You can ask "why is Stanley Fish associated with the New York Times opinion section," but then you'd have to look into many of the other Dark Mysteries of the New York Times opinion section, such as the Dark Mystery of why the New York Times opinion section has to be so dreadful & godawful.
I'm only speculating, but I'd guess that Fish's role at the NYT is that they were looking for some twit to make Friedman look smart in comparison, and they couldn't go any lower without hitting Althouse.
Ninety-nine percent of the more than 500 readers who responded to my account of Dinesh D’Souza’s blockbuster documentary “2016: Obama’s America” objected both to D’Souza’s arguments and to my taking them seriously. The editors and I thought it might be useful if D’Souza replied to the most-often-voiced objections. He and I sat down last Thursday for the following interview. — S. F.
As a noted savant once said, "gah."
If you follow back to Fish's "account," much of it is fairly sensible, but then you get to the end, and you bite into this bit of nut-bone in the sausage:
That kind of response is not encouraged by what the movie turns into — a long and elaborately produced campaign ad. As an ad it is doing very well, outperforming some summer blockbusters. (Democrats take note!) All to the good from a partisan perspective, but still a disservice both to the questions D’Souza has legitimately raised and to the film itself, which deserved better at the hands of its one and only begetter.
The bolded part.
Comb through Fish's "review." Find a "question that D'Souza has legitimately raised."
Still looking? Well, the answer is sweet fuck all.
Bluntly, because we're just a silly blog, Dinesh D'Souza made up a bunch of shit and Stanley Fish knows that and thinks that's swell, because for Stanley Fish, "academic integrity" means "having nice meals with ideologues and propagandists."
That link up there with the bad word... holy carp! Scoll down to the "What I’m doing is not pop-psychologizing" part if you want to laff.
And this is great:
D.D.: I think Obama is cool when he’s talking about things he doesn’t care about, like the inner city, the poor, hate crimes, race. When he talks about such matters, it often seems that he is reading from his tax return and then people think, “Oh, he’s so professorial.” But when he talks about banks, the insurance companies, the guys who fly corporate jets, his voice raises up a notch and his lip curls and he gets a little mean. So I think he does have rage, but it is sublimated rage. His is not the rage Clint Eastwood displays when he says “Make my day.” It is more like the rage Charles Bronson displayed in the “Death Wish” movies. He was inwardly furious; he would respond, but he would never fulminate. Obama’s father showed Clint Eastwood rage. Obama’s rage is there, but, as I said, it’s sublimated.
Pity the poor Tim Geithner, forced to bear the rage of Charles Bronson. Daily!
It's a sad loss for American Comedy that D'Souza were not literally explaining himself to someone, something, less useful than an imaginary chair. Ain't it pretty to think so?
But there is a punchline. Oh, there is a punchline.
S.F.: Finally a question more for me than you. I was chastised repeatedly for having you as a friend, for breaking bread with you (as I am about to do again), and for giving your “crackpot” arguments the time of day. One reader hoped that my criticism of the movie (which he thought too mild) might end a friendship that brought discredit to me. The idea is that you should choose your friends or spouses or partner by applying a political litmus test. Have the right (in this case, left) views and you can be my friend. It doesn’t work that way in the world — witness Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia — and, if I can borrow from one of my own titles, it’s a good thing, too. Let’s eat.
Fuck you.
Fish is the worst kind of fraud. He'll dick around with a principle before he'll turn down a dinner. Rich and important people can always be friends, and that is the True Meaning of Politics!
Congratulations, Brave Warrior. You shared biscotti with a dishonest asshole, despite what New York Times commenters may comment about you.
Surely you, Doctor Fish, have Risked All. Your soup course is a nationwide inspiration to first grade teachers buying crayons for their kids out of their own paychecks.
Fuck. You.
Lemmy! LET'S EAT!