Andrew Malcolm: A "review" of Sarah Palin's book

Our friend Andrew Malcolm reviews a "review" of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue:

We haven't actually read Palin's new book. Not one single page. We have a copy. We intend to read it. And we imagine it's fairly entertaining, perhaps revealing, as inside political stories go. We may even autograph it to ourselves from her. Also, hopefully, it's short on exclamation marks!!!

But after reading the Washington Post's review of Going Rogue the other day and the reviewer's candid confession that she hadn't really had time to finish the book that she was writing so authoritatively about, we realized this is the latest thing in U.S. society and journalism.

[...]

So, a reviewer can just write what he/she thinks the book is or heard it is or wants it to be. And if no one else reads what they're writing about or reads anything they disagree with, who can challenge anybody on anything?

It's perfect for a hurried society, like Washington every day or the modern quadrennial presidential campaigns. People reciting at each other things they've heard from others.

This way nobody has to learn anything new or adjust what they're already certain of. Dumb is the new American smart.

Final score: Andre Malcolm 1, Ana Marie Cox 0

- JP