In case you missed it, there's a fascinating article in The Times about Elizabeth Edwards, that compellingly argues that her image as an "admired woman wronged" has been greatly undone by her own unbecoming behavior.
Judith Warner writes:
In a new book about the 2008 presidential campaign, “Game Change,” Elizabeth Edwards is portrayed as “an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazywoman,” and nothing like her image as “St. Elizabeth.”
"Edwards kept painting [Rielle] Hunter as a fame seeker, eager to glom onto her husband’s spotlight,” Tina Brown wrote on her Web site, The Daily Beast. “Whereas it’s Edwards who has written the book and dragged Hunter into the media glare.”
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The Fall of St. Elizabeth
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3 comments:
The excerpt in New York Magazine was also enlightening. Those people are a real disappointment. What were they thinking??
Hi:
Love your blog! It is daily reading for me, in fact often more than once a day I check it for now postings. Today I am disappointed in this posting. Having lived through the AIDS epidemic ( I am a 50 year old gay Canadian) I have learned that we don't have to expect perfect "Oprah-show" saintly behaviours and reaction in the face of adversity. We all knew many bitter angry mean-spirited people who died of AIDS. Their pre-HIV and post-HIV actions and attitudes do not have any impact on the tragedy of their illnesses and deaths. It amazes me that the media has wanted to jump with glee on these comments about Elizabeth Edwards. On The Daily Beast, Lee Seigal has posting that I would recommend. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-11/leave-elizabeth-alone/?cid=tag:all2). I watched many of the interviews with Elizabeth Edwards when she was promoting her book.(Full Disclosure I haven't read the book). It was very clear that she didn't want to speak about the affair and it was only journalists who pressed the point. She was not on the "Revenge Tour" (although that may be a good name for Madonna's next tour!). She plausibly stated that the book was long in the works and at the last minute she had to include the information. I am have been cheated on in the past and have been the other "man" twice in my early twenties. That part of my emotional life is shamefully in the past. So I know that these situations do not bring out the best in anyone. But none of that excuses the betrayal. I am sorry that the media feels that to maintain "balance" they have to voluntarily swing the pendulum to the other side. Although the NYT column you referenced attempts to explain the complexity of marriages, it stills highlights the poorly sourced "bad behaviours" as illuminating the real story. However, keep up the great blog. It is extremely informative, fun and well done.
I think Salon.com's Joan Walsh raises some legitimate concerns regarding the veracity of these characterizations of women like Edwards, Clinton, Palin that reek of misogyny on the part of the authors. So many of their statements are anonymously sourced or unattributed at all. Lots of sloppy writing and reporting, in other words.
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