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 Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the DeadPosted on Mar 20, 2008
By Gore Vidal I can recall that day in the 1930s when a “news” (sic) magazine appeared in Washington, D.C.; it was called Newsweek: meant to be a counterbalance to Time Magazine’s uncontrollable malice. In due course the two became sadly alike as Vincent Astor morphed into Henry Luce: Was it something in the water? I once asked Henry Luce why he called Time a news magazine when it was simply Uncle Harry’s means of venting his rage (this was 1960 or so) at liberals, and “degenerate art” like the plays of Tennessee Williams—he had no answer. At Newsweek Vincent Astor was far too stupid to answer any such complaint. Now here we are in the Newsweek of 2008, and it’s still lousy. There have been a few decent writers in between that were less nutty than today’s Newsweek hacks. But why is Newsweek currently lousy? Here’s an example provided by an editor who keeps a sharp eye on their crimes. He sent me their recent obituary of William F. Buckley, a hero to those who feared democracies.
Unknown to them and everyone else who might read that publication, my views on many matters do not conform to the tired hacks who’ve taken over Newsweek, a magazine that has convinced itself that Bobby Kennedy Sr. was a great liberal. They love throwing about misunderstood terms like liberal and conservative that seldom suit their superficial, not to mention malicious, standards. Recently, their words of mourning for the fallen “genteel” paladin were incredible. As my editor friend knew that I seldom read the wilder attacks on me, he deconstructs Newsweek’s obituary of Buckley: Parenthetically, I should note that, back in 1968, ABC TV had asked me and Buckley to “debate” each other at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Although Buckley was often drunk and out of control, he was always a spontaneous liar on any subject that his dizzy brain might extrude. When we were in Chicago during the Republican convention, the Chicago police decided it would be fun to attack the young co-ed demonstrators in Grant Park, not far from our studio. It was one of the worst displays of police brutality I’ve ever seen, and so I said on air; he liked what the police had done; in no time, the whole country was as shocked as I, but not Buckley. On air he was hissing like a cobra against the young people in Grant Park because, he said, they were egging on the Viet Cong to kill American Marines. They were not, of course. Buckley was a world-class American liar on the far right who would tell any lie he thought he could get away with. Years of ass-kissing famous people in the press and elsewhere had given him, he felt, a sort of license to libelously slander those hated liberals who, from time to time, smoked him out as I did in Chicago, when I defended the young people in Grant Park by denying that they were Nazis and that the only “pro- or crypto-Nazi” I could think of was himself. He sued me and got nowhere. He sued Esquire, in which our words appeared. By then the coming right-wing surge was in view. And so Esquire cravenly agreed to settle with him for a few paragraphs worth of free advertising for his weird little magazine The National Review, hardly the great victory he claimed. Now, to Newsweek’s obituary of this late dishonorable American in which my editor-friend assures me that his brain-dead son Christopher had a hand: “Buckley bridled at bullies.” And who was the bully in context? Myself. He was also an expert at changing indefensible contexts. Buckley maintained that I supported revolutionaries who favored murdering U.S. Marines. Yet all the talk of Nazis etc. was started by Buckley. There was no lie he would not tell to get back at those who defeated him in debate. The current editors at Newsweek appear to have listened eagerly to his son Christopher, who is guiding them to a benign view of what had been a most hysterical queen (WFB), much admired by a media that takes everyone at his own evaluation of himself as they did with Capote, who told them that he was a great writer like Proust (pronounced Prowst) and the hacks ate it up. The correct assessment of any reputation today is so far from plausible reality that it might be a good thing if the hacks of a magazine like Newsweek steered clear of characterizing those disliked by the advertisers; hence his creepy son’s depiction of me as a “bully” when I was simply attending to one, and then—o, joy!—Buckley called me a “queer” and actually threatened me with physical violence, so great was his testosterone level. Next, the loyal son, suspecting that the pejorative use of “queer” is politically incorrect in mag-land, Christopher rambles into a story about his father’s kindness to a Mr. Bauman who had lost his seat in Congress after the congressman had been caught while soliciting Oral Sex from a 16-year-old male (note how prurient Newsweek’s prose is, in describing undesirable people). Chris weeps into his computer as he describes how Dad gave the poor sinner of the flesh an envelope containing $10,000 (I bet?) in cash adding, mysteriously, “He was a knightly man”: Who was—the cocksucker recipient of Buckley’s charity? Or his admirer, Mr. Buckley himself?—Bauman was very right wing, it is said. RIP WFB—in hell. The unique mess that our republic is in can be, in part, attributed to a corrupt press whose roots are in mendacious news (sic) magazines like Time and Newsweek, aided by tabloids that manufacture fictional stories about actual people. This mingling of opinion and fiction has undone a media never devoted to truth. Hence, the ease with which the Republican smear-machine goes into action when they realize that yet again the party’s permanent unpopularity with the American people will cause them defeat unless they smear individually those who question the junk that the media has put into so many heads. Anyone who says “We gotta fight ’em over there or we’re gonna have to fight ’em over here.” This absurdity has been pronounced by every Republican seeking high office. The habit of lying is now a national style that started with “news” magazines that was further developed by pathological liars that proved to be “good” Entertainment on TV. But a diet of poison that has done none of us any good. I speak ex cathedra now, ad urbe et orbe, with a warning that no society so marinated in falsity can long survive in a real world. Purchase signed first editions from Gore Vidal’s personal library at the Truthdig Bazaar. Previous item: The Pentagon Has Always Gone Hollywood Next item: On His Own Terms Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
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By keever, April 14 at 8:10 am # Buckley v. VidalMy thanks to “Truthdig” for linking to my transcript of Gore Vidals “Esquire” article on Buckley. So far Buckley’s brownshirts have not come after me, but I have done nothing to hide from them. I was moved to transcribe the article and post it on line when I went to Columbia’s Butler Library to read it from their archived collection of “Esquires” from the sixties. I discovered that someone had very violently ripped the offending essay from Columbia’s bound volume. I am reasonably certain that the vandal was motivated by a desire to destroy the calumny, not save it for private delectation, since the remaining chunks still clinging to the binding indicated that the pages must have been thoroughly shredded by the time they were removed. I could find no other article removed from any of the bound Esquires and I have never seen any evidence of such violent destruction of archived materials in Butler’s stacks in all my years of researching there. This physical assault on the public commons, so reminiscent of the act of bigoted Church vandalism Vidal recounts in his essay, enraged me. I went to eBay and purchased a copy of the original “Esquire,” read and transcribed the essay, and put it on line. If Christopher Buckley and his father’s other minions wish to challenge the right of on line readers to read what Vidal has to say about their fallen hero I welcome a debade over their right to censor the Esquire article. I also urge other amateur or professional researchers to take on another task. I subscribed to “The National Review” when I was an undergraduate in the sixties and clearly remember some pretty appalling apologetics for racism in the American south and for apartheid in South Africa. “The National Review” has posted what it purports to be etext versions of its contents from that era. I have only glanced at what they have put on line, but I was surprised at how mild and unobjectionable the texts they present there seem. They do not match my recollections, but I have not gone back to Butler Library and compared them to the “hard copy” that I know is there in bound volumes. I suggest anyone who shares my suspicions might want to spend an afternoon or two in any good research library with a collection of back issues comparing the texts to see if the current editors are, as I suspect, whitewashing their publication’s ugly past just as they have bleached the history of its founder. If they find any discrepencies I hope they can find on line outlets to publicize them. I don’t expect I will read about it in “Newsweek.”
By Nag Traye, April 8 at 1:38 pm # I read with great sorrow that you, OzarkMichael, have been repeatedly called a “nazi” for twenty five years. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone and can only wonder what you could possibly be doing to attract such disdain. Your obvious revisionist history commentary (poor memory perhaps?) of the Vidal/Buckley exchanges, in context, also makes me sad for you. As another poster mentioned, perhaps “fascist” is more often the correct label for poor conservative victims (i.e. Buckley?) of such bullying.
By John Robinson, April 4 at 7:46 am # OzarkMichael’s That Golden Moment reveals more about himself than what actually happened on TV that night--and the other 11 debate nights some 40 years ago. It was Howard K. Smith who actually introduced the word “Nazi” into the debate with a question to Vidal. As Vidal answered he was interrupted by Buckley (Buckley, like the “bully” he was, constantly interrupted Vidal throughout the debates, and the ABC moderator never intervened) who called the student war protestors whose heads were being pummeled by police batons("a police riot” it was later termed in
By Kenneth, March 26 at 6:22 pm # poor vidal, even today still misunderstood all the bloviating on a latin he may have written as he liked, as ex cathedra, from the chair, indicating papal infallacy, whihc of course cannot exist in a human, setting the irony
By Kenneth, March 26 at 6:17 pm # ironypoor vidal, even today still misunderstood all the bloviation on a latin he may have written as he liked, as ex cathedra, from the chair, indicating papal infallacy, whihc of course cannot exist in a human, setting the irony
By Stephen L. Andrew, March 26 at 4:40 pm # Celia is correct. Vidal could have written “urbi et orbi,” using the dative case without the preposition “ad,” and been correct. But by using the preposition “ad” he committed himself to the accusative case, which mandated “urbem et orbem.” But, like so many other things, he got it wrong. Buckley would never have gotten this wrong. He was a master of Latin as well as English (he was also fluent in Spanish and French, for that matter). Vidal is a master of neither Latin nor English. He is a master of homoerotic pornography (cf., e.g., Myra Breckinridge).
By Stephen L. Andrew, March 26 at 9:13 am # If I were to address all of Vidal’s errors of judgment and fact, it would simply take too long. But readers of his hate piece ought to know that the encounter between him and Buckley took place at the 1968 Democratic Convention, not the Republican Convention as he falsely claims.
By Celia, March 26 at 8:58 am # I'm sure someone must have noticed but...I haven’t yet read all 72 comments. His Latin in the last paragraph is wrong: “...ad urbe et orbe...” I’m actually kind of shocked. Ad takes the accusative, not the ablative. Is he trying to say the phrase “urbi et orbi” as the popes do? “To the city and the world”? If so, it’s as if he just used Babelfish. I have to say, the managing editor at Newsweek would have gotten this correct, as his Salutatorian address at our graduation was in Latin, and he was advised in its delivery by my wonderful advisor Professor Binnicker. Oh well. Not that big a deal, I guess.
By Stephen L. Andrew, March 26 at 8:13 am # Vidal shows what a poseur he is when he fails to properly decline the Latin nouns for “city” and “world.” In the last paragraph of his posthumous desecration of WFB, he pompously proclaims his opinion “ad urbe et orbe.” He means to say “to the city and the world,” but he uses the ablative form of those nouns, thus demonstrating his incompetence in Latin. The preposition “ad” ("to") only takes objects in the accusative case, never in the ablative. So the proper grammar would have been “ad urbem et orbem.” Deliciously, Vidal reveals his counterfeit inferiority to WFB in a highly ironic way.
By Stephen L. Andrew, March 26 at 6:32 am # Since Eugene Luther Gore Vidal did not scruple to refrain from labeling William Buckley a “liar” and a “hysterical queen” in his latest piece of senile drivel, I suppose the moderators of this post will not object to me affixing the label “recreant queer” to Vidal, for that is precisely and manifestly what he is. He also shows himself to be a hypocrite in calling Mr. Buckley a liar, insofar as he misleads his readers as to the real reason for Buckley’s lawsuit, and the basis for Esquire’s settlement. (Nor does he mention, incidentally, that he himself had earlier sued Buckley, and that lawsuit had been thrown unceremoniously out of court.) For those who may be interested, Buckley’s successful lawsuit had to do with various libels perpetrated by Vidal against both Buckley and his late father. I would like to request that the moderators forward my comment to Eugene, advising him of the fact that, at some point after his death, I shall personally travel to Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington with a full bladder and urinate comprehensively on his grave, in the process fulfilling a literal enactment of Vidal’s symbolic desecration of Buckley’s memory.
By Nabih Ammari, March 25 at 7:36 am # Re:That Golden Moment March 24 OzqrkMichael, Remember,the era of the debate is extremely important Therefor.in the sixties;and if given the choice,I As you may see with me,the word"QUEER"is much much Meanwhile,Gore Vidal looked,at least to me,simply OzarkMichael,you were 9-10 years old when the debate I Lived that era.I witnessed the tragic events of
By polybius, March 24 at 5:24 am # It’s fantastic to see wfb once again put in his place. It was rather embarrassing to listen to viewer praise for him on c span after he passed on, or passed out. I was always hoping that wfb would slouch so far over in that chair that it would tumble over backwards. Maybe now it has.
By Doug, March 23 at 6:23 pm # Cannot help but wonder how Buckley feltabout seeing his Conservative movement hijacked from its libertarian roots and taken over lock, stock and barrel by sociopaths and opportunists. I was active in the Conservative movement in its formative years and can pinpoint the exact date when hijacking took place. It was 1974 and Joseph Coors used his fortune to underwrite the founding of Ed Fuelner’s Heritage Foundation and the Paul Weyrich’s Committee for a Free Congress. The decisive impact of these two organizations in creating the present American police state is not generally recognized. I only wish that Buckley had lived a few more weeks and seen the Banksters of Wall Street exposed to the world for what they are: socialistic capitalists. He was extremely bright, so I believe in the end he came to realize that he had created a monster. Maybe that was why he was so partial to drinking.
By Peter RV, March 23 at 1:29 pm # CensorshipGee, TruthDig guys,
By Jim Lorenz, March 23 at 1:27 pm # GV says; “Anyone who says “We gotta fight ’em over there or we’re gonna have to fight ’em over here.” This absurdity has been pronounced by every Republican seeking high office.” I paid to hear WFB speak in the late 1960’s and he deflated in front of my eyes. He was a fancy speaking intellectual fraud. BUT, Mr. Vidal has made an error by uttering an untrue sweeping general statment. There is ONE politician who has been in the House for 10, now 11 terms from Texas, Dr. Ron Paul, who has never uttered such jingoistic, chauvinistic, bloodthirsty mumbo jumbo. Google Ron Paul, ditto YouTube.
By Peter RV, March 23 at 7:46 am # Yeah, there is a grudge there alright, perhaps because Buckley used a British highbrow expression ‘queer’ instead of the good old American ‘fag’ or ‘fruit’, but that might have been just the thing (more than reading Gore’s novels) that propelled Gore to fame. He gained instantly an unconditional alligeance of the Homos from all around the World.( What they didn’t notice was, that Buckley looked very much like one of them, when he wasn’t drunk).
By James A. Kenny, March 22 at 11:19 pm # Vidal: Intriguing as Usual, But One Problem withGore Vidal’s take on William F. Buckley is intriguing as usual and I do appreciate his candor and his willingness to state what others won’t. But in his recollection of a debate during a political convention in Chicago in 1968, he errs when he states that it was the Republican Convention. It was, in fact, the Democratic Convention in that city when the cops assaulted demonstrators in Grant Park and in the melee, they also attacked newsmen, passersby in the nearby streets and even convention delegates. The demonstrators chanted “The Whole World is Watching! The Whole World is Watching!” and in fact, at that moment, the violence of the establishment was shown in its ugly nakedness, for all the world to see, as the protestors well knew. It comes as no surprise to me that, at the time, Buckley reacted to the police attack with some glee or at the very least, a degree of smug satisfaction, but I don’t actually specifically recall the debate(s) between Buckley and Vidal at the time. As for Vidal’s mistaken recollection of this being a Republican Convention, which I believe had been held in Miami earlier in the year (unless that was the one held in 1972---to renominate Nixon and which was crashed by Ron Kovic and other Vietnam veterans who had turned against the war, but I think Miami was the site for Republican Conventions in both ‘68 and ‘72.), I can only attribute that error to age. After all, he is getting on in years and as sharp as he remains, a lapse every now and then is understandable.
By hollyse, March 22 at 11:14 pm # W.F. Buckley usually chocked on his own “rich” words while leaning back in his chair indulging himself, over eating his “fat” vocabulary at the expense of others while interviewing. He was a case in study reminding me of those over eating Roman emperors to the gluttonous state of regurgitation so the experience of indulging could be repeated. Fat still clogs the arteries Mr. Buckley, Sir, and the body can only take so many gluttonous combinations of a,e,i,o,u and y often taking the place of an e or “I”.
By Nabih Ammari, March 22 at 4:29 pm # Re:Vidal-Buckley memorable debate. Perhaps I was one of the millions of Americans who were In spite of the negative views I had about Mr.Buckley
By M Reith, March 22 at 10:42 am # Well spokenGrowing up a Young Republican, I adored WFB’s huge vocabulary and sharp wit. Sad to say, I became a career military officer and gobbled up the crap that was fed to me. I offer no excuses. It was only Christianity and self-education in classic liberalism that allowed me to see the world for what it was, and understand how dangerous were people like WFB. The thought that his giving of $10 grand in cash to a man who had solicited a minor somehow makes up for the enormity of harm he and his empirical, neoconservative movement have cuased is absurd. Then again, I’m sure Caligula probably had a pet cat that he cuddled. The weight of millions of deaths can be laid onto the back of a nation that has shaped a foreign policy around the philosophies of those such as WFB, and murderous dolts like myself who saluted and said, “Aye-Aye, Sir!”. it will take far more than handing out cash to child sex solicitors caught in the act to cleanse our hands of their blood.
By Deacon Elurby, March 22 at 8:19 am # Does Vidal Understand terms, "Liberal" and "Conservative"?“They love throwing about misunderstood terms like liberal and conservative that seldom suit their superficial, not to mention malicious, standards,” Vidal opines. Well, does he (( and do you )) understand the psychological underpinnings of those terms, “liberal” and “conservatgive”? Read and learn from my article on the subject: Underlying Psychology of Political Affiliation
By Transcender, March 22 at 5:50 am # Liberals Who Liked BuckleyThe liberals who fawned over WFB’s patrician sesquipedalia showed themselves for what they really are: closet monarchists. They liked Buckley and the Kennedys for essentially the same reasons: They were/are, in essence, this country’s royalty. I would amend Gore Vidal’s famous assertion in this way: This country has one political class, and all of its members were born with the proverbial silver spoons in their mouths. There are two branches of this class, and the difference between them is this: One seeks to consolidate and expand its wealth through militarism; the other, through expanding other government powers and functions. This, from the German poet Holderlin, is a fitting post mortem to WFB: I hate the great horde of rulers Not to say that Buckley was a genius. He had what many people considered to be the most tasteful veneer of an education money could buy. But he did acquire considerable skills from Yale and the other schools he attended to aggrandize the worst aspects of what has ruled us for the past quarter-century or so. Finally: Thank you, Gore Vidal!
By John Ehle, March 22 at 5:23 am # FascinationBuckley seemed drunk when we tuned in for laughs in the 60s. Even then, we knew that to take these masters of superfluous pedantics seriously was to subscribe to their hallucinations. His effeminate posturing made our gay friends seem very masculine and direct. Buckley was fawning, reptilian and slimy. I was embarrassed for him most of the time. I believe that he’s gone AND forgotten; not the great righty adversary that clarified the truths on the other side but a besotted clown who may have sobered up just in time for final exams. Where would he have been w/o all that money? Working, productively like the rest of us?
By Lucien Francesco Brancaccio, March 21 at 11:36 pm # The correct Latin is in the dative case without a preposition. Wikipedia Article elucidates this as follows: Urbi et Orbi, literally “to the City [of Rome] and to the World,” was a standard opening of Roman proclamations. Nowadays the term is used to denote a papal address and Apostolic Blessing that is addressed to the City of Rome and to the entire world.
By J.F.William, March 21 at 9:29 pm # Gore Vidal is one of the last american… Cherish him ! My two cents & hommage… “Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. ‘We have a single system,’ he wrote, and ‘in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses.’” : Gore Vidal - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
By Pat Johnson, March 21 at 8:57 pm # Gore Vidal PostI remember watching Buckley and seriously not understanding a word he said! It was like listening to Bob Dylan and attempting to detect the meaning of their words. I thought it was me but now I realize that Buckley was such a supercilious fraud that he deliberately confused us and then watched the idiot pundits deify him. Vidal is right on the mark. As usual.
By Greeningogo, March 21 at 5:09 pm # PuckfaceI too remember Puckface’s show--watching the amused look on my wonderful liberal Dad’s face as he watched that comically pompous asshole WFB on Crossfire. Those were the days. I just regret I was too young to get it. The neocon talking heads of today just ain’t as much fun.
By Tex, March 21 at 3:33 pm # Buckley, the pompous assbill buckley as a drunken rich white conservanazi, who portrayed himself as such a great thinker on his programs. I wonder what would have happened to buckley if he hadn’t inherited his family’s great fortune. Have a good day in Hell with fallwell, bill. BUCK FUSH!
By Mark, March 21 at 2:32 pm # read: ad urbem et orbem
By Allen Thomas, March 21 at 1:12 pm # Buckley's legacypeople might want to make sure they have all the information before they draw these wonderful images of Buckley. In his book. ‘Windsong’, he mentions how he & some help screwed a boatyard operator out of their lawful charges for repairs to his boat. He seemed a little triumphant as any good Repubican would be. he never would admit how much he inherited but we may guess it was too much to give him clearance to speak for a helping hand to the less fortunate.
By Bruce M Smith, March 21 at 11:59 am # Vidal's are Vital..for AmericaAs a lucky American now retired in France, and never trustng the Bush family, changed to Euros long ago, I paid for it! Sort of…
By Karen Miller, March 21 at 11:36 am # Vidal - BuckleyYes, William F. Buckley was a true simpleton (and tasteless at that), I believe that would make him an insipid ninny. We scream loudest about the things we are most guilty of and boy that seems true of the right who are always screaming about something since speaking softly about it would draw no attention.
By Tony Waters, March 21 at 11:23 am # Gore's clear visionGore Vidal never seems to be blown off course. He just tells the highly unvarnished truth, and lets the reader either digest it or find it indigestible. Good to see that age and a wheelchair have not blunted his blade.
By Dr. Vogel, March 21 at 11:14 am # Funniest ting I've read all year.Gore Vidal called Buckley a queen. And his son an imbecile. And called out the so-called liberal media for the intolerant wack-jobs and shills to the Right that they are. I get the sense that Mr. Vidal is as embarrassed to be an American as most of us are now. As an aside, one of my favorite Buckley moments was when ABC had big roundtable after the first airing of “The Day After.” Buckley was trying to respond to something, mostly through drunken mumbling, holding his fountain pen to his cheek as he so often did, and Ted Koppel, the moderator, told him to sit up straight and speak into the microphone. Let’s just say that Koppel completely punked him, and Buckley knew it. I think Carson may have done the same once. Thanks, Mr. Vidal, we’ll forgive the sloppy Latin.
By Bill Blackolive, March 21 at 10:32 am # Mr. Vidal, what might ever change this land’s most indoctrinated population in history than the shock of learning 9/ll is inside? I tell old friends go to patriotsquestion9/ll. They get their shock. Maybe they say this is shills, I say to them they have yet to go there, here be from 40 two Septembers back now a thousand famous howling, known people, besides the firemen trying to speak to Michael Moorer and so on. Hey, we have got to start. Hey, keep your noble self in the flesh a time further, life on Earth might improve, be worth a good drink. Add Your Comment |
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Newsroom Carnage Continues at The Washington Post
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