You have to feel sorry for our man Sisyphus. For his recent effort to put together a special post have resembled that of his namesake in terms of futility in reaching his goal. You see Sisyphus had a promising plan to pen a parody of something that could have been written by former WCCO news anchor Don Shelby. Sisyphus’ piece would be on over-the-top, outrageously exaggerated work demonstrating Shelby’s personal arrogance, his silly pretensions on the importance of journalism, and his utter ignorance of what conservatives actually believe. From what I understand, it was going to be a masterpiece of wit that would have skewered its target so thoroughly that he would be forevermore regarded as a laughingstock devoid of any credibility (among those who at least didn’t already hold that view of Shelby).
But just as Sisyphus was preparing to release his work of well-spun gold he suffered the worst fate that could befall a citizen journalist; he was scooped. Even worse, his thunder was stolen by none other than the man that he was seeking to lampoon in the first place. For our poor Sisyphus has learned a valuable lesson that hard way: some things are beyond parody. Case in point is this Don Shelby piece at MinnPost called Why I never want to cover politicians:
Which, at long last, brings me to my point. I dislike hubris. So did the ancient Greeks. It was, in fact, a crime. Roughly defined as extreme pride, hubris also has come to mean an absolute, unshakeable confidence in one’s own opinion, without regard to the facts.
Your effort was a noble one Sisyphus and we all appreciate the thought behind it. But if there’s one thing we all should have known by now it’s that no one can mock Don Shelby better than Don Shelby.
