More On B.S.

Bob Somerby continues on his detour from "speaking truth to power" (the Millionaire Pundit Class) in order to speak truth to the e-mail correspondents and commenters of progressive blogs. This time, Somerby joins in battle a commenter at Eschaton who suspected Richard Cohen of laughing at Don Imus's '96 address to the Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner. Somerby accesses Lexis/Nexis and retrieves a "real time" column in which Cohen labeled as "boorish behavior" Imus's insinuations of infidelity in the presence of President and Mrs. Clinton. (Although, from the excerpt quoted by Somerby, it seems Cohen's prime beef against Imus was the latter's references to fornication, urination and menstruation on a radio program accessible by the children.)

I'm in complete agreement with Somerby that Cohen didn't find Imus's performance funny. But I'd venture a guess that the real reason for Cohen's displeasure was this particular quip:

"By the way, and this is really awful, if you're Peter Jennings and you're telling more Americans than anyone else what's going on in the world, shouldn't you at least have had a clue that your wife was over at Richard Cohen's house? (laughter, groans, boos) She wasn't at my house!"

Granted, King of Comedy Cohen wasn't exactly the butt of that zinger, but he probably didn't appreciate Imus drawing attention to that allegation before a ballroom full of his neighbors and a national cable audience.

Oh, and more than four months after the dinner isn't a "real time" response; it's a "hopefully, with the passage of time, most people will have forgotten that adultery crack about me and therefore no one will repeat it" response.

Far be it from me to tell anyone how to run his website, but sober reflection might help Bob to recognize that blog comments aren't biggest threat to civilization at this moment, and reassess his priorities accordingly.