A little over half-a-dozen years ago, when I was working for the company run by the fellow who played himself in the grandfather of all terrorism-by-blimp movies, there was a woman who worked down the hall from me named Maryscott. I don’t know what exactly she did, but we chatted from time to time. I don’t know what the circumstances were behind her leaving, but she was gone a few months after I’d been moved to the LA office. I’m trying to remember now what we talked about, and I don’t think it was politics, even though, knowing what I know now, we probably should have been. I have a vague recollection of us talking about Michigan, where, if I’m not mistaken, she, like me, had gone to college. I remember exchanging drinking stories. Anyway, she was on the front page of yesterday’s Washington Post.
Her name is, and was, Maryscott O’Connor, and, it was probably about a year ago that, after seeing a post at the Daily Kos attributed to someone by that same name, I sent a note asking if she was in fact the same Maryscott O’Connor that had worked with me in Burbank. And, as it turns out, she was… We didn’t correspond much after that. I told her what I was up to lately, and she told me what she was up to, and I told her that we were on the same side, politically speaking. That was about it.
Anyway, I just skimmed the article, so I should probably reserve judgment until I’ve had a chance to go back over it, but it seems to me that it’s pretty much a “hit piece”. Sure, there are some good things about it, but, all-in-all I’d say that it paints her as an unstable freak, who just stumbled into an online persona as a foul-mouthed Bush-hater. From the terrible photo they used of her, to the quotes they chose to include, it seems pretty clear, at least to me, that the Post had gone in with an agenda — to expose the stark raving lunacy of “the angry left.” If you don’t believe me, just check out the images above. The one on the left is of Maryscott a while back on Fox News. And, the one on the right is the one that accompanied the Washington Post story about her, entitled “The Left, Online and Outraged: Liberal Blogger Finds an Outlet and a Community.” What do you think?
Hit piece or not, I suspect that this coverage will land her a book deal, so I’m happy for her. She’s very bright, and often funny, and she deserves it. Her over-the-top, sometimes vulgar, quite often ALL CAPS-style is a bit much for me on occasion, but I can appreciate where she’s coming from and wish her all the best… Actually, before I go, I should also mention that Maryscott, even on her worst day, is not nearly as offensive as her counterparts on the angry right. (Maryscott’s take on the WaPo coverage can be found at The Daily Kos.)
(Thanks to Metafilter for the original link to the WaPo story, and to a Metafilter member named Empath for the image of Maryscott on Fox News.)
Note: Eventually, everyone that I have ever met will be famous and/or have a book deal. It’s god’s way of reminding me that he doesn’t love me.
13 Comments
Mark —
Actually, the original link to my response is this:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=755
Thanks for the kind words…
MSOC
Thanks for the correction, Maryscott, and good luck in dealing with whatever comes as a result of the coverage… I’ll add a permanent link to My Left Wing as well.
Mark, maybe God would love you if you capitalized His name (and related pronouns). Breaking this unwritten corollary to the 1st Commandment sure as hell ain’t gonna put you on His good side…
As for Ms. O’Connor, while I deplore the approach the Post used to dismiss her–and by extension the entire Reality-based Community–I think Ms. O’Connor could easily have reduced the impact of the piece had she simply elected to get dressed prior to letting the Post photographer into her home. The Post might still have captured Ms. O’Connor looking angry and/or a little crazy but at least she wouldn’t be dressed in a fat man’s pajamas with what appears to be a glass of wine at her side. Didn’t she suspect that the art director looked suspiciously like Karl Rove?
Kurt
I was wearing a blue shirt and jeans. That’s getting dressed, as far as I’m concerned.
I think the viewer’s expectations come into play when looking at a picture, even one so obviously designed to convey a certain impression. You EXPECT pajamas, so you look at a picture of a blogger in a blue shirt and ASSUME it’s pajamas.
It’s not.
Remeber Mark, God hates those that hate themselves…
But he hates queers more. And Muslims. And abortion clinic workers. Self-loathers are pretty far down on the list, right near scientists.
I thought that the Lord didn’t approve of “self-love.”
I think you confuse self-love with self-abuse, my son…
God loves all His children. Some of them He loves to torment. Lucky you. Me? I’m waiting to be famous with a book deal, dammit.
And yes, that does seem pretty biased against her, especially that photo. I thought the shirt was pajamas as well, even though I was sure it wasn’t. That would have been just asking for it.
What a small wierd strange world.
I love Maryscott! I love anyone that doesn’t think my deathcult of Islam is violent. Thanks for the great PR work my Dhimmi.
You got some real nice chums buddy! A wretched, mentally ill racist whose recent rants against the Jews would even have embarrassed the Nazis…
Stay away from sewers like MLW and you might get a better class of friend.
Did I miss something? Is Maryscott in the news today? Did she pledge her allegiance to bin Laden?