Well, you have to hand it to Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor of the New York Times. She calls ’em as she sees ’em, even if she sees them through a Lefty lens most of the time.

She’s more than a bit ticked off about the NYT’s coverage of the World Economic Forum gabfest in Davos. She thinks they are covering the conference way too much. She’s not a fan and gave both the conference and the Times a double barreled blast.

She sent an email to Ben Smith, also a former Times employee and recipient of some of that sweet Sam Bankman-Fried investment in positive media coverage. Ben is now at the startup media outlet Semaphor. Mr. Bankman-Fried is still, technically, an investor in the company, although the other investors are hoping to escape the bad publicity by buying him out.

Good move, I would say. It’s not a good look to have your journalism enterprise financially tied up in a Ponzi scheme.

In any case, Ms. Abramson just had to vent to somebody, so she chose to do so to her pal Ben Smith. Semaphor reported this little nugget in an email newsletter dedicated entirely to…you guessed it…the goings on at Davos.

Former New York Times editor Jill Abramson emailed Ben to write that in her day, the Times paid little attention to Davos. Her predecessor Joseph Lelyveld, she wrote, “wanted to ban reporters” from attending, and Abramson “had an allergy to it.”

She continued:

“I noticed (after I was gone), much more ‘news’ coverage in the Times of Davos, quoting the attendees and speakers at those endless panels. Of course, the coverage was a sweetener to flatter the CEOs by seeing their names in the NYT so that they would then speak at high-dollar NYT conferences and — of course — get phony news stories from the conferences into the paper.”

“It was — and is‚ a corrupt circle-jerk.”

I entirely get her frustration, even if I don’t 100% agree with her on the importance of Davos.

Well, that’s not exactly right. The Davos meeting itself is exactly as she described. It is a social gathering intended to do little but provide a networking forum for the rich and famous, and in that sense it really is a “corrupt circle-jerk.”

But as I said yesterday in a piece on the Davos meeting, I think the World Economic Forum actually is important, because it helps set the common agenda of the Elite™ transnational class. It serves as both a think tank and even central nervous system where coordination begins.

The actual political fights are local, as Christopher Rufo rightly pointed out. Rufo is highly critical of the focus on the WEF among conservatives, arguing that all the real political battles are much more local. What the WEF thinks or says about issues really isn’t the main point–the fight is right here, right now.

He’s not wrong. But following the wanna-be Bond villains of the WEF does serve a purpose. Unlike Blofeld, the WEF represents the Elite; Blofeld wanted to blow them up and replace them. So if you want to see the agenda, you could do much worse than focusing attention on the WEF. It is far more important than, say, the UN, which really is impotent.

Unpopular opinion: the obsession with Klaus Schwab, Davos, and the WEF is misguided, as they have little real power over life in America. It's also enervating, as it shifts the locus of control to far-away figures, while constructive action can be taken at home. Stay focused.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 17, 2023

When Rufo speaks, I listen because he is fighting all the right fights, and in this case I half agree with him. If Klaus Schwab and the WEF went away tomorrow we would still face the same struggles. It’s just that the WEF is to the Elites what Twitter was to the Lefty media–where they go to create their Narrative and agenda. It is where the consensus is hashed out.

It was pleasant to see Abramson say the quiet part out loud, at least. The meeting itself is like the Oscars or some similar awards ceremony. Lots of the high and mighty stroking each others’ egos and making corrupt deals.

Among other things, it deserves to be ridiculed. Which is why I had so much fun at John Kerry’s expense yesterday. He isn’t Blofeld; he’s blowhard.