“Journalism on Trial:” my letter to New York Times Book Review
May 21, 2011
The New York Times Book Review will publish on Sunday my letter about Janet Malcolm’s many long-ago falsifications about the reporting I did while working on Fatal Vision. I point out that my rebuttal to Malcolm has lingered in obscurity for twenty-two years, but can now be found here.
I believe it speaks for itself.
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Tags: 23 Responses to ““Journalism on Trial:” my letter to New York Times Book Review”
CONNECT
Is she still alive? Sorry if I missed that. It’s good you responded finally. I can imagine how much went into that book.
‘ve read Fatal Vision and your Rebuttal. Your research, into writing the book was, thoroughly researched and credible. After twenty-two years, hopefully, this can be put to rest.
I’ve
Your Rebuttal to Malcolm exposes a lot about who you are…
And I like it !
OMG Joe. I had no idea.
And now you’ve immersed yourself in the crazy insanity of Palinworld.
And I thought I was tired and stressed out.
Thank you for your journalistic (is that a word?) integrity. And peace and calm to you as you continue on your journey of, please, please, please, exposing Mrs. Palin in all of her true colors.
Debby
Good! You found out the truth about MacDonald, and Malcolm obviously didn’t like it. Isn’t the truth far more important than “loyalty” to someone who can’t tell the truth?. I see that she was also critical of your quoting of Lasch at length. I’m a huge fan of Christopher Lasch and as a “feminist” my outlook was changed by his work. I still have my copy of “The Culture of Narcissim”, dog-eared and well-read, too. If anyone really understands Lasch, you can see that he predicted someone like Sarah Palin, among others in modern politics, and the explosion of narcissism, fueled by consumption, especially in the last 30 years. We have become an insecure species who throw out our ability to think in the process of obtaining wealth and things
Andy Borowitz comments on modern communication: .http://www.borowitzreport.com/
How interesting. Janet Malcolm wrote the ridiculous “review” of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” that appeared a couple of months ago in the “New York Review of Books.” It showed that she knew absolutely nothing about Sarah Palin’s history – no research done there – just fawning admiration for this woman who showed how much she cared about her young child’s disability. It just reinforced my opinion that the so-called liberal and educated have been completely taken in by Mrs. Palin – they must think she really goes to her window and shoots grizzly bears before breakfast.
I’ve been disappointed by other articles referencing Sarah Palin in “The New Yorker,” “The New York Review of Books,” and the “New York Times.” Funny, you would think that writers from Manhattan would be able to see through someone like Sarah Palin.
I think Ms. Malcolm has never heard of the old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Of course, you were friendly to Mr. MacDonald. If you were hostile, you would not have gotten much information. This seems to be a problem in the media today. They develop cozy relationships with their subject matters and then consider it disloyal to report any critical information. They (the media) lose sight of what their actual job is suppose to be and that is to report all the facts wherever those facts may lead.
You’re a very patient man Joe. I was livid when i read some of the things she wrote. And I found her comments to be strange…..almost bizarre. Did she sleep with him?? Because she wrote as if she did or at the very least, had a sizeable crush on him. Her view of jeffrey macdonald creeped me out and her attacks on you (unjustified and unsupported) reflected more about her then anyone else. Glad you’re gettting your well deserved moment to address this – it’s been a long time coming….
Talk about perseverance! It’s great that her falsifications are finally coming to light.
I’ve always been a little surprised to see Janet Malcolm’s name attached to a book review in NYT, since she’s been forever suspect in my mind. Thanks for your comments.
Decided to read Emily Bazelon’s review of Malcom’s latest book (which appears to be the catalyst for reopening the the controversy).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/books/review/book-review-iphigenia-in-forest-hills-by-janet-malcolm.html?ref=review
I think this is the money quote in that review and proves your point:
“Malcolm never resolves this dualism in her book, which appeared in a shorter form in The New Yorker last spring. Nor does she offer a close-up portrait of Boru khova, who did not agree to an interview. In “The Journalist and the Murderer,” Malcolm pointed out that you can’t betray a subject you barely know; the disadvantage, of course, is that even as Borukhova is convicted and sentenced to life, she remains an enigma.”
I thought I had read that book when it came out. I just reordered from Amazon. In light of what we know about Palin and sociopaths/psychopaths/Narcissists I want to read it again.
Can’t wait for your book Joe…!
They are trying too hard to be deferential to the Middle American tastes, not seem like latte drinking elitists, embrace the Frontier Woman shtick so they don’t seem dimissive of those who “cling to their guns and religion.
And some think it’s cool to seem “counter-culture” and they think they will get noticed for having an alternate opinion.
What does it take to be taken in by a narcissist, by a sociopath? Apparently, in Ms. Malcolm’s case, you just have to be her.
“Faith is of the heart, not of the head. When the heart is ungoverned by reason, charlatans have powerful tools to perceive.” [Sister Justine, Denerim Chantry, DAO]
Joe, not sure how you do it, but with your new book, Rogue, you will have shined the light on two of the biggest con-people in recent history. I wish we could clone you!
It’s so convenient for sociopaths that there are enablers out there, isn’t it? And in the press, no less! Super convenient. I’ve been gobsmacked for 2+ years that Sarah Palin has been treated with kid gloves by the mainstream press. I’m completely amazed to find that a journalist came to the defense of a convicted murderer who slaughtered his wife, daughters and unborn child. Was Janet Malcolm the inspiration for the phrase “liberal weenie”? Good Lord.
I read Fatal Vision decades ago and found it compelling. Now that I read Mr. McGinniss’s letter, I see the parallels between the personalities of his subjects then and now. I suggest this as the final chapter of The Rogue.
Course there’s Jeffrey Masson too, who’s had to devote a lot of time to Ms. Malcolm.
Yes, as a result of Malcolm wronging both of us, Jeffrey Masson and I became friends. We spent a bit of time commiserating before moving on to conversation about more interesting topics.
–Joe
For anyone who has had the disastrous, and nearly ruinous, misfortune of having a psychopath or sociopath charm their way into their life, these words are the absolute truth:
Quoting from Joe’s masterpiece 1989 rebuttal letter linked above…
Recall here the words of Herve Cleckley, which I encountered for the first time in the fall of 1980: “Only very slowly and by a complex estimation or judgment based on multitudinous small impressions does the conviction come upon us [in regard to the psychopath] that, despite these intact rational processes, these normal emotional affirmations and their consistent application in all directions, we are dealing … not with a complete man at all but with something that suggests a subtly constructed reflex machine which can mimic the human personality perfectly.”
These words clearly put into perspective what happened to those 10 years of my life with such a disarmingly talented creature. The parallels to Sarah Palin are uncanny, as the “bots” may soon discover. Thank you Joe.
“Middle American tastes”!?
I could barely get through the issue I’m currently reading, with an article creaming over some worthless fashion creep and his $6000 handbags. You think you’re reading satire, but no… !
This is presented without apparent irony:
“Krakoff’s town house, on the Upper East Side, is not what you might expect from a neophyte designer. To begin with, it is eighteen thousand square feet, made up of what were once twelve apartments. There is no detail that has not been conspicuously perfected. When you enter the living room, you are confronted with an Alexander Calder mobile floating above the mantelpiece, a massive black Louise Nevelson sculpture along one wall, a bronze Jean Arp parked on an end table, and, underfoot, two-hundred-year-old floorboards from France. The ground-floor bathroom is covered entirely in golden snakeskin and contains a spheroid toilet more stunning than anything the vast majority of die population will ever own. In the drawing room, under an amber pendant lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Simon Doonan, the creative ambassador of Barneys, asked Ingrid Sischy and her partner, Sandy Brant, who are editors for Vanity Fair international editions, what their responsibii- ties were as the godmothers of Elton John’s new baby. (They are curating the infant’s library.)”
Bathroom floor of “golden snakeskin”!?!?
On second thought, that probably is “Middle American taste”…
I’m not going to renew my subscription.
Joe,
I always wanted to read your book “Fatal Vision” and never got around to it. I finally got it Friday for my Kindle. The audible book was my choice and I’m thinking the book read would have been more. Should I get the full read? Maybe I just didn’t want the story to end. Excellent work!
Your style of writing is great and I look forward to “The Rogue” in Sept. and will definitely get the book for my Kindle.
Living right there with your subject is amazing dedication and the best way to search out the truth.
I live on the North Shore of Boston and hope to meet you at a book signing.
Thanks for being here with your blog.
Jeanabella
“This nonsense has got to stop, one cannot betray a nonhuman human who is trying to play the interviewer — McGinniss, Malcolm & Bazelon”, http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/this-nonsense-has-got-to-stop-one-cannot-betray-a-nonhuman-human-who-is-trying-to-play-the-interviewer-mcginniss-malcolm-bazelon/