Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Another elitist snob professor shoots his mouth off

University of Iowa journalism professor, Stephen Bloom, has been in the state of Iowa for awhile and doesn't really care for us:
"Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly waiting to die, those too timid (or lacking in educated [sic]) to peer around the bend for better opportunities, an assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth, or those who quixotically believe, like Little Orphan Annie, that "The sun'll come out tomorrow."

How 'schizophrenic' Iowans should respond to Atlantic Monthly article
I'm trying to figure out where I fit in with his descriptions of citizens. I'm not quite in the elderly category yet, so I guess I'm not ready to die, I have a job so I would assume that doesn't make me a "waste-toid." I'm not a meth addict, although I am of the caucasian persuasion and do visit my dentist regularly. As any of my regular readers would agree that I'm not an optimist, so I guess he would assign me as either timid (if we ever meet face-to-face, that would fall apart) or lack in "educated" (okay, I don't have a fancy-assed college advanced degree like perfesser Bloom.)

I'm not an educated boob like he is. Well, I'm damn proud of that.

Apparently he's okay with sucking off of taxpayer's teats while drawing a salary at Iowa. After being here since 1993, you would think he might actually learn something about the state before writing an Atlantic article, Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life

Living in the insulated Socialist Republic of Johnson County, he made the observation:
"When Obama spoke of those clinging to guns and religion, he was talking about the Iowa hamlets that will shape the contours of the GOP contest."
Great, condescending tripe from an overpaid university professor. (After almost 20 years, you think he would be more than just a professor?)

While throwing out a few facts, he would get a D in geography:
On the state's eastern edge lies the Mississippi River, dotted with towns with splendid names like Keokuk, Toolesboro, Fruitland, Muscatine, Montpelier, Buffalo, Sabula, Davenport, Dubuque, and Guttenberg. Each once was a booming city on the swollen banks of the river that long ago opened the middle of America to expansion, civilization, abundance, and prosperity.
Fruitland is south of Muscatine on the bottom ground about 3 miles from the Mississippi River and Toolsboro is on the bluff overlooking the Iowa River. I ought to know, I grew up around there.
“Good journalism isn’t just reporting,” Bloom said. “It’s making observations, making sense out of the world — even if readers might not agree with those observations.”
Maybe if Bloom had made some accurate observations, maybe he'd actually understand us natives. But I doubt that the New York transplant is capable of getting beyond his stereotypes even after being here almost two decades.

If he doesn't like us, I know that the bridges over the Mississippi also have an east-bound lane.

1 comment:

Jim said...

Well said.

When Bloom says it's a reporter's job to "make sense out of the world" he is confusing journalism with polemics.

Both have a respectable place in the national debate, but when foggy heads like his mix them up, you get Rachael Maddow and Bill O'Reilley obliterating the distinction between what happened and what they think should have happened.