Vanity Fair

So the latest issue of Vanity Fair arrived at my house (not my subscription) last week and a brief look at its contents reveals that editor Graydon Carter's acute case of Bush Derangement Syndrome has taken an apparent turn for the worse. His editor's latter is basically one long screed about the Bush Administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Now, to take President Bush to task for the manner in which he dealt with Katrina is one thing, but some of his ramblings border on the bizarre.

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In the entire article the words "Nagin" or "Blanco" do not appear. Every criticism he makes under the heading of "Do The Wrong Thing" is one of style, not substance -- read it yourself. Who knows, perhaps for a guy like Carter style is substance.

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Then there's this:

The cleanup, true to form, will result in little sacrifice for the administration's wealthy backers. The president stressed over and over again that the $200 billion intended for the region would be accomplished without a tax increase. This is basically Bush-administration code for: We are going to take money from one group of disadvantaged Americans and give it to another group of disadvantaged Americans.

Wow, he must be pretty innocent if he actually believes that every single dollar spent by the federal government goes to disadvantaged Americans. Who knows, maybe Demcorats actually believe this myth. This also highlights another Democratic precept: the only acceptable form of deficit reduction is increased taxation -- spending is not the problem.

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The real kicker, however, is not the editor's letter, but the actual contents of the magazine that one would think had to pass muster with Mr. Carter. Namely this story:

176 FLOODING THE SPIN ZONE Analyzing the passionate media reaction to Hurricane Katrina (starting with Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, and Shepard Smith), James Wolcott contrasts that blast of candor with the usual spin. Could this be the comeback of real journalism?

Is this some kind of joke? The performance of the media was an absolute disgrace. Well, at least Anderson Cooper got a cool $1 million book deal out of it. As for the comeback of "real journalism," ahem.