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I’ve been reading opinion columnists at the New York Times for nearly a half century. My opinion is that the paper should stop giving de-facto lifetime tenure t
by tkgally 2y ago
I’ve been reading opinion columnists at the New York Times for nearly a half century. My opinion is that the paper should stop giving de-facto lifetime tenure to columnists. All of the long-term columnists I remember—with the possible exception of Russell Baker—became predictable and repetitive.
Paul Krugman was not the worst in that regard by any means. The champion was A. M. Rosenthal: Israel good, China bad, drug legalization bad, again and again and again. But I still became able to predict with confidence what position Krugman was going to take—and what positions he wouldn’t take—without reading his columns.
- tptacek 2y agoOur politics might not line up perfectly, but we got the same subtext from Krugman's complaint: when he suggests he needs many columns to convey the ideas he's trying to convey, I put myself in his editor's shoes and think "this content isn't selling well". If this was reporting, I'd be alarmed, but it's not; it's opinion content, which is epsilon from entertainment. Krugman wants an unfiltered feed of his takes for his audience, and the good news here is that there's a facility perfectly matched for that: his Substack. I wish him all the best.
- azemetre 2y agoIt's one of the reasons why I stopped reading most nonfiction books (outside of history or biographies), they all take way too long to make their point. It feels like most modern books can get their message across in 20 pages but I suppose not many people would buy a thick pamphlet.