The Day the Music Died

I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died

-        Don McLean

Perhaps the most dissected lyrics in all of rock music (maybe except for that walrus thing).  I will now shed light on the true meaning (no matter what Don McLean might try to get you to believe).

Patrick L. Smith, the left-leaning columnist at the left-leaning Salon has offered the following:

I have watched my favorite daily…At the pace of crabgrass across a lawn, its correspondents have cautiously but stealthily corrupted the narrative.

Corrupting the narrative – appropriate for just about any mainstream news organization.  In this case, he is writing of the New York Times.  The specific issue upon which he is commenting is almost irrelevant, secondary to the story.  A left-leaning columnist at a left-leaning site is openly questioning the left-leaning mouthpiece of the empire.

Let’s just say that December 22, 2015 (the date of the column), is the day the music died (well, at least had a heart palpitation, but indulge me).

For those curious about the specific topic…

Forgetting, not paying attention and feeling as opposed to thinking are, of course, acts of patriotism in our great nation. Let us, then, do the un-American thing together as we consider the just-agreed plan to end the violence in Syria and send its people into a post-crisis future.

When it comes to questioning empire, the segments of the left and most libertarians have much in common.  But this isn’t the good stuff.

Smith writes of the recent UN resolution regarding Syria, calling for a cease-fire and for talks to include the Assad government.  I know; I bet you think this is somehow an about-face for the empire.  Not according to the Times.  After listing several stipulations in the resolution, the Smith offers:

Do not miss this, finally: The U.N. resolution makes no mention of President Assad. There is no stipulation that he is to step down, or aside, or do anything else as a precondition of a settlement. Syrians are left to determine for themselves what place, if any, Assad has in their future political formations.

Recognize any of this? Readers of this column should. These provisions vary little from a settlement plan Sergei Lavrov put on the table in Vienna last October, when a new round of talks among more than a dozen of the Russian foreign minister’s counterparts began.

On the other hand, readers of our corporate media, notably the New York Times, will be terribly confused at this point. They have been reading for some time that the U.N. resolution last Friday in New York was the consequence of Secretary of State Kerry’s arduous diplomacy. Facts being facts, the record the record, and history being history, this takes a lot of forgetting.

The only “diplomacy” that could be credited to Kerry in this regard is that which he has accomplished within the Obama administration, many members of which seem prepared to start a nuclear war.

Smith, the leftist, goes on to recite several bits of evidence in support of the Times’ failures.  I won’t repeat these here.

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye

Singin' this'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die

The death of The New York Times – does it get any more “bye, bye, Miss American Pie” than that? 

Someone on the left put a knife in the Times; isn’t that a nice thought?