Conversations! Glorious conversations! What more can you ask for?
Tribune Content Agency — June 9, 2016
The other day, former CBS News darling Katie Couric was speaking at an event organized by something called “TheWrap.” Specifically, at its “Power Women Breakfast” in New York. (That is exactly the kind of event I’d expect Couric to be at, and I don’t even know what it is.)
She was asked about the scandal swirling around her anti-gun-documentary — specifically, the fact that she deceptively edited a gun rights group’s response to a question to make the members seem like dangerous idiots.
I wrote about all that in a recent column, so there’s no need to repeat myself beyond noting that Couric and her producer are guilty of outright deception. But I thought her response was amusingly revealing.
“I can understand the objection of people who did have an issue about it,” Couric said. (The “it” here is the deliberate falsifying of the truth). “Having said that, I think we have to focus on the big issue of gun violence. It was my hope that, when I approached this topic, that this would be a conversation starter.”
Well, OK then.
After all, who denies that starting conversations — or, as they often call them in academia, “dialogues” — is the highest aspiration there is?
For instance, a Central Michigan University professor claimed last year that she was punched in the face at a Toby Keith concert for being a lesbian. She later admitted that she actually punched herself, but said it was worth it because she wanted to start a dialogue.
As the Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow recently chronicled, this sort of thing is common on college campuses. Students and professors initiate or exacerbate a hate-crime hoax or a false rape accusation. The orchestrators are perfectly happy to pretend the fraud is real and demonize anyone who casts doubt on the claims.
Then, when the facts come to light, instead of apologies we’re saturated with a fog of pomposity and self-justification: We were just trying to start a conversation. Raising awareness of the larger issue is more important than the mere facts.
Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Goldberg, author of best-seller “Liberal Fascism,” has quickly become the country’s prominent voice for a new generation of conservatives. You can write to him by e-mail at goldbergcolumn@gmail.com, or via Twitter @JonahNRO.
