuscade at scholarly frontier
04/21/03: Stars in search of a galaxy
04/10/03: Baghdad Bob and Tom Daschle
03/31/03: When the media itself becomes the story
03/20/03: Revealed! Estrada is a gifted linguist -- a Japanese-American fluent in Spanish
03/14/03: Genuinely in charge
03/10/03: Stalin and Saddam
03/05/03: They just cannot stomach a protracted alliance with the Bushies
02/25/03: Identity gridlock
02/18/03: People calling Dean a fruitcake are underestimating his political savvy
02/13/03: The new political establishment
01/30/03: The time is now
01/27/03: Witnessing self-love by people completely incapable of self-criticism
01/21/03: Of course our kiddies are depressed
01/13/03: Why is it that Official Washington still believes that a tax reduction means a revenue reduction?
01/02/03: Missing Moi
12/27/02: The grizzled and menacing-looking senator in Confederate drag is … a Dem
12/24/02: Uprooting Christianity in the Holy Land
12/20/02: Under fire, Lott showed an ignobleness that is embarrassing
11/26/02: Bartley's enemies have been routed
11/14/02: Clarence Thomas and the segregationist Mississippi sheriff
11/07/02: I muffed up
10/31/02: Is the American university turning its back on change, on progress?
10/24/02: So why aren't the Dems buoyant?
10/17/02: Mourning the loss of the "yellow-belly"
10/10/02: American politics at its most ignominious
10/03/02: A man above the law, a bully
09/26/02: Is Bob Greene a victim of an anti-Clinton backlash?
09/19/02: I knew Mafiosi and …
09/12/02: Chickens and poseurs
09/05/02: Sympathizing with the Europols
08/29/02: 9-11 did not change us forever
08/22/02: Public persons frivoling with serious matters
08/15/02: Beachcombing among the fat of the land
08/08/02: They pave the way for corruption, not personal responsibility
08/01/02: Believing the unbelievable
07/25/02: The congressional posse comitatus
07/18/02: Cosmopolitan Arab fashion
07/11/02: What the prez actually knows
07/04/02: The vindication of a truly original thinker
06/27/02: The perfect book for Hillary
06/20/02: To say that they were ordinary is not to slight them
06/13/02: Daschle must begin to act like an adult
06/06/02: Lack of "intelligence" --- and sheer stupidity
05/30/02: Revealing a carefully guarded media secret
05/23/02: In these times, thank Heaven for Clinton!
05/16/02: Fast Times at the Church of the Nativity
05/09/02: "Name the Prettiest Suicide Bomber"
05/02/02: Vindication for the Boy Scouts
04/25/02: A topic almost no other columnist will touch
04/18/02: 'Conventional Wisdom' --- and those who defy it
04/11/02: Let the Sun shine in
04/05/02: Hooded men of color in sheets
04/01/02: A McCain-Feingold Act for Hollywood
03/21/02: Yakkin' on Yates
03/15/02: No role for Paul Volcker in Enron: the movie
03/07/02: My membership in the Communist Party U.S.A.
02/27/02: This award is bestowed by 'contrarians'
02/21/02: Mike Tyson: Made for Washington?
02/14/02: Enron as underdog?
02/07/02: Freed from the presence of money -- hard or soft -- most politicians would be just as bad
01/31/02: Needed: Bush to make a preemptive strike against his enemies …. Ones who'd like to see him fail even during war
01/24/02: Hucksters will move on to make their next marks
01/17/02: Debonair prez should begin to do the High Life
01/10/02: Move over Twinkies --- "the acne medicine made him do it!"
01/03/02: Leaving the Nazis looking comparatively humane
12/27/01: A "self-made journalist"
12/20/01: Calamities and unanticipated benefits
12/13/01: America's grief ought not to give comfort to those who caused it
12/06/01: Leahy, the strict civil libertarian!? A short-term exploiter of the Constitution is more like it
11/29/01: Welcome to Afghan, Maryland?
11/26/01: So, why don't more folks hate us?
11/15/01: America's quagmire and other certainties
11/09/01: No longer the smug statists, the prodigal Keynesians?
11/01/01: The New Seriousness
10/25/01: Bright lights and the Taliban
10/18/01: Is bin-Laden propaganda from Western intelligence?
10/12/01: No yellow ribbons
10/05/01: Bubba's back --- again!
09/28/01: Exposing peacetime's frauds
09/21/01: So protected, we're vulnerable
09/14/01: At Barbara Olson's home
09/11/01: Duh! All conservatives are racists
08/31/01: Arafat's terrorists have created their own hell
08/24/01: Time for some political prophecy
08/16/01: They claim to be doing so much good
08/10/01: Visiting the source of the White House braintrust
08/03/01: Morality and reality
07/31/01: Blinded by success?
07/24/01: The latest Kennedy capitulation in Massachusetts
07/13/01: Talk about tawdry
07/06/01: Delighting in the Dictator
06/29/01: The G-dphobes
06/21/01: Fashionable Washington is sempiternally in a stew
06/15/01: The limits of hypocrisy
06/08/01: Flagging our general apathy

© 2001, Creators Syndicate