And MSNBC has cut him off as a paid contributor, according to Fox News.
Meacham worked on Biden's victory speech and then appeared on MSNBC commenting on the speech. MSNBC's Brian Williams asked him, "I’m not the historian that you are, and I don’t have the Pulitzer that you do, but do you concur that is the way we are used to hearing from our presidents?" To which Meacham responded, "Absolutely."
The implication of the question — as I see it there, out of context — is that Trump didn't speak in the conventional presidential way, and Biden restores the appropriate tone for the presidency. It's pretty awful to go on TV and comment on a speech that you wrote as if you were just hearing it.
Here's the NYT article from yesterday that made the disclosure of Meacham's speechwriting role: "Helping to Shape the Words of the President-Elect: A Presidential Historian/Jon Meacham, best known for writing about past presidents like Andrew Jackson and George Bush, has helped shape some of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s most significant speeches."
In [his victory speech], Mr. Biden spoke of a mission “to rebuild the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class, and to make America respected around the world again” and was widely credited with striking the right tone about bringing the country back together. The language echoed the title of Mr. Meacham’s 2018 book, “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” which has long served as a touchstone for Mr. Biden, who has reached out to Mr. Meacham in the past to discuss passages he liked....
It's very nice for Biden to read a book about America's soul and to want to get some of that high-flown rhetoric into his speeches, but the aspiration toward loftiness is shot to hell if Meacham goes on TV to admire what he's not telling us is his own work!
“President-elect Joe Biden wrote the speech he delivered to the American people on Saturday night, which laid out his vision for uniting and healing the nation,” said TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr. Biden. “Given the significance of the speech, he consulted a number of important and diverse voices as part of his writing process, as he often does,” Mr. Ducklo added.
A Biden official said that Mr. Meacham was involved in discussions about the themes in the victory speech.... He publicly endorsed Mr. Biden in an op-ed in The Washington Post in March and received a prime speaking slot at the Democratic convention....
Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past....
Posts
84 comments:
This is news?
Dog bites man. Film at 11.
“President-elect Joe Biden wrote the speech he delivered to the American people on Saturday night, which laid out his vision for uniting and healing the nation,” said TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr. Biden.”
Impeach!
The self-licking ice cream cone analogy comes to mind.
In the sixties it was a movement.
In the nineties it became a business.
Now it's just a racket. Hoffer was right, of course, and this castle built on sand will collapse of its own accord. The questions are when and how the collapse will happen, and how to prepare for it.
Some people think there's a cultural singularity on the horizon. Perhaps we're in the process right now and can't see it. Interesting times, eh?
No rhetoric will save us from a crooked system.
The part of the speech quoted here is all I know of it and all I care to know. It is not high flown or just the right tone. It is blah, blah, blah - the canned rhetoric of the "Restoration" of an elite that knows how to put us all to sleep with words.
I turned on the TV this morning and heard the clip of Biden saying we all had to wear masks.
That's it. He's been harping on covid response for 7 months, and his main point of emphasis is doing something that has shown to evidence of moving the needle.
Why are a disproportionate deaths in long term care facilities? My experience informs me they have rigid mask protocols, and soul crushing isolation. 2 months ago the CDC head said masks are more effective than a vaccine. A statement that lacks evidence.
"...has helped shape some of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s most significant speeches."
My God. After 47 years in office, is there anyone alive who can remember any 'significant' speech by Joe Biden? Better yet, just one significant line from any speech in 47 years?
Of course, the answer is no. And if you look over Biden's occasional out-of-the-basement talks to 25 or so car and truck hoods in the last 90 days, can anyone recall any of Jon Meacham's words? Come on, Man! You know you cannot.
Another grifter showing up daily to give us the 'expert's' view of the world. I hear so much about character since this election. Character! Why, it's almost as if they don't actually know the meaning of the word.
Another MSNBC ASSHOLE...who is changing history to make it fit their Progressive worldview. These fools are the ones who are ruining our country whilst blaming the people who actually love it. Why don't they move to their beloved Venezuela, since that's what they want for the rest of US??
[Shrug]. Nothing Democrats haven’t done before and will do again. The guy got caught. Big whoop. The only reason he was fired is because he was going to quit anyway, to join Biden’s speechwriting team.
Well, it's not as if he was appearing on a real news program.
And besides, Joe Biden is a far better speechwriter than Meacham.
it jus what they do.
Not news...and if they get their way in the courts they're coming for you.
Meacham took credit for the things Biden said?
I would have hidden that fact to... but out of shame for the banality.
"Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past...."
Was this a straight, objective news story? Of the NYTimes version of it? LOLz
THEOLDMAN
The Soul of America: The Battle For Our Better Angels?!
Is there an English comp teacher in the house? Maybe just anyone who's browsed through Strunk and White? Though I will admit that it takes a certain general ballsiness to string together three tired cliches in a single title...
So if the Great and Powerful Biden does end up being my president on January 20 (see, lefties, that's how you grudgingly resign yourselves to an electoral outcome you deplore - with neither tears nor baseball bats, only grudge) (though I'm not quite resigned yet, a la Monty Python), we'll have speeches like that title to look forward to. Excellent.
""Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past...."
President Trump is quite interested in the past, especially the recent past when the Obama/Biden administration was surveilling him. It's Meacham and his ilk who are not.
Jon “We’re All Socialists Now” Meacham?
Who woulda thunk it.
"is shot to hell if Meacham goes on TV to admire what he's not telling us is his own work!"
AA, certainly by now you've noticed that Democrats lie, lie, lie. Deception is in their blood stream. If they were honest when seeking office, laying all the cards on the table about what they intend to do to us and the Constitution, they'd never be elected. They know that, explaining the constant deceptions.
Not much of a scandal. A kerfuffle in a demitasse. No interns were sexually exploited and the plagiarism was honestly acquired.....I read Meacham's bio of Andrew Jackson a while back. I can't remember much about it. As I recall, he did seem to take a rather chilly view of Jackson. Jackson was a great President and a founding father of the Democratic Party, but he was also a practitioner and, indeed, advocate of all of the American vices of his era. I've got a vague sense that Meacham wasn't quite sure what to make of Jackson. Schlesinger had an easier time. You could still be a fanboi back in Schlesinger's day. He wrote a two volume biography of Jackson and did not feel it necessary to mention the Trail of Tears. Schlesinger also wrote about Kennedy's thousand days in office and left out all the good stuff about sex and drugs....I think Meacham, when it comes time to write the definitive biography of Biden, will exercise the same tact and good taste that Schlesinger used in his studies of Jackson and Kennedy....A Democratic activist historian is an oxymoron but not much of a scandal.
But us Trump supporters who mostly just want to be left alone, we’re the deplorable ones.
Yea, right.
Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past...
Trump seems more interested in the Constitution.
Not trying to come up with historical rationales for why it no longer matters.
So if the Great and Powerful Biden does end up being my president on January 20 (see, lefties, that's how you grudgingly resign yourselves to an electoral outcome you deplore - with neither tears nor baseball bats, only grudge) (though I'm not quite resigned yet, a la Monty Python), we'll have speeches like that title to look forward to. Excellent.
Nope. Not my president. War.
Aww, c’mon Ann nothing trumps the abject vulgarity of Trump. And that should be a justification by itself.
If Trump’s challenges are ultimately futile, these scenes should be normal.
It doesn't seem like a conflict to me. He's just giving Biden the credit for the thoughts, however banal they may be. In giving Biden the praise, he's grading on a curve.
Why does MSNBC care about 'cutting him off'. How could it possibly harm their reputation, especially with the viewers it serves?
Seems like weak sauce when so many of the MSM figureheads have closer ties to lefty pols.
Did he take credit for “You know the thing?”
Because that was inspiring!
I am reading his Andrew Jackson book now. He should stick to writing history. His political thoughts are boring and discredited.
Shades of George Will and Reagan, which JM no doubt recalls.
Blogger Temujin said...
And if you look over Biden's occasional out-of-the-basement talks to 25 or so car and truck hoods in the last 90 days, can anyone recall any of Jon Meacham's words? Come on, Man! You know you cannot.
Hey! He apparently inspired the shit out of the mail-in ballot demographic, whoever they may be.
I'd like to read a biography of Andrew Jackson. Just not one written by a Biden Boi.
THEOLDMAN
Any suggestions?
Who ratted him out to MSDNC?
It is crazy how being incurious and lacking oversight always works in one oarty's favor.
I thought Neil Kinnock wrote Biden's speeches. Huh.
The speech was nowhere as good as his famous “Come on man, you know the thing!” speech. Now, that was a winner.
Brian Williams and this guy at the former hang out of the creepy porn lawyer. Yep, MSNBC is where you go for truth. Did you know that Brian Williams actually died and recovered from Covid-19 just a few years after surviving a beheading by ISIS? That man has seen a lot.
How many lying sacks of shit can you load on a donkey?
“The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels”
Sounds like a religious/fantasy tract combined with a possible Pinker ripoff.
Speaking of which, Biden hilariously claimed, or parroted, that his putative election "bent the moral arc of the universe more toward justice", but that was a mangling of a slogan from a different, much older, religious/fantasy tract which referred to the arc of the "moral universe", which is something completely different.
Pretty bad, no doubt, but it's better to be fired for conflict of interest behavior than to be seen pulling one's pud on an active Zoom session.
"the aspiration toward loftiness is shot to hell if Meacham goes on TV to admire what he's not telling us is his own work!"
Not at all. The aspiration toward loftiness is just anther prog tool, and the minor Meacham faux pas doesn't change prog appetite for that kind of BS. They still admire it: more normal, you see, more presidential, unifying. No prog will dismiss Meacham as a phony liar forever.
He should be fired from both jobs for underperformance.
I assume all the on-air talent at MSDNC are on the democrat payroll.
Pretty bad, no doubt, but it's better to be fired for conflict of interest behavior than to be seen pulling one's pud on an active Zoom session.
At least Toobin disclosed that it was his pud.
One of those moments when one catches something that other people might not see and feels good later to realize that it was there after all. When Biden was talking about the "Soul of America" Meacham's book instantly came to mind. I didn't actually think Meacham wrote the speech, but I was sure somebody in Biden's team did.
Meacham is a hack. A Time/Newsweek poseur who managed to get a perch on TV as a Charlie Rose/Joe Scarborough crony. Is he really a Pulitzer-calibre historian? He didn't win the prize for history, but rather for biography/autobiography, but somehow being a "presidential historian" gets one a good revolving seat on talk shows.
Is Meacham named and shamed? Will the networks continue to have him on commenting about speeches that he had a hand in writing?
Marcus said...
I'd like to read a biography of Andrew Jackson. Just not one written by a Biden Boi.
THEOLDMAN
Any suggestions?
Remini has a 3 volume biography that is great but might be too much. There is a one volume condensed version.
Did Meacham come up with "Dog-faced pony soldier?" too? I think he did.
Democrats cheat in everything. They justify it in their own minds by claiming the virtue high ground. It’s the Diedrich Bonhoeffer rationale: it isn’t sin to kill Hitler.
Every single thing Democrats do has this “moral” equivocation. It’s why I despise them.
Oh, for Obama's sake! Everyone in legacy media works for the Democrats! Are they going to punish this poor guy just because he neglected to mention that he sometimes got paid to work for the Democrats?
Mr M has been a common hypocrite for many years.
The swamp gets back to normal! Thank God these people don't have to suffer anymore!
Masks are Mandated not BLINDERS.
They called John Tyler “His Accidency” after he became the first Vice President to take office upon the death of a President. People are proposing we call Creepy Joe Biden “His Fraudulency.” It fits.
Joe the Grifter is incapable of rebuilding anything.
How silly that he has appointed a second Covid commission like we need more “science” to confuse things. Dozens of non-scientific websites have posted the steps that need to be taken to deal with Covid, but from a Democrat perspective following them would not have caused enough suffering.
My son in Africa just sent a text: “Wow. Who would have guessed that they would come up with a vaccine in the last few days?” Obvious sarcasm. But even if “they” had come up with a vaccine before the election, the information would have been suppressed.
The real problem with a President Trump was prosperity. Prosperity is not in the cards for Democrats and their consorts. Just stay tuned.
BM: no one will talk about SloJoe once Kamela is Madam President
The country will always have reformist or progressive movements that appeal to the "Soul of America," but are all the moral scourging and moralizing self-satisfaction we are seeing now worth as much as the achievement of bringing Americans back into the productive workforce?
The soul talk can be a way of avoiding difficult questions and asserting one's own right to rule. It gives us a Manichean politics of good and evil. It means picking at a lot of the nation's sores, but knowing that the real evil and real sins are with those on the other side. One's own sins are washed away by one's support of the good cause.
Real world reforms and improvements are worth much more than "Soul of America" talk, but don't provide elites and liberals with the moral mandate that they want to have in order to rule over the rest of the country.
on that commission is dr. death panel, emmanuel, bright the one who got the vaccine contract from the gates foundation, murthy who corrupted the cdc, out of epidemic tracking, david satcher et al
Does it need to be said that the media is simply one arm of the Democrat Party? Are there honest people who still don't get that? If so, what will it take to have the scales fall from their eyes?
By the way, Biden -- if he is actually be inaugurated -- should expect no honeymoon, feelings of unity or anything else from me. Not after what the Dems did for the last four years. At this point Red and Blue occupy the same continental landmass. We are no longer one people. Maybe we will be again, some day. That day will not come, however, as long as the media/entertainment complex is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrats.
If the Progs represent 'Our Better Angels' I'd sure as hell hate to see our Worse Demons. Demons, BTW, are actually angels who broke bad.
Mr. Biden’s reliance on a historian stands in contrast with President Trump’s lack of interest in the past....
It is a prerequisite for lefty twits to assume that their opponents know nothing and care about nothing but themselves.
On the other hand, the lefty twits know everything, most of which is blatantly untrue.
That reflects the sad state of university education where overachieving morons are taught that they have true enlightenment because they faithfully repeat back claptrap they learn from their professors. Independent analytic reasoning is a threat to that system.
If I ever won a Pulitzer I would use it to wipe my ass.
That's about all it's worth these days...
While scanning for the Remini bio of Jackson on Amazon, I discovered that HW Brands has a biography. Brands is a hard lefty at a college in Texas. If you want the lefty version, he is reliable. Before I knew his politics, I read his biography of Roosevelt, "A Traitor to his Class," and the first half was pretty good. Then we got to his presidency and the sycophant appeared. Conrad Black has a much more even handed bio of Roosevelt. A little too even handed for me.
Scott Adams today, this is the first election when democrat election fraudsters knew for certain that the press would cover it up.
Mark Steyn today, Trump's law firm for the fraud challenge is leaking to the NYT. ( out of 10 people surrounding Trump in his job are against him.
Michael K@8:36AM/
Try also Historian Stephen E Ambrose in his work TO AMERICA: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS OF AN HISTORIAN on his comments about Jackson and the profound significance of his victory at the Battle of New Orleans for the future of our Republic as a transcontinental power.
"Pretty bad, no doubt, but it's better to be fired for conflict of interest behavior than to be seen pulling one's pud on an active Zoom session."
Agreed, but is that the standard for the msm going forward? If so, I'm sure they'll be happy with that for the time being.
The Mt Rushmore speech should put paid to the idea that Trump doesn't care about the past. Biden's the one who wants to put the cure of "systemic racism" - an ahistorical concept if there ever was one- at the center of his administration.
I note that Biden's list of Covid(close to solved by Trump's efforts), systemic racism(imaginary), climate change(largely imaginary and largely not under our control), health care(solvable by market solutions he won't abide) and "decency, democracy and a fair shot" (entirely imaginary) are not our actual serious problems. Our actual problems are a broken primary and secondary education system, the incompetent and freedom hating state of our humanities education, crumbling city infrastructures, rising city crime, Islamist and Chinese aggression aren't even on his radar.
Good for MSNBC, I say.
The NYT hired two compromised reporters in recent years. One had coordinated his coverage of the HRC campaign with the campaign itself. The other had an affair with a married Senate staffer who worked for a major committee that was part of her beat.
This sort of thing used to get people fired, but the paper went ahead and hired them, knowing full well what they had done.
Even if you don't like MSNBC's take on the world, you have to give it credit for adhering to ethical standards.
"It is a prerequisite for lefty twits to assume that their opponents know nothing and care about nothing but themselves."
But, in Trump's case, it's really true: he knows nothing and cares about nothing but himself.
Meacham's deceit is bigly proof that Dems are very willing to cheat to get what they want.
But, in Trump's case, it's really true: he knows nothing and cares about nothing but himself.
Any day now Cook is going to explain how he made his first billion and he is working as a dishwasher as a hobby.
I've read a bunch of Ambrose but not that. He got into some hot water about plagiarism. Sort of appropriate with the new president elected by the NY Times.
Michael K@ 2:22PM/
Whole thrust of his argument was that if we had lost the Battle of New Orleans the Treaty of Gent signed a few days previous ending the War of 1812 wouldn't have been worth the paper it was written on. Thus no Andrew Jackson, no US of America as a transcontinental power i.e, the history of the whole world as we know it going forward might have taken a far, far different turn.
Ambrose was a fascinating lecturer and was teaching at LSU while I was an undergrad before he left for UNO down river. I remember him forcefully making just this very point as I sat in his American History class my jr year in '65.
About the charges of plagiarism? IIRC they were picky, picky, picky as cherry-picked facts were vastly overblown by lefty historians stung by the far greater plagersm sins of lefty Doirs Kerns Goodwin.
Academy, historians, and the Publishers are almost all Left-wing. And that's been the case for a long time. The difference is that today, they are less interested in history and more in ideology. Plus many of them, like Douglas Brinkley, Dallek, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Meacham, and some others are dull mediocrities. Historians of the past were able to keep their biases on a low boil, and write well.
Ambrose, for example, was a liberal and a little bit of a fraud, but he could write about Ike or Nixon, with some degree of objectivity. morrison was a complete liberal hack and FDR worshipper in real life, but wrote an amazing history of the US Navy in ww2. David McCallough, has done good work, even though he would commit suicide rather than vote for a Republican.
Side note: Meacham wrote an authorized biography of Bush-I, which tells you where Bush and "Barb" were coming from, if their votes for Hillary didn't tell you.
As for Andrew jackson. its amusing that Mr. Liberal Arthur Schlesinger, Mr. JFK/RFK/Ted Kennedy fan boy, wrote an admiring biography of Andrew Jackson. Before WW II, the leftist saw the South as their natural allies in the war against the Republican Northern Bourgeoise. So you get a slew of pro-Southern books from historians praising Robert E. Lee, Jefferson, Wilson, Washington, andy Jackson. Even Jeff davis got a highly praised biography.
Of course, WW II, the liberal/left decided they didn't need the South anymore, so the history turned to Reconstruction and what a bunch of horrible racists they were.
"About the charges of plagiarism? IIRC they were picky, picky, picky as cherry-picked facts were vastly overblown by lefty historians stung by the far greater plagersm sins of lefty Doirs Kerns Goodwin."
IRC, the worst charge against Ambrose was that he based facts in his Eisenhower biography on his personal interviews with Ike. Except, someone looked into it, and found those interviews never took place. Or at least, there was no record of them.
HW Brands is probably a liberal Democrat, like everybody else in academia, but I never thought of him as hard left. Maybe he is for Texas, but not for academia. His book The Strange Death of American Liberalism is worth a look, and not something a real leftist could have written.
Looking back to historians a half-century back, there was a canon of great Americans that was accepted wholeheartedly or with reservations. Historians weren't going to bring up the darker side of national heroes. They're a lot more inclined to do that now. Naturally that goes for the left and for liberals, but conservatives also take a harder look at Wilson and the Roosevelts.
"Historians weren't going to bring up the darker side of national heroes."
If you read the new Historians, they aren't "brave little truth tellers" who are FINALLY telling us what Jackson, Washington, Lee, etc. were like. This new historians are mostly just SJW's harping on how men of the past were raciss bigots homophobes for not behaving like 21st century leftists. So-and-so didn't believe in Gay rights! That President didn't believe woman should vote! And worst of all, President x was a...white supremist. Gasp!
These same "new" historians write the same ol' worshipful biographies of FDR (except for Japanese Internment), Lincoln, Truman, JFK, etc. The only one who's really dropped in the Liberal history pantheon is Wilson. Poor Ol' Woody. Beloved for 70 years by the globalists and Liberals for getting us into WW1, pushing the league of nations, and appointing the first Jew to the SCOTUS... Now hated for being a Southern Bigot and a TYPICAL WHITE MAN. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
RE: "Bringing the country back together"...
If Trump manages to win the current conflict, I look forward to spending about 2 days responding to liberal rage and tears with "Oh wait now, now is the time for healing. Now is the time to come together, and end all this divisive rhetoric. Come now, unite behind our duly elected President, it's the civilized thing to do."
Two days of enjoying that should be enough. After that, I intend to be one of the loudest proponents in the country for mass arrests. And more than a couple of executions.
Blogger Lurker21 said...
HW Brands is probably a liberal Democrat, like everybody else in academia, but I never thought of him as hard left.
Read "A Traitor to his Class." The first half is pretty good, about sleeping with Missy LeHand, etc. When you get to 1932, Brands goes sort of goofy. Something like Schlesinger Sr.
About the charges of plagiarism? IIRC they were picky, picky, picky as cherry-picked facts were vastly overblown by lefty historians stung by the far greater plagersm sins of lefty Doirs Kerns Goodwin.
Or the tongue bath she gave Johnson. Caro began as a lefty, wanting to like Johnson. It's interesting to watch him learn the truth and change. I just hope he lives long enough to finish Volume 5.
Amen to that, Michael K.
Ann Althouse said:
"Presidential historian Jon Meacham was speechwriting for Joe Biden and (apparently) did not disclose it to MSNBC. And MSNBC has cut him off as a paid contributor, according to Fox News."
A couple of things with this story. First, Meacham is such slag. On TV, praising your own speech delivered by a guy who can't put together three words without butchering two, and getting p-a-i-d to do it, is just...what a schmuck. No credibility now. Second, speaking of credibility, how does room-temperature IQ Brian Williams feel? He thought he was hearing grand things from Creepy, Decrepit Joe, and thought he would get a dig in at Trump; he was merely a pawn in Meacham's game. You can't make this stuff up.
Is Meacham the wordsmith who gave us "trunalimunumaprzure"?
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