4 ms·

Robert Burrows is not newsworthy without Gene Weingarten. The article would leave a massive unanswered question at its center.

• andrewflnr 6y ago
  Yes, as I read it the unfairness and falseness of the review was the core of the story.
• wombatmobile 6y ago
  > Robert Burrows is not newsworthy without Gene Weingarten. Are you saying that in your way of thinking, newsworthiness only arises from a false, disparaging accusation?
  • andrewflnr 6y ago
    It's easy to answer that question by just, you know, reading what they're actually saying, instead of making insinuations based on the dumbest possible thought someone could have about the article.
    • wombatmobile 6y ago
      I read the article, andrewfinr. It seems like a serious attempt to inform us about the humanity and abilities of Robert Burrows. The reason it tends more towards clickbait than necessary is obvious from the headline: What I Learned From the Worst Novelist in the English Language If the article was more of an attempt to rehabilitate Robert Burrows, who the author visited on his death bed to get the story, the headline might more candidly have been written as: What I Learned From the "Worst Novelist in the English Language" Swanson does encapsulate the insult in inverted commas, but not until para 19, when he writes: There was something regal, something monumental, in his bearing, and though I knew otherwise, I found myself thinking, “There he is. The worst novelist in the English language.” Was it really necessary, or beneficial to share that thought, if the point of the article is to debunk the insult?
      • andrewflnr 6y ago
        Those are reasonable points that are entirely irrelevant to mine, which was about how you misrepresented ponker's position through your asinine, insulting "in your way of thinking" question. You didn't even have to stretch for a charitable interpretation: the surface reading was perfectly decent. Instead you either thought they were making some ludicrous generalization about newsworthiness for all time, or found it rhetorically useful to seem to think that. In either case your comment provided negative value.