I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor?
Two of the hot topics we’ve been thinking about and reading about today are Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s possible nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and the use of anonymous sources by bloggers.
These two seemingly divergent trains of thought are brought together today in a very interesting opinion piece by Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com.
As soon as Justice David Souter announced that he would retire from the Supreme Court this year, speculation becan to focus on Sotomayor as a replacement. She is young, female, Hispanic and liked by liberals, qualities that would please those looking for balance on the court.
And as that speculation has grown, so have stories and opinion pieces attempting to tell us more about this relatively unknown jurist.
Greenwald’s piece is in response to a story posted yesterday in The New Republic, “The Case Against Sotomayor.” The Salon.com story is rather long but here are some of the snippets that resonated most, in light of the conversation we’ve been having about anonymous sources:
Jeffrey Rosen’s New Republic smear of Sonia Sotomayor’s intellect and character — based almost exclusively on anonymous, gossiping “sources” — is such a model of shoddy, irresponsible, and (ironically enough) intellectually shallow “journalism” that it ought to be studied carefully. Standing alone, it reveals quite a bit about anonymity-dependent “reporting” generally, The New Republic specifically, and how much of our political discourse is conducted.
…What this sorry episode reveals, yet again, is just how poisonous and destructive is the reckless use of anonymous gossip-mongers masquerading as “journalism.” My own impression of Sotomayor should be of very limited value because of how confined it is to a handful of cases… But at least I’m attaching my name to my perceptions and providing as much information as I can about the basis for those views.
…By contrast, because they’re hiding behind the shield of anonymity Rosen gave them, virtually nothing is known about the gossip-mongers whose chatter was passed along by The New Republic. Rosen claims that “they’re not motivated by sour grapes or by ideological disagreement — they’d like the most intellectually powerful and politically effective liberal justice possible,” but there’s no way for anyone to assess that.
…Rosen’s gossip has, in many places, already solidified as conventional wisdom about Sotomayor: if Obama selects her, it will mean that he has subordinated merit and intellect to gender and ethnic diversity.
And getting a handle of the conventional wisdom is essential, says Marc Ambinder in a post today on TheAtlantic.com. Ambinder warns that Sotomayor and her supporters need to get control over her public image before the New Republic meme of “obnoxious and dumb” takes hold.
