This image was lost some time after publication.

We always enjoy the loopy ramblings of Myrna Blyth, who retired from Ladies Home Journal in order to write books like Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness—and Liberalism—to the Women of America. We'd even wondered what was taking her so long to weigh in on that little-known Trump/Rosie/Barbara Walters thing. So we were delighted today, when, at long last, she reached her bony grandma fingers into her changepurse and whipped out her two cents:

Rosie, not even bothering to sprinkle her monologue with jokes, criticized the war, the president, and the Patriot Act non-stop and also complained about the lack of childcare provided by The View. Every once in a while, Walters told Rosie how wonderful she was. The show finished with an interview with the gay actor who had introduced Rosie to her "wife." A battered Walter [sic], looking very tired, just kept smiling wanly. Trump, not missing a beat, immediately fired back, calling Walters "a sad figure-head dominated by a third rate comedian." Frankly, it is poignant to see Walters at the end of an extraordinary career being so beaten down not only by Rosie and Trump but by the changing times. For years Walters used her classy style, her handwritten notes, and her gifts of Porthault linen to get the big "gets" of her past interviews. That just doesn't work anymore. Oh, she may still get a "get" now and then, but nobody much cares anymore about a matronly interviewer exchanging niceties with a movie star or even a head-of-state.

A matronly scold writing for the National Review, though — that, we can all agree, is something to care about.


A Cat Gets into A Junkyard Dogfight [NRO]

Earlier: Media Criticism, 'New York Sun' Style