Lord knows I had my problems with Terry Teachout’s much-discussed “Can Jazz Be Saved” editorial, but I can’t get with this account of Teachout’s motivations, as posited by Ron “Slim” Washington.
Teachout, you see, wrote his piece for The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, which means that there’s an attack on jazz “coming from the highest right wing levels of power.”
Which means that my friends Larry Blumenfeld and Martin Johnson, both WSJ contributors, must also be in on the vast right-wing conspiracy to kill jazz. Guys, I’m so disappointed in you.
There’s plenty of grounds to critique Teachout on the merits. Let’s not fantasize that Rupert Murdoch cares enough about jazz to mount an organized campaign against it.
One Comment
Mr. Washington, from what I can tell, is a Marxist. (The real kind – not the Fox News kind.) Makes sense; he's essentially taking a Marxist interpretation of the Teachout piece, albeit with a generous helping of paranoia.