{"id":34172,"date":"2021-09-03T18:42:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=34172"},"modified":"2021-09-03T18:42:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:42:18","slug":"this-will-take-a-while-to-ascertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/09\/03\/this-will-take-a-while-to-ascertain\/","title":{"rendered":"This Will Take A While To Ascertain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I see Erick Erickson is <a href=\"https:\/\/ewerickson.substack.com\/p\/just-a-quick-thanks-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mighty proud<\/a> of being a radio host:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Six months in and I\u2019m the only 12-3 national host to make number one in a top ten radio market across formats \u2014 music and talk \u2014 both overall and in the ever precious 25-54 \u201cdemo.\u201d (July ratings)<\/p>\n<p>Now I\u2019m number 26 on this list. Thanks very much. As always, where ever you are,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.erickericksonshow.com\/\" rel=\"\">you can listen live right here 12pm to 3pm ET every weekday<\/a>\u00a0and you can even call in at 1-877-973-7425.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have to wonder how much he&#8217;ll regret what he&#8217;s having to do &#8211; consciously or unconsciously &#8211; in a decade or two.<\/p>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/08\/31\/afghanistan-endpoint-ctd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">already noted<\/a>, he&#8217;s charged into the Afghanistan withdrawal as if were an <em>uber<\/em>-angel, calling for the resignations of President Biden and VP Harris, suggesting the 25th Amendment should be invoked on Biden, while claiming Harris has <a href=\"https:\/\/ewerickson.substack.com\/p\/id-like-to-report-a-missing-person\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disappeared in the wake of self-made disasters<\/a> (Jennifer Rubin has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/08\/31\/why-kamala-harriss-trip-asia-was-so-important\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">far more positive assessment<\/a>), all supported with supposed facts.<\/p>\n<p>Me? I&#8217;m waiting for facts to be verified. A fair assessment requires &#8220;facts&#8221; of a stable nature, a clear eyed view of what has happened and what appears to be happening, lots of study, and a self-awareness of fallibility and ignorance. My experience is that initial facts are often wrong, either made up of whole cloth or lacking important context. A number of conservative sources, for instance, cited a report that the Taliban used a helicopter to hang someone. It didn&#8217;t take long for the truth to come out: the guy was in a harness and was very much alive.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if Erickson cited that particular incident, as I&#8217;m having trouble reading his columns &#8211; I shake my head so much I get dizzy.<\/p>\n<p>But I do cite these two indisputable points in support of my concern about his future: On August 19th he <a href=\"https:\/\/ewerickson.substack.com\/p\/mr-president-resign\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">demanded<\/a> President Biden resign. This is hardly into the withdrawal itself, even before the deaths of the thirteen heroes by suicide bomber; it&#8217;s a hurried call, an attempt to get out ahead of other conservative voices. The pursuit of ratings, if you will.<\/p>\n<p>The second point? This deeply shattered, hate-filled <a href=\"https:\/\/ewerickson.substack.com\/p\/apocalypse-not\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">screed<\/a> motivated by the recently passed Texas anti-abortion law. Based on broken logic and calculated to stir the emotions of its readers, it doesn&#8217;t read like the meditations of an intelligent, stable citizen, but the calculated phraseology of an expert at rage communications<a href=\"#1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>, with baby-killer this and that. He&#8217;s pretending &#8211; or perhaps in earnest &#8211; to be so blinded by rage that half the post is &#8220;baby-killer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a great way to keep your audience addicted to those rage hormones. It does nothing to advance the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>But as he lets his pursuit of ratings, rather than truth, shape his messaging, it distorts his image more and more. Not that he was angelic before, but now it&#8217;s becoming more and more disturbing.<\/p>\n<p>How long before he calls some poor college freshman a slut?<\/p>\n<p>And will he realize he should be ashamed?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a name=\"1\"><\/a><sup>1<\/sup> See <em><a href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/04\/23\/book-review-the-persuaders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Persuaders<\/strong><\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I see Erick Erickson is mighty proud of being a radio host: Six months in and I\u2019m the only 12-3 national host to make number one in a top ten radio market across formats \u2014 music and talk \u2014 both overall and in the ever precious 25-54 \u201cdemo.\u201d (July ratings) \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/09\/03\/this-will-take-a-while-to-ascertain\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34173,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34172\/revisions\/34173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}