The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Grace Under Pressure

8.14.07 @ 12:01AM

SPEARS CARRIERS
Re: Ben Stein's CNN Must Be Crazy:

Ben Stein's little piece online about Nancy Grace and Britney Spears is of course exactly right. But he is forgetting two very important things.

First, CNN is not really a serious news network outside of its regular news hour. At midnight they don't count for anything.

Second, and more important, Nancy Grace is not a serious person. She takes herself seriously, of course, but that's not enough to qualify. She's sort of like Walter Winchell but with a worse voice. She's a voyeur, a sight-and-sound scandal sheet, a humorless, ghastly woman that no man could possibly stand. And besides, no one (relatively speaking) watches her, especially at midnight.

Don't worry about her, Ben. It's like worrying about the National Enquirer.

You should be fevering your brow about the New York Times and their front page the other day trying to bring about our defeat in Afghanistan now that they have failed to stop the surge in Iraq.

The New York Times is worth worrying about. Nancy Grace is not.
-- Stacey Lippman
West Palm Beach, Florida

Ben Stein is half right -- societies that much out of whack do not survive. But think of it this way. What is the easiest thing to do if you have the intelligence and attention span of a fourteen-year-old (which makes you an average citizen)? Do you focus on something simple and easy, like a silly, social cripple celebrity like Britney Spears, or do you think about the things Ben listed in his article? Britney wins every time. It isn't insane, but it sure is sad, pathetic and in the long run, highly self-destructive. This is why leadership is so important, to encourage people to move away from moral dead ends like Britney Spears and instead value the things that really matter. The real problem that Ben should have mentioned is that this level of leadership simply does not exist anymore, at any level or in any sector or institution. Britney Spears is the symptom, not the problem itself.

When a society dynamites every institution and belief that has real social value -- faith in God, belief in your country and what it stands for, the importance of marriage and family, the rule of law, the right to be born and to live, the importance of individual self discipline and responsibility -- then the only thing left is cheap, meaningless trash like Britney Spears. Don't expect a liberal to ever tell you that that this is the price you pay for buying their ideas.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

Whoa, Ben, chill, dude! That's not the news you're watching there. It's Nancy Grace. This is a woman whose lead story for months on end was Anna Nicole Smith, and when Lindsey Lohan skips a news cycle, she's got to go somewhere. (Disclaimer: I know this only because they go straight into that drek right on the heels of Glenn Beck, though sometimes he's not any better.) You might as well expect battlefield coverage from Oprah.
-- Stephen Foulard
Houston, Texas

Shhhhhhh; not so much on Sandpoint, Lake Pend'Oreille and northern Idaho. Everyone will want to go there! Many of us have tabbed that very most special place in the world as our final resting place upon retirement. But if you must brag about the place, don't forget the wonderful, friendly and supremely courteous citizenry and French-fried and twice-baked potatoes having no peer anywhere on this planet. And we love the trains.
-- Chuck and Donna Livingston
Ft. Worth, Texas

Right on, Mr. Stein!

The navel-gazing of our media in this country never ceases to amaze me. I am convinced they will all eventually implode, but I could be wrong.

After all, both you and I grew up in an era when children were still being educated in the school systems, and reality was still the norm.
-- R. Goodson
Vero Beach, Florida

I read your publication frequently, and much more often than not appreciate the ideas and arguments your writers proclaim, not least of all Mr. Stein.

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