I don’t know what possessed fake conservative pundit David Brooks to blow up his credibility on Twitter, now known as X, but he did it. I suppose Brooks was performing a public service for those naive enough to regard his pronouncements as coming down from the mount: Brooks styles himself as an elite intellectual, and what he did was as dunderheaded as any half-sloshed dockworker could aspire to. His tweet was also dishonest, and obviously so; maybe now fewer people will stop regarding his pontifications as worth reading, something I did years ago.
In case you missed this mini-scandal, Brooks posted the photo above that he took with his smartphone, and wrote, “This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible.” These are the kinds of impulsive outbursts that social media encourages; I don’t know, maybe Brooks was in a bad mood, or frustrated, or half-sloshed himself. But anyone who has been in an airport restaurant knows that meal didn’t cost $78. It certainly cost too much, because eating in airports, like eating at ballgames, makes you a victim of a captive environment: a pulled pork sandwich and fries with a bottle of beer recently cost me 36 bucks at Nationals Park. Brooks, however, was cheating, and unfortunately for him, the restaurant he smeared exposed him. Good.
1911 Smoke House Barbeque recalled that Brooks had dined there, and tweeted back, “Looks like someone was knocking back some serious drinks – Bar tab was almost 80% and he’s complaining about the cost of his meal,” it wrote. “Keep drinking buddy – we get paid off everything.” Restaurant owner Maukrice Hallett told the New York Post that it would name a special after Brooks, “a cheeseburger and a double whiskey.” Hallett estimates that Brooks ordered “two doubles” of whiskey, which cost about $29 each.
The mockery the Times columnist attracted on social media was epic, with even novelist Joyce Carol Oates piling on. She tweeted:
I tell lawyers in my ethics seminars that using X lowers one’s IQ between 10 and 20 points depending on the individual, and as professionals who depend on the public’s trust, they should avoid participating lest they end up like Larry Tribe. Now I have another cautionary tale to relate.
Thanks, David!
Ethics Alarms 
In contrast, these two (2) Bacon Cheeseburgers, homage to National Cheeseburger Day last Monday, cost ~ $4.00. The marvelous bi-color Old German Heirloom up top was raised-n-nurtured by yours truly.
My man, please tell me those burgers are more than 4″ in diameter…
Nice tomatoes by the way.
“My man, please tell me those burgers are more than 4″ in diameter…”
Pre-cooked, they were.
“Nice tomatoes by the way.”
You’re too kind; I take tomato Ranching VERY SERIOUSLY!
That is a lovely tomato stampede.
jvb
The effects of X combined with the effects of alcohol on IQ must be multiplicative and not cumulative.
Taking a different view, was it ethical for the restaurant to reveal the whole tab? Brooks wasn’t criticizing the restaurant, but Bidenomics. Looking at the picture, it’s not deceptive to me. obviously he didn’t order iced tea, and the photo was taken well into the glass being sipped for at least a half hour.
Fair defense complaining about the *whole* meal. But no one enters public life as an adult not knowing that *all* restaurants charge much more for liquor than it seems makes sense. He knew what he was getting into and still chose to order the equivalent of 4 shots…which at even a *very low price* *off site* would have been at least $30. Then the burger, off site would have been something like $6-8. So $35-40 of an offsite meal versus $80 at an airport…. that seems to me to be how much airports have always up-priced, time immemorial.
Now, back in the day, a jump from $20 to $40 is annoying, but it’s the same ratio as a jump from $40 to $80, even while that’s more offensive to the sensibilities. But in the world of mark-ups and expenses, everything is percentage.
And my quoted prices are low. If he’d chosen a top-shelf whiskey? Much more expensive.
He knew precisely the service he was receiving and then complained about the service he received. There were no surprises.
I’ll repeat my defense. He’s not complaining about the restaurant’s service, he never even named the venue. He’s complaining about the _cost_ of the restaurant’s service. He’s correctly attributing the cost on the recent inflationary effects on the economy. Things the restaurant has no control over.
Of course he could have made less expensive choices. He could have packed a PBJ then complained that the loaf cost twice what it did four years ago. Should the grocery store then point out that he also bought premium dog food?
Was it ethical for the restaurant to “punch back” when he didn’t even punch toward the restaurant?
It’s hard to make a claim about inflation from a captive market that is inflated regardless. It reads more like a complaint about the service provided for $ and not just the price.
Yes, because his photo was misleading, and the restaurant had every right to defend itself. Now, if he had shown two full doubles of liquor and listed the price, that would have been fair.
WallPhone asked, “[w]as it ethical for the restaurant to reveal the whole tab?”
Yes, it was because Brooks lied about the cost of the meal. He complained that the meal cost $78 but did not reveal that he ordered not one, but two = TWO – double scotches on the rocks, each costing $29. The restaurant was right to call him on his canard. Live by social media, die by social media.
jvb
“It certainly cost too much, because eating in airports, like eating at ballgames, makes you a victim of a captive environment: a pulled pork sandwich and fries with a bottle of beer recently cost me 36 bucks at Nationals Park.”
It’d be interesting to see a profit / expense evaluation of airport restaurants. I wonder how much of their prices are gouging a captive audience to maximize profits in an advantageous situation and how much their prices are actually reflective of probably higher rental rates and greater regulations they may have to follow in the airport.
It could be the airport property owners gouging the restaurants and the restaurants cutting a similar profit as an offsite restaurant after offloading the increased rental fee to the customer.
I suspect there is a “premium” charged and payable to the local government officials approving the food concession at the airport or the ballpark or any other public-run facility. In Houston, a very well run and respected restaurant chain had a number of restaurants at the airports. The contracts came up for renewal and, oddly, the chain’s applications were rejected in favor of a smaller, less known company. The new company agreed to pay a higher percentage of sales to the city in exchange for the contract approval.
jvb
Who the fuck orders scotch on the rocks with a cheeseburger and fries? What an arrogant, entitled, snotty asshole.
By the way, Brooks was a University of Chicago classmate of Jonathan Turley’s. Hard to believe.
When I saw it first I assumed it was a joke/brag about drinking an expensive whiskey. Maybe I was giving him too much credit.
How does someone like Brooks not have access to a decent lounge, anyway?
And a bit of maybe social commentary…Ever notice that the airport restaurant with the most consistently long lines seems to be Chick-fil-a ? (I exclude Starbucks).