Patterico's Pontifications

5/7/2006

Andrew Klavan Rides Again

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 10:41 am



Armed Liberal highlights an excellent opinion piece in this morning’s L.A. Times. It is by Andrew Klavan, and calls for more patriotic war movies of the sort we had in World War II:

“United 93” — the film celebrating the heroic civilian attempt to retake a hijacked plane on 9/11 — opened last week. That’s great. Well done and about time. But now, let’s have some war movies.

We need some films celebrating the war against Islamo-fascism in Afghanistan and Iraq — and in Iran as well, if and when that becomes necessary. We need films like those that were made during World War II, films such as 1943’s “Sahara” and “Action in the North Atlantic,” or “The Fighting Seabees” and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” which were released in 1944.

Not all of these were great films, or even good ones, but their patriotic tributes to our fighting forces inspired the nation.

. . . .

Today we face an enemy in the grip of a belief system just as evil, just as destructive in its intent, as the system we fought back then. We were attacked at home in this war as we were in World War II. The outcome of the struggle is just as much in doubt. Worse, because Islamic fundamentalism supersedes nationhood, the danger it poses is more protean and diffuse. It’s easier to pretend it isn’t there, more tempting for the war-weary and the fatally foolish to waver and sound retreat.

In short, we need war movies now even more than in the ’40s.

Armed Liberal doesn’t recognize the name Andrew Klavan. But I do. He had a sensible and entertainingly written piece about media bias in Sunday Opinion last year, which I mentioned in this post. Here are some quotes from Klavan’s piece from last year:

Look, I’m really busy right now but, all right, I’ll take five minutes to solve the problems of the mainstream media. I mean, ratings for network news are at an all-time low, newspaper readership is falling off the chart, the public’s trust in journalists is steadily eroding — the least I can do is sacrifice one coffee break in order to sort things out. It doesn’t require internal studies or revamped formats. Just three little words of advice will fix every one of their troubles: Hire some conservatives.

I don’t mean hire a conservative. I don’t mean cover conservatives. I don’t mean allow conservatives to express a minority opinion on your Op-Ed page or argue at the top of their lungs on some yes/no, black/white, point/counterpoint debate program. I mean that at ABC, CBS, NBC, the Los Angeles Times et al, a substantial proportion of the reporters who cover stories, and the editors who assign and shape those stories, should be people with conservative beliefs. The rest can continue to be what they are now: left-wingers who live under the delusion that they’re moderates.

Heh. Klavan also said:

By hiring some conservatives to balance such bias, news outlets may begin to restore the idea that they are, in fact, news outlets, instead of, say, elite would-be opinion-makers instructing us in right thinking by manipulating reportage and distorting facts.

Of course, we’ve seen no evidence that the L.A. Times has followed Klavan’s advice and hired some conservatives. But at least they are allowing Klavan to express his minority opinion on their Op-Ed page. That’s precisely the remedy Klavan deemed insufficient in his piece. But it’s better than nothing.

P.S. When I quoted this piece last year, I said: “This guy can guest-blog for me any time.” And, in fact, I wrote him and invited him to. He declined with some polite excuse or another. But guess what? The guy has his own blog now. It’s rarely updated, but looks like an interesting read. I’ve already subscribed to it on my Bloglines account.

UPDATE: Klavan is going to be on Ace’s radio show. Cool.

15 Responses to “Andrew Klavan Rides Again”

  1. left-wingers who live under the delusion that they’re moderates.

    I would add: Left wingers who live under the delusion that they’re better, smarter, more sophisticated and living on a higher moral plane than Republicans or Conservatives.

    Perfect Sense (024110)

  2. Andrew Klavan has an interesting blog, and is also a fiction writer and screenwriter. (Re #3: Sounds like a case for the District Attorney’s office. Strictly weights and measurements!)

    Vermont Neighbor (a9ae2c)

  3. Oops! #3 is gone now. Off into cyberspace.

    Vermont Neighbor (a9ae2c)

  4. Perfect Sense, excellent! and an appropriate signature as well.

    Harry Arthur (b318a5)

  5. I hear there’s this thing called “the free market” that can decide what films should get made.

    jpe (1fe8b3)

  6. And part of that free market is discussion about what films should be made.

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  7. Klavan’s going to be on Ace’s Hoist the Black Flag show this week–Tuesday at about 1PM Pacific. You can catch it at Rightalk.com–they rebroadcast it every hour for the next 24 hours.

    See Dubya (13ab1e)

  8. Looking forward to the podcast. Andrew has an extensive list of projects including films and books. His Web site is interesting, for anyone who likes to read about a guest in advance.

    – Klavan attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year but dropped out when he discovered the sixties were over. He was one of the very few people at Berkeley who actually did discover this. He went to work as a reporter at a local radio station where he ended up covering the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the other major stories surrounding it.

    – Andrew will appear at the 60th annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards Ceremony April 27, 2006 [in NYC]. He has been nominated this year for his short story Her Lord And Master.

    DON’T SAY A WORD (2001) — Based on Andrew’s bestselling novel. To save his daughter’s life, a psychiatrist must somehow extract a number out of the mind of a troubled young woman who swears, “I’ll never tell!” Directed by Gary Fleder. Starring Michael Douglas and Brittany Murphy.

    TRUE CRIME (1999) — Based on Andrew’s bestselling novel about a reporter with one day to save a man on death row. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington and James Woods.

    http://www.andrewklavan.com/index.php

    Vermont Neighbor (a9ae2c)

  9. Klavan’s going to be on Ace’s Hoist the Black Flag show this week–Tuesday at about 1PM Pacific. You can catch it at Rightalk.com–they rebroadcast it every hour for the next 24 hours.

    Yeah, I’d seen that. I should update the post to reflect it.

    Patterico (50c3cd)

  10. Met him at the Liberty Film festival, and he writes at Libertas once in a while. Very talented writer.

    Patricia (2cc180)

  11. You aren’t going to have many patriotic films come out of Hollywood until there are more than a few writers and producers in Hollywood who aren’t leftist America haters.

    God Help my daughter who graduates from USC this week.

    PCD (a43fef)

  12. By hiring some conservatives to balance such bias, news outlets may begin to restore the idea that they are, in fact, news outlets, instead of, say, elite would-be opinion-makers instructing us in right thinking by manipulating reportage and distorting facts.

    Come on!

    Instead of liberal/moderate/conservative thing, I got a better idea.

    How about asking for simple competent reporting and better writing that is journalism. For a change.

    JJ (e77a84)

  13. Re #12
    It may be past the point where objectivity is possible. Here’s a photo caption for John Kenneth Galbraith from the Sunday Current section:

    “Legacy: The renowned economist was not the reflexive liberal portrayed in the obituaries.”

    Hard to imagine anything like that for a conservative.

    Vermont Neighbor (a9ae2c)

  14. JJ, just be honest. You just want the usual liberal slant so that you don’t feel challenged in your biases.

    PCD (a43fef)

  15. Klaven’s advice may not have been taken by the LA Times, but I almost fell over yesterday (Sunday) when I saw, page one and top-of-fold, an article saying that Bush’s prescription drug program for the elderly had been a great success. I read the first few paragraphs several times. I don’t think they started to take back the positive tone until quite a ways down, which means this is the first time I have EVER seen a flatly positive article on something done by Republicans. Maybe I have missed others because I stopped reading the Times regularly.

    JohnH (7c4ae7)


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