Why We Should Love Those Twingly Internettube Things
Less than two hours after I write, Roger Bigod tells me:
Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Somewhat OT, but there's a Russell Baker piece in the current New Yawk Review of Books on the decline of newspapers. Though blogs are no replacement, this illustrates an advantage of the form. Before the internet, the only place to find this Broder fex would have been on microfilm in a newspaper margue or a few libraries. And anyone who located it would have no place to re-publish. The Shrill Professor has discovered the Reverse Memory Hole.
Baker notes that the great family owned newspapers are a uniquely important cultural resource, one of the last best hopes for accurate public information. Then he has to admit that during the run-up to the Iraq War, their performance was comparable to Pravda or Izvestia under Comrade Stalin. There's probably a terrific movie there, but not one I expect to see, and not one that ends happily.
