JK Rowling Denied Top US Honour

2 Responses to “JK Rowling Denied Top US Honour”

1. 
   Bruce Johnson
   October 1st, 2009 at 18:40

   It is amazing, and sad, how much play this claim is getting, as it is spread by a whole crowd of purported journalists (and anti-Bush sorts) who simply repeat any silly claim that fits their own biases without checking the available facts.  On the credibility of the author, Matt Latimer, who appears to have been a very small player whom very few in the White House even knew, there are many questions concerning his credibility and supposed “insider” knowledge.  The clearest case may be his claim that Bush didn’t even know who Palin was when McCain chose her as his running mate few in the general media challenged him.  Few who repeated it in print seem to ask many questions about it; few seem to have bothered to do a quick Lexis-Nexus search to see if it the claim accorded with readily available records.  The claim is preposterous on its surface.  But if one is in doubt, a mere two minute web-search would uncover, for instance, the LA Times posting of Aug 28, 2008 (immediately after the choice was announced) which ran a quick check and found 4 specific occasions on which Bush & Palin had met, including one earlier that month!As for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a bare half hour of research of the basis and history of the reward, and esp. of the bare handful of authors & folk in related fields to whom Bush awarded this distinction, should have debunked this nonsense.   Anyone who has read the citations, which lay out the basis for their receiving the award, could recognize how Rowling’s work, as popular and influential as it may be, does not match the criteria that led to the honoring of a Harper Lee or David McCullough.  

2. 
   Eric Florack
   October 2nd, 2009 at 8:21

   Thanks for saying. I tend to agree with you.

   That said, Bruce, I think I should point out that Mel merely reported the existence of the rumor .  Indeed, two sentence post, is hardly a venue in which the rumor can be proven or debunked.  Nor, believe me, does his mention of the rumor indicate a buy- in on his part.