Friday, May 22, 2009

The Geek at the Prom vs. Mark Levin

"Having spent about 15 unpleasant minutes listening to this creep, I cannot imagine why anybody pays attention to him. Seriously, where is the pleasure in listening to this kind of trashmouth?"
-- Rod Dreher, May 22, 2009

"You're always ranting against any conservative who is actually popular with Republicans. Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, et cetera. . . . You're like the geek at the dance, complaining that the prom queen and the quarterback are so popular."
-- Robert Stacy McCain, May 17, 2009



Do yourself a favor. Buy the No. 1 New York Times bestseller by the founder of the Landmark Legal Foundation, the nationally syndicated radio host recently ranked No. 11 in the nation by Talkers magazine, "the Great One," Mark Levin.

Ed Driscoll reminds us of a line from The Three Amigos: "In-famous is when you're more than famous."

UPDATE: I must address something my friend (shhhhh!) Joe Marier says in the comments:

The smash-mouth style is a traditional part of talk radio, granted. It takes its cues from the Don Rickles - George Carlin brands of comedy. In the DC market, though, WTOP has been killing it with more of an NPR style, and that's the style Rod Dreher (and Frum, for that matter) has been pursuing.
Joe, neither Dreher nor Frum is a professional talk-radio host, and I'm guessing neither one of them would last six months in the medium if they tried it.

People who've never done talk radio, or who've never been in a studio and seen how it's done, have no idea how extraordinarily difficult it is to fill so much as a single hour, much less three hours a day five days a week. Now, consider how difficult it is to do it well, so as to attract a commercially viable nationwide audience. For Dreher (and his source) to disdain Levin is for them to sneer at someone who has succeeded exceptionally in a venue they've never even tried.

This is the arrogance of the intellectual elite, to imagine that their particular specialty -- the expression of abstract ideals via the written word -- is the only ability that matters, qualifying them as experts on anything and everything they choose to write about.

Written expression is an ability, and an important one, but it is not synonymous with intelligence. I don't give a damn what your SAT score was -- and I've been knocking the tops off standardized tests of verbal reasoning since I was in elementary school -- an 800 verbal does not qualify you to dictate to the rest of the world what they should do, what they should say, or what they should think.

Despite my frequent and scathing criticisms of George W. Bush, I never mistook his verbal awkwardness for stupidity. The man was a fighter jet pilot and holds a Harvard MBA. Even if his syntax and delivery are atrocious -- and even if he inherited the family trait of disastrous political instincts -- George W. Bush is not less intelligent than Conor Friedersdorf.

A disdain of blunt expression is natural among those who make their living in the wussified environment of contemporary elite journalism. To be a journalist in Washington is to live one's life surrounded by men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fightfight in their lives.

The upper echelons of American journalism have become the exclusive monopoly of former teacher's pets, who as children were never sent to the principal's office, who as teenagers were never suspended for showing up drunk for chemistry class, who as college students never woke up at 6:30 a.m. on the porch of the ATO house, who never played in a rock band or sold a pound of weed or dove from a 50-foot cliff into an abandoned rock quarry.

Washington journalism is like some kind of perverse alternative reality where the Beta males are dominant.

It is therefore not surprising that the effete elite of American journalism sneers at Mark Levin. What Levin possesses -- and what the typical 21st-century journalist never has possessed nor ever will -- is the double-dog-dare-ya boyish audacity that the Ordinary American naturally admires.

Levin's insult to the woman who called him up was perfectly understood by his audience. The woman was engaged in an essentially dishonest tactic that every succesful talk-show host knows too well: Lying her way past the call-screener and then attempting to hijack Levin's show to disseminate a pro-Obama message.

Levin insulted her because she deserved to be insulted, and for every Conor Friedersdorf who was shocked -- shocked! -- by Levin's abrasiveness, there were at least a hundred normal guys driving home from work who reflexively slapped the dashboard and said, "Hell, yeah! You tell 'er, Mark!"

"One of the basic principles of military strategy is to reinforce success. If you see a man who fights and wins, give him reinforcements, and bid others to emulate his success."
-- Robert Stacy McCain, March 21, 2009

Mark Levin is such a success, a man who fights and wins. He has achieved his success independently, by his own merit and relentless labor, and I am not fit to tell him what he should or should not say on his own radio show.

One more thing: Mark Levin is a big man. His nasal tenor voice might lead the uninformed listener to picture him as a diminuitive nebbish. He is not. He's the size of a Big 10 linebacker and I'd bet dollars to donuts Levin could take out Rod Dreher with a single punch.

UPDATE: Reply to Dreher.

UPDATE II: 'In the famous words of Rahm Emanuel . . .'

27 comments:

  1. Bought it the day it hit shelves. Haven't gotten around to reading it yet despite reading 3 books per week (my list is legion!) but it was important to me to at least help the best-seller rating in the hopes that it might persuade the less inclined to take a chance and enlighten themselves.

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  2. I mostly listen to pop music.

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  3. I made a similar point at Infinite Monkeys, but I'll make it again where people are actually reading: I know Mark Levin. I first met him in 1996 and I've spoken and corresponded with him many times over the years, most recently in March. Although I've never met his kids or dined at his home or anything, I'm willing to vouch for his good character. And I know and like Rod Dreher. But I dispute Rod's characterization. It isn't right.

    Mark Levin off the air wouldn't say what he said to that caller in the way that he said it. But I think he meant what he said, which boils down to the straightforward observation that the caller prefers her despotism with a Democratic rather than a Republican hue; and, secondly, he wouldn't want to be married to her. De gustibus non est disputandum, as the sages say.

    The caller was a fool if she expected to have a genuine conversation with the host. When you call a radio show like Levin's, prepare for combat. And you should know that you will always lose to the guy with the dump-button. If you listen even for an hour, you'll learn that Levin even throws jabs at friendly callers. That's the show.

    Levin's latest book, Liberty and Tyranny, isn't a typical radio book. It isn't schtick on a page. It's a tightly argued brief against what he rightly sees as a rising tide of statism in America today. And if Levin gets worked up about the subject on the air and yells at some dumb callers, well, that's really no concern of mine. May not be Rod Dreher's cup of tea, but it's still a free country. More or less.

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  4. The smash-mouth style is a traditional part of talk radio, granted. It takes its cues from the Don Rickles - George Carlin brands of comedy. In the DC market, though, WTOP has been killing it with more of an NPR style, and that's the style Rod Dreher (and Frum, for that matter) has been pursuing.

    Speaking personally, I think we need both sides. And, I agree with Jonah Goldberg that we need to continue to attempt to revive Firing Line.

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  5. Awww, is poooow widdle Rob jeaowous?

    People listen to Levin because, while Dreher's trying to develop a political movement based on the food one eats, Levin's actually addressing issues people give two craps about. Maybe if Dreher spent less time discussing the sacramental elements of his free range roasted turkey dinner he might get people to bother paying attention to him as well.

    And I've read Liberty And Tyranny. Great, great book.

    And as for Captain Obvious: slowpoke.

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  6. "...men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fightfight in their lives."

    Ummm, do you get bonus points if you once did all three in a single night? In the same incident?

    The latest election had made one thing perfectly clear to me - while I am as conservative as they come, I will never be welcome at the tables of the conservative glitterati. While I enjoy Christopher Buckley's books immensely, I would not appreciate spending personal time with him, nor he with me. As for Dreher, I eat food I enjoy for flavor and preparation and the company it's consumed in, and not from some higher moral urgency.

    People inside the Beltway are not "normal." Which is not a disqualification, but their unwillingness to tolerate those who are is. I'd much rather hang with the Palins than with that incestuous "intellectual elite" circle.

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  7. As a fellow Christian it really annoys me to read the likes of Dreher. He is, to be blunt, a weenie of the first order. Mark Levin's style on the radio has no import on his ideas, which are superb.

    I also enjoyed how he shut the comments thread down, because he found himself in a hornets nest of Mark Levin supporters (who were pretty civil unless there were comments he deleted).

    My disposition is to be nicey nice. But we need, desperately, warriors, people who can stand up and shout the truth without fine print or worry about hurting feelings. That's why I support Mark Levin; that's what he does. Rod Dreher does nothing for our cause, except drag it down and divide us when he trashes our own people.

    @ Paul: Lol, dude, simply lol.

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  8. Excellently put, Mr. McCain. I listen to Mark every chance I get, and I quickly overcame my initial shock with regard to his style when I realized the essence of his cause and the brilliance of his argument. I am one of the guys who would have slapped my dashboard and shouted an expletive or two in support of Mark.

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  9. All true enough, but... Rod Dreher and David Frum do talk radio. NPR commentaries and interviews count. Yes, it's hard to do an hour of conservative political commentary and insult comedy, but it's hardly relevant to whether that's the style we need right now.

    Check out the current DC ratings for radio at dcrtv.com. My beloved (left-leaning) guy-talk station WJFK is at the bottom, Levin's station WMAL is slightly higher but still low, and those are the only long form talk stations that even register. Number 1? WTOP. Which is short-form news in 5-10 minute chunks, designed to keep you minimally informed as you make the drive to work or drop the kids off at preschool. Essentially, it's a commercial version of NPR (which is beating both JFK and MAL, by the way). What are conservatives doing to compete with that style?

    Regarding reinforcing success: huh? As Chesterton said, we're all successful at something. Levin's successful at selling books to conservatives. Others are not as successful as that, but are pretty successful at insinuating themselves into the mainstream press, etc., even if they have to present their criticisms other conservatives to do it. But, presenting SOME conservative ideas in hostile venues, is a form of success that shall not be reinforced. It shall be run down as illegitimate at every opportunity.

    Liberalism has populist and elitist elements. So should we.

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  10. I am getting sick of pretenders and stooges acting conservative just to screw up the stupid. Guys like Dreher are the reason why we have Charlie Christ in FL and (had)Arlen Specter in PA and Tom Ridge....

    If you don't buy Rush, Coulter or Levin, if they ALL leave a bad taste in your mouth, then you really aren't part of the conservative base.

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  11. Ah, Joe, you may want to check out real DC radio ratings:
    http://arbitronratings.com/radio_stations/home.htm...

    MAL is doing better than you suspect...

    J

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  12. Umnnhhhh...

    I have kids. Some of them are IQ-smart, some of them are street-smart.

    Love 'em all, but I'll take the street-smarts when it comes to a fight.

    (Along with a couple of large guns.)

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  13. Little Rod, shut down the comments sections for his big bad post on Mark Levin after under 50 comments of mostly pro Mark Levin defense. He said his comments section was being "spammed" by Mark Levin fans. The little boy doesn't even seem to have his tech lingo figured out yet but he did learn something in 1st grade yesterday, "Mark Levin is.. what's that big word again... oh Disgusting". I can't stand the conservative dandies like Rod.

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  14. "To be a journalist in Washington is to live one's life surrounded by men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fightfight in their lives..."

    Damn! Then WE could be doing Beer Commercials!

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  15. Check out the portable people meter ratings, not the diary ratings. MAL is at number 16. That's less than satisfying.

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  16. I tried to get his book at the library and there were literally dozens of holds on that book alone. So I had to settle for 1776 instead.

    Mark is abrasive which is why I can take about 10 minutes of him before I need a breather.

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  17. Speaking as a member of the nerd wing of the libertarian movement, all I have to say is:

    Say it now and say it loud, I'm a nerd and I'm proud!

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  18. "If you don't buy Rush, Coulter or Levin, if they ALL leave a bad taste in your mouth, then you really aren't part of the conservative base."

    I guess so; I'll have to vote for the Dems next time. But seriously, would we rather build a meaningful political movement or a club for tough guys? Because we all know there aren't nearly enough tough guys left...

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  19. I'm totally unimpressed with the "it's really hard to do talk radio" argument for why we should respect these guys.

    I'm sure it is hard, and it requires real skill and talent, no question.

    But so does shooting ping pong balls out of your vagina.

    The difficulty of doing something is not an automatic reason for valorizing it.

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  20. Oh, just by listening an hour to talk radio, you can hear what trouble it is to fill. I never fail to appreciate the sacrifice. Good memorial day to all.

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  21. Reading the quotes here -- and now over at Tim Blair's site, I have to wonder... is the reason lefties seem so much more bitter than even the angriest conservative because they've never done any dumshit? Maybe they don't have the leveling perspective that comes with saying, "Oh, crap. remember the time I..."

    Maybe jumping a bonfire with an open glass of tequila in your hand once in a while is good for the soul...

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  22. And this is why RSM is a well known journalist/blogger and I am not. You just laid out in this post exactly what I was trying to explain to some dense commenters over at Reihl World View with regards to Mark Levin and his show, yet you did it so much better and clearly than me. Kudos, sir. Great post.

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  23. I love how you quote yourself to make your points. It must be so hard being the smartest man in the world. Who can you turn to when you need a supporting quote, when nobody else can say things as well as you do?

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  24. It is somewhat ironic that you paint Levin as this heroic fighter by attacking a woman who had the audacity to "lie" to the call screener. That's right, the call screener, as in the person who makes sure that Levin only takes calls from people who either agree with him or are clearly unequipped to be talking on the air and therefore can easily be made to look foolish. How manly is it to only fight on your home turf, with everything stacked in your favor? I'd say, not very, and like so many of the right wing talk show hosts, he never served in the military to fight for our country. Odd how you never find Levin engaged in a true debate with someone where the playing field is level. He's a coward.

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  25. "To be a journalist in Washington is to live one's life surrounded by men who have never driven 110 mph, never spent a night in jail, and never won a fightfight in their lives."

    And who wants to hang out with non-violent non-criminals?

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  26. One more thing: Mark Levin is a big man. His nasal tenor voice might lead the uninformed listener to picture him as a diminuitive nebbish. He is not. He's the size of a Big 10 linebacker and I'd bet dollars to donuts Levin could take out Rod Dreher with a single punch.I would imagine that Levin is, himself, quite familiar with dollars to donuts transactions, Stacy. The guy's a fat piece of shit with a bad ticker who likely gets winded walking to his car. My little sister could kick his ass just by dancing around him for couple of minutes sustained.

    Jeebus, but you wingnuts are desperate for heroes, even if they sound like a chihuahua.

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