Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Charles Kaiser and David Nicholson

the breakfast table
entries
1234567891011121314151617
from: Charles Kaiser

The Baby and the Bathwater

Posted Thursday, April 20, 2000, at 5:57 PM ET

David,

The fact that plenty of journalists make plenty of stupid pronouncements may explain our current ranking with the general public; but it certainly doesn't diminish the importance of what the good ones continue to do. Of course it's not our job to make the rules, but if we all stopped bothering to chase after our public officials, we would be in a much worse mess than the one we already find ourselves in.

I could make as long a list as anyone of "journalists" I would like to banish from television; Chris Matthews would be at the very top of that list. On the other hand, every time I read anything by Frank Clines, Molly Ivins, Joan Didion, David Dunlap, Bill Grieder, Rob Boynton, Paul Goldberger, or Renata Adler (who managed to scoop the entire Washington press corps on the real significance of the Starr report), I know that ours is still a profession very much worth practicing.

Yours,
Charles

the breakfast table
entries
1234567891011121314151617
from: Charles Kaiser

The Baby and the Bathwater

Posted Thursday, April 20, 2000, at 5:57 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Charles Kaiser teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and is the author of The Gay Metropolis (click here to buy it). David Nicholson, a former book reviewer for the Washington Post, is at work on a novel about black men and violence called The House of Eli.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the most recent entry:


I have to confess I never understood why people care whether prejudice is learned or innate [Wednesday's entry]. At some point I learned how to speak English but nothing short of brain damage is going to ever make me unlearn it. Socially speaking, something that you learned is just as hard to get rid of as an innate disposition.

--Otis

(To reply, click here.)


Why shouldn't the protesters complain about the treatment they received in jail [Wednesday]? Sure, it's not supposed to be like summer camp but we all know Dostoevsky's old adage that you can judge a country by the quality of its prisons. Besides, the protesters were taking the only available avenue of self-expression in this case, since the IMF certainly didn't allow an anti-globalist delegation of labor activists and environmentalists into the meeting.

--Michael Maiello

(To reply, click here.)

(4/20)

Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Assessing Sarah Palin
| Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, John Podesta and others weigh in.
Colbert King: She's No HillaryEditorial: Is She Ready for This?
PLUS » PostPartisan: Quick Takes from Opinions