How Dare You?

Try To Ruin a Good Story by Requiring Facts

The Atlantic” ( shortened from The Atlantic Monthly) masquerades as a news source. Yeah, no. Wikipedia, the lazy man’s reference, describes it this way: The Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural commentary magazine that published leading writers’ commentary on the abolition of slavery, education, and other major issues in contemporary political affairs. I guess that makes it an appropriate forum for Derecka Purnell a Harvard educated attorney and activist.

Purnell wrote an article called  “How I Became a Police Abolitionist.”. In it she describes a police shooting she witnessed as a little girl. Accolades all around: “beautifully written piece, Derecka is the future.” As a work of fiction, the commentators might be right.

As an accurate portrayal of an actual event, it is problematic. Christopher Bedford of “The Federalist Blog” tried to retrace Purnell’s steps. The events described by her never happened.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/16/im-at-a-loss-for-words-the-unraveling-narrative-behind-the-atlantics-defund-the-police-shooting-tale/

“The Atlantic” is devoted to opinion and commentary. As such, the magazine feels entitled to ignore the advice of the liberal icon, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

 Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Or to paraphrase a line from the Treasure of the Sierra Madre: “Facts? We don’t need no stinkin facts!”

The question becomes if Purnell’s literary effort was an expose, then she is a fraud and a liar. If it is a work of fiction, then it may deserve the accolades. She could be up there, right next to Dorothy, from the Wizard of OZ, traipsing down her very own yellow brick road.

Course, like Dan Rather has said. Okay, so the facts are all wrong. Bush didn’t do what we said he did. Never-the-less the story had the ring of truth. Never forget that the primary mission of journalism is to sell tampons and toilet paper.