The Wave of Pundit Disavowals

“[F]or many, many years, one side of the American political spectrum — the Conservative side — was allowed to get away with actively cultivating and rewarding paranoia and rage and racism and contempt for facts because it won them votes and it was good for ratings. But of all of those who profited personally, politically and professionally from debasing our media and corroding our politics, the worst of them were those who knew better... like Mr. David Brooks, who made a whole career out of building a monster, and then frantically scuttled away and blamed everyone but themselves when the monster they made kicked the laboratory door off its hinges and then ran amok, nearly destroying the country.” (Crooks and Liars)

So many the abettors
    Who let their country down,
Pundits and men of letters
    Who cannot now disown
Their actions which preceded
    Some bad turn of events,
When courage had been needed— 
    Renounced to gain some cents.

So many were the pundits
    Upon the sinecure,
Safeguarding each his fund, it’s
    A motive hardly pure,
Yet hardly an uncommon
    Occurrence: money flows,
And many a man and woman
    Beside that stream kowtows.

The raconteurs, and writers,
    Who learn to twist the truth,
Obscurantist benighters,
    Make virtue seem uncouth,
Orators, wordsmiths stitching
    Some false equivalence
To hide the bait-and-switching
    Whereby profits commence.

In every age or season
    You have your Brooks or Wills,
Who—stopping shy of treason— 
    Endorse what conscience kills,
And having lost their conscience
    The consequence but rears
Itself upon its haunches
    When it’s too late for tears.

Dissembling is not always
    A helpful skill to have,
Nor ambling in the hallways
    Of power enough to save
Integrity discarded— 
    You have your Wills and Brooks,
But words which they have larded
    Leave paltry fare for books.