JONAH GOLDBERG’S ADAM KEIPER DEFENSE OF CAPITALISM MAY 7, 2018 $5.99 Bernstein at 100 The Promise and Failure of American Classical Music BY JOSEPH HOROWITZ WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents May 7, 2018 • Volume 23, Number 33 2 The Scrapbook Fake news about fake news, beautiful Washingtonians, & more 5 Casual Priscilla M. Jensen, at the fair 6 Editorials A War to Be Won • Kanye West, Freedom Fighter 9 Comment First the victory, then the celebration BY STEPHEN F. HAYES Of the making of political memoirs there is no end BY PHILIP TERZIAN Our self-obsessed, parochial press corps BY KELLY JANE TORRANCE 2 Radio Free America BY ETHAN EPSTEIN Patrick Buchanan’s strange new respect for the ayatollah BY CHARLES J. SYKES Articles 17 McConnell Looks on the Bright Side BY FRED BARNES The Senate majority leader is not depressed 18 The Parallel Universe of the New York Times BY P. J. O’ROURKE Not the best use of a Sunday 20 Damn, Busted BY TED R. BROMUND Britain’s military should be growing—it’s not 6 21 Rotten Labour BY DOMINIC GREEN Jeremy Corbyn’s Jewish problem 23 To Clap or Not to Clap BY STEPHEN MILLER The politics of applause Features 25 A Wunderkind at 100 BY JOSEPH HOROWITZ Leonard Bernstein and the fate of ‘American classical music’ 33 Budget Blunders BY JAMES C. CAPREttA The problem is entitlement spending, not appropriations Books & Arts 37 Gratitude and Perpetuation BY ADAM KEIPER Jonah Goldberg’s big, baggy defense of capitalism 17 40 Evidence for Optimism BY PHILIP DELVES BROUGHtoN You’ve got to admit it’s getting better 42 Sublime Math BY DAVID GUASPARI Genius, discovery, and elegance 43 Feathers and Fancy BY DANNY HEITMAN A charming Renaissance collection of birdlore and beauty 45 Sound, Sense, and Self BY CHRIStopHER J. SCALIA The challenges of teaching poetry 47 Godard Exposed BY JOHN PODHORETZ Biopic bites French cinema darling 37 48 Parody How many facts can a fact-checker check? COVER: CBS / GETTY THE SCRAPBOOK Fake News About Fake News ournalists in the mainstream One small problem: The J media often sound as though pensions-for-families-of- they have no idea why anybody terrorists story is 100 per- would entertain skepticism cent true. about the news media. The It took real talent to write term “media bias” is, to them, a story about fake news in a ruse. Complaints about “fake which easily verifiable facts news” are evidence of stupidity are termed “far-right con- or delusion. spiracy programming,” but That attitude is, of course, the the Times managed to do it. surest way to give those com- To its credit, the newspaper plaints credibility. issued a straightforward cor- It used to be that journalists used to be termed “fake news” until rection: “An earlier version of this ar- would tell you the news, not make it, Donald Trump applied the term to ticle erroneously included a reference and certainly not demonstrate it for mainstream news outlets generally. to Palestinian actions as an example of you. This week we entered the exhibi- Brown, we learn from the Times, the sort of far-right conspiracy stories tion phase of the New York Times’s fake wants to start Facebook-specific news that have plagued Facebook. In fact, news division. Consider an item in the shows featuring mainstream news an- Palestinian officials have acknowl- technology section of the paper’s Sun- chors. “Once those shows get started,” edged providing payments to the fami- day, April 22 edition. Bowles explains, “Ms. Brown wants to lies of Palestinians killed while carry- The piece, by tech reporter Nel- use Facebook’s existing Watch prod- ing out attacks on Israelis or convicted lie Bowles and headlined “Emergent uct—a service introduced in 2017 as a of terrorist acts and imprisoned in Is- Force at Facebook,” profiles Face- premium product with more curation rael; that is not a conspiracy theory.” book’s director of news partnerships, that has nonetheless been flooded with We seem to remember the Times the sometime news anchor Campbell far-right conspiracy programming like running a full-page ad heralding its Brown. It’s Brown’s chief responsibil- ‘Palestinians Pay $400 Million Pen- own commitment to truth. “The ity, we learn, to identify and suppress sions for Terrorist Families’—to be a truth,” announced the ad, “is more deliberately misleading stories—what breaking news destination.” important now than ever.” Indeed. ♦ According to the tributes. Unlike the A Beautiful Bye-Bye Washingtonian, each more rigorous Miss t wasn’t with shock but with relief year staffers at the America or Miss Uni- I that THE SCRAPBOOK greeted the The Hill chose from verse pageants, there news that a Washington tradition is among “hundreds was no talent compo- coming to an end: “After nearly 15 upon hundreds of nent to the competi- years, The Hill is bidding a beautiful D.C. hopefuls,” includ- tion, which is why the bye-bye to its annual 50 Most Beauti- ing appealing Capitol winners rarely came ful list.” Hill staffers, comely across as introspective. Described by its creators as “an ex- K Street lobbyists, and Hunter King, a Capitol traordinarily popular summertime photogenic members Hill staffer who made tradition in Washington” (really?), the of the press corps and the list in 2017, made list was a yearly effort to highlight the White House staff. Nah, not really. sure to mention that handsome and bewitching faces of a Most years featured a he “doesn’t rely on hair town commonly known as “Hollywood few courtesy wins: President Obama gels or sprays” for his unique look and for ugly people.” But with rich and made the list in 2005 when he was a said, “My co-workers say I’m one of a powerful men across the nation being senator, and both Melania and Ivanka kind. Like a fountain, not a drain.” revealed as wanton sexual aggressors, Trump earned spots on the list last year. Charming. it was no longer thought appropri- The capital’s version of the beauty Such preening is perhaps why the ate to celebrate the Swamp’s lovelier pageant was about as stupid and vacu- death of the list, which the Washing- creatures. “We felt the list had run its ous as one might imagine when dis- ton City Paper once called D.C.’s best course,” one list editor explained. closing its winners’ nonphysical at- “hate read,” sparked a few impromptu BERNIE: NICK SOLARI IMAGES: TWS ART. 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD MAY 7, 2018 Twitter obituaries by journalists. Po- litico reporter Elana Schor tweeted, “Genuinely sad about this. The come- dic opportunities were always gold.” But the most poignant response to the news came from Sen. Orrin Hatch, who no doubt spoke for many Wash- ington wallflowers when he tweeted: “You wake up every day to comb your hair and pick out the brightest shirt/ tie combo with your strongest pin- stripe suit thinking this is going to be the year . then this happens.” ♦ Take the Girl, Leave the Bull eaders may remember Fearless R Girl, the 50-inch-tall bronze statue of an intrepid young girl, placed in front of the famous Charg- ing Bull sculpture in Lower Manhat- tan. The girl, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced, will be moved to a new location nearby—in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The reason cited for the move is safety. Too many pedestrians are skip- ping across busy Broadway to have pictures taken with the girl. The bull may in time be removed to the Stock Exchange location as well, which is incidentally where its sculptor, Arturo Di Modica, originally deposited his work under cover of night in 1989. Di Modica has never been happy with the girl bravely facing his bull. He points out, with some justifica- tion in our view, that what is sup- in a position to stand up to the bull to the bull,” are we not guilty of some posed to be a symbol of optimism has and what it stands for,” the mayor’s form of retrograde patriarchalism? Has been turned into a savage beast on the press secretary told the New York Times. she no meaning apart from the bull? verge of mauling a child. His attorney “That’s why we’re aiming to keep them What happy times these must be, is demanding that the city leave the together. The bull has also always been when the political leaders of our bull where it is: “The a traffic and safety issue greatest city have the time and re- message to Mayor de the city’s hemmed and sources to quarrel over such abstruse Blasio is that you have hawed over. The moves questions, and fancy themselves no right to unilater- achieve a few goals.” postmodern art critics. ♦ ally move the bull,” he So we want the girl said. “They don’t own to “stand up to the bull The Barry Legacy the statue.” and what it stands for”? De Blasio’s office, Remind us—what sort Lives On however, wants the girl of things does the bull ost Americans can name only to continue facing the stand for that must be Mone local politician from Wash- beast. “The mayor felt stood up to? And by ington, D.C., and that happens to be it was important that forcing the girl to “be the city’s “mayor for life” Marion DON EMMERT / AFP GETTY the ‘Fearless Girl’ be ‘Fearless Girl’—yawn. in a position to stand up Barry, famously busted in 1990 for MAY 7, 2018 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 smoking crack in an FBI tour and spent the rest of sting operation (“bitch the time out on the side- set me up!”).