Oh, Dan,
I’d love to talk about the infinitely regressive world of media reporting, but I don’t want anyone to think of journalists as incestuous and narcissistic. (Self-obsessed? Not me.) I’ll just address a few things you bring up. I haven’t read the new issue of Mother Jones, but the design and contents look great, especially the report on privatized prisons. I give credit to Roger Cohn, the new editor, for making good on his promise to underwrite quality investigative journalism.
We do spend too much time reading other media, too little talking to non-media sources. But even so, a lot of quality writing goes unnoticed in this vertically integrated electronic vortex we live in. Why? Online real estate is so limited. So many sites, so little time. That explains why you credit Salon’s Jake Tapper for breaking the story about Gore’s toxic-waste problem, even though my friend Jason Vest posted a similar story three weeks ago on Speakout.com.
I hope Jason and Jake don’t get in a pissing match over this. They both wrote good stories. The point is that Salon ignores Speakout.com for the same reason the New York Times ignores the Los Angeles Times on the Rezulin story. Market penetration, baby!
Finally, before the week is out, let’s get to Vietnam. Remember? I was old enough to be jailbait at an antiwar march, and you were too young for the draft, but not by much. There’s an Op-Ed in the Times today by Walter McDougall, who argues that the problem wasn’t U.S. involvement but our betrayal of the South Vietnamese, not finishing what we set out to do. Do you buy that? It seems like dangerous logic to me, especially if applied to the upcoming quagmire in Colombia. Let’s see. Even if the majority of Colombians favor a peaceful resolution to the conflict, even if the United States is set to finance some murderous, drug-dealing death squads, even if that puts us in the situation of attacking left-wing guerrillas whose armies are largely adolescent … the important thing is that we not turn back?
I very much want your opinion on that one. Just think, someone might be reading this 25 years from now!
Cynthia
