Bono in the New York Times: Part III
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Bono as New York Times columnist? No big surprise. The U2 singer is a legend in his own mind who epitomises the widely held concept that if someone makes a fortune as a rock star, they automatically become qualified to speak as world authorities on, well, everything.
His first NYT effort was a genuine embarrassment for both him and the New York Times.
“I don`t sing and Bono shouldn’t write,” said Bob Lefsetz. “You’re better off reading the playlist of the guy with cancer. That`s a lot more heartfelt and interesting AND COMPREHENSIBLE!”
“His smugness knows no bounds, his ego can not be contained, his messiah complex is all consuming,” said David Cano. “The man is so completely deluded, so sadly convinced of his own brilliance that he thinks of himself as some sort of poet laureate as well as a saviour of the poor and huddled masses.”
“Despite his admitting that he has ‘never been great with the full stops or commas’ (or colons, it would appear), the occasional column will cover a range of topics, said the newspaper,” writes Alexandra Topping in The Guardian, continuing:
“A low-key introduction, lifted from an old NYT magazine article by James Traub, heralds the opinion page’s new talent: ‘He’s a strange sort of entity, this euphoric rock star with the chin stubble and the tinted glasses a new and heretofore undescribed planet in an emerging galaxy filled with transnational, multinational and subnational bodies.’ Indeed.
“It would be kind to say that reactions on the blogosphere have been mixed. Digital news site p2pnet.net captures the mood, picking up on comments from music analyst and blogger Bob Lefsetz, author of The Lefsetz Letter. ‘This is the emperor’s new clothes,’ he fumed. ‘Why did the New York Times make this deal? Didn’t Bono have to submit any samples? Couldn’t they have rejected this piss-poor piece before they printed it? Can’t they cancel the deal now’?”
Bono is the, “author of inoffensive pop pap, nothing more,” says PaulieC23 in a The Guardian comment.
“He is not a journalist/visionary/revolutionary or any of the many things the sicophantic media claim he is. He isn’t even a good campaigner. His ’solution’ to the African problem is to pour more money in; exactly the opposite to what every economist in the world believes should be done. But Bono being Bono, he probably assumes he knows more than they do!
“To hell with Bono, the plutocrat rock star that was responsble for extending copyright limits to 5 million billion years after the originator died,” says Novelist.
But, “Not as bad as I thought it might be and remember that the NYT and Herald Tribune, though generally good papers, have been known to print waffle in their opinion pages before now,” says getoffmycloud. “It is just that greater scrutiny goes with greater notoriety.”
Adds GiorgioNYC, “You all missed the most noxious, off-putting part of Bono’s little essay – the ass-kissing of Frank Sinatra. Bono rhapsodizes over being in the presence of this misogynistic, homophobic and yes, racist creep. (And please don’t bring up Sammy Davis Jr. ‘Old Blue Eyes’ and Dean Martin treated Davis abominably, like their little pet Negro.) Then Bono natters on about ‘My Way,’ a wretched little piece of pop kitsch that Sinatra inflicted on the public in 2 execrable versions. Like Bono, the article was insufferable.
(Thanks, Jazz)
genuine embarrassment – Bono embarrasses the New York Times, January 11, 2009
messiah complex – Bono on `malt joy and ginger despair`, January 12, 2009
The Guardian – All the Bono that’s fit to print, January 12, 2009
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