Patterico's Pontifications

10/15/2008

There Are Those Who Call Him . . . Sanctimonious Endomorph

Filed under: 2008 Election,Dog Trainer,Humor — Patterico @ 11:44 pm



Via Mickey comes this fun tidbit from Tim Cavanaugh, an honest man who oddly enough once worked for the L.A. Times:

This summer the National Enquirer caught former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards (to Lakoff, an anti-corporate crusader; to Luntz, an ambulance chaser) meeting with his mistress in a Beverly Hills hotel. The Los Angeles Times demonstrated a pronounced lack of enthusiasm for the story in its own back yard, even putting out a notice to its bloggers to avoid mentioning it. Before long, Mickey Kaus and other prominent media critics had jumped all over the paper. As a participant in the fun (I approved the one blog post the L.A. Times had on the matter prior to the gag order; I and the author of the post were both subsequently fired, though the events were unrelated…as far as I know), I can say that while some of the principal players’ roles were misinterpreted, the overall characterization was accurate. The L.A. Times desperately wanted to avoid this damaging story, dressed up its desires in media-diligence drag (we were told not to comment until the paper’s reporters were through looking into the matter), and as a result was beaten and humiliated in its own backyard. Tim Rutten, the sanctimonious endomorph who leads the paper’s columnist lineup, ended up admitting as much in a column written after Edwards had confessed and everybody else had stopped caring. Bias unpacking: 100 percent successful.

Bold emphasis is mine; other emphasis belongs to Cavanaugh.

Henceforth, should I ever refer to Tim Rutten as a “sanctimonious endomorph” (and I have the distinct sense that I will), it will be with a link to this post, to explain the provenance of this wonderfully descriptive phrase.

13 Responses to “There Are Those Who Call Him . . . Sanctimonious Endomorph”

  1. Henceforth, I will refer to Tim Rutten as a “sanctimonious pile of dog diarrhea doo doo.”

    Perfect Sense (9d1b08)

  2. There’s plenty of company for Rutten in the sanctimonious endomorph club – Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Babra Streisand, Roseanne Barr, Roger Ebert, Frank Rich, and Barney Frank come to mind right off the top of my head. I wonder if there’s an induction ceremony?

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  3. Some people I know and love laugh off leftist bias in the news by saying, “They would never refuse to print bad news about Democrats if it could sell papers.” Thanks for giving me another rebuttal point.

    L.N. Smithee (5aeda8)

  4. Say what? Is calling Tom Rutten a sanctimonious endomorph like saying he’s a fat hypocrite?

    Ropelight (80557f)

  5. I hereby name Barack Obama “that sanctimonious ectomorph.” And he is!

    Peg C. (48175e)

  6. You could always go with the “Producers” quote:
    “FAT! FAT FAT FAT FAT FAT!”

    mojo (8096f2)

  7. Tim Rutten of the L(ying) A(sshole) Times!

    …or should that be an “is”?

    Another Drew (6ac001)

  8. I, too, remember a time when criticizing others by referring to their physical characteristics was popular. I think it was fourth grade.

    You’re better than this, Patrick. So is Tim Cavanaugh.

    Tim McGarry (9fe080)

  9. McGarry, that’s too many Tims in one conversation. I feel a little bad about the ad hominem, but somebody has to get the truth out there: L.A. Times obesity is not the innocent product of glands or overeating or sedentary work. It is the mark of a corrupted soul, the product of a lifetime spent sucking dry the marrow of the productive classes.

    Tim Cavanugh (342f00)

  10. We could start a “Tim” club…

    Tim McGarry (9fe080)

  11. Give the devil his due Department: When Cathy Seipp announced in print that she was dying, Rutten (a long time adversary) sent her a gracious, generous, kind note that any one of us would be proud of. He didn’t do it to win us over; he had good reason to think Cathy’d be the only one who’d see it. That doesn’t make him Patrick Henry, but it deserves to be remembered.

    Gary McVey (a206fa)

  12. I like Rutten’s work and find myself agreeing with him more often than not. Of course, I’m a liberal and therefore knave or fool by the lights of most folks here.

    I imagine Patrick recognizes that he and Tim Rutten don’t always disagree. I seem to recall that Rutten was highly critical of Dan Rather and of the AP, when it was discovered that one of their Middle East stringers was doctoring photos.I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of other points of agreement.

    Like Gary McVey, I recall considerable mutual respect between Rutten and Cathy Seipp. I remember that he wrote a column taking her side in a controversy over a writer who took money from companies he wrote about in his columns. They seemed to see eye-to-eye on matters of probity and journalistic integrity.

    Rutten is curently a reviewer and columnist. Opinion is what he does. He has been critical of law enforcement in Southern California, particularly the LAPD. As a native Angeleno, I can relate. However, that may be an area of particularly intense disagreement between him and Patrick, who is a prosecutor.

    Word has it that Rutten, along with Henry Weinstein, was a very vocal critic of Andres Martinez during the flap some time ago over guest editors for the Opinion section and possible conflicts of interest. Cavanaugh worked for Martinez, but I imagine that “sucking dry the marrow of the productive classes” refers to something else.

    Tim McGarry (9fe080)

  13. We could start a “Tim” club…

    I don’t think Rutten would have me. He’s an arrogant windbag. And he writes like an arrogant windbag. And occasionally takes positions that I agree with like an arrogant windbag. And gets lousy traffic like an arrogant windbag.

    It’s on the basis of arrogant windbaggery that I don’t like him. His role in the Andres business was minor — one more story in a full-court press that had already included two front pagers. I don’t blame him for that stuff, just for being an arrogant windbag.

    Tim Cavanugh (f465d9)


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