Pet Rhetorical Peeve
Mar. 23rd, 2004 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77Resorting to what's become a familiar rhetorical device on the part of Bush administration officials, Condoleezza Rice this morning accused Richard Clarke of the "retrospective rewriting of history" about the administration's handling of terrorism.
Had I the opportunity, I would like to ask Dr. Rice how else she thought history should be written, except "retrospectively" ...?
... &, perhaps to remind her that the journalistic "first draft of history" often does get "rewritten" when re-examined in light of new facts, new witnesses, or just plain critical thought.
Otherwise, what are we paying all of those historians for? Might as well just stock the history section of the library with back issues of Time and Newsweek ...!
Had I the opportunity, I would like to ask Dr. Rice how else she thought history should be written, except "retrospectively" ...?
... &, perhaps to remind her that the journalistic "first draft of history" often does get "rewritten" when re-examined in light of new facts, new witnesses, or just plain critical thought.
Otherwise, what are we paying all of those historians for? Might as well just stock the history section of the library with back issues of Time and Newsweek ...!
