Live from the Journamalists' Self-Made Gehenna: Apropos of: Gillian White: Emerson Collective Acquires Majority Stake in The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/emerson-collective-atlantic-coalition/535215/
My two cents is that Laurene Powell Jobs should move editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg out of the Atlantic as fast as possible.
It would give it a chance of becoming a trustworthy information intermediary.
Just saying:
Jeffrey Goldberg (2010): Yes, Yes, I Know I Started the Iraq War http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/yes-yes-i-know-i-started-the-iraq-war/58780/: "I'm getting a bit of the Two Minutes' Hate from the usual suspects...
...about my posting on Dave Weigel. The same old stuff: I started the Iraq War, I'm an AIPAC stooge, a bloodthirsty Likudnik, I'm a sociopathic fabulist, I drive a mini-van, etc. But some bloggers don't seem to get me: I understand, of course, that Israel represents the greatest threat to world peace today; that the defeat of Saddam Hussein was a victory for Bushist fascism; and I realize that Saddam had no relationship at all with al Qaeda...
Goldberg's post:
Jeffrey Goldberg (2010: An Unhappy Day At The Washington Post http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/an-unhappy-day-at-the-washington-post/58745/: "The sad truth is that the Washington Post in... desperation for page views...
...now hires people [like David Weigel] who came up in journalism without... adult supervision, and... toilet-training.... [But] some people at the Post... still know the difference between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior.... Maybe this episode will lead to the reimposition of some level of standards.... From inside The Post:
This is not just sour grapes about the sudden rise of these untrained kids, though I have to think that some people in the building resent them for bypassing the usual way people rise here. This is really about the serial stupidity of allowing these bloggers to trade on the name of the Washington Post...
It makes me crazy when I see these guys referred to as reporters. They're anything but. And they hurt the newspaper when they claim to be reporters...
Ezra Klein is a talented guy, but he's just an absolute partisan. If this is where journalism has to go, so be it, but I don't want to go there.
The lack of toilet-training is right. Everyone makes mistakes, but you can mitigate the number of mistakes through seasoning. Some people here are still put through seasoning, but others aren't. It shows, and it's embarrassing...
Usual suspect Ta-Nehisi Coates's reply:
Ta-Nehisi Coates (2010): The Thing About Dave http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/the-thing-about-dave/58771/: "Jeff Goldberg['s]... posts... are unfortunate.... Here is Jeff quoting a journalist at the Post....
It makes me crazy when I see these guys referred to as reporters. They're anything but. And they hurt the newspaper when they claim to be reporters...
Ezra Klein is a talented guy, but he's just an absolute partisan. If this is where journalism has to go, so be it, but I don't want to go there...
I'm assuming Jeff at least partially endorses this view-point....
[T]he view that Stephen Glass was tolerable, that Jayson Blair was presumably tolerable, that Judy Miller was tolerable, but that Ezra Klein is of sufficient threat to drive someone from journalism entirely is rather astounding. The Washington Post... once accepted a Pulitzer for wholly made-up story, and publishes a magazine whose arguably defining moment was announcing that a 40 year old woman was more likely to "be killed by a terrorist" than ever be married.....
Dave [Weigel] is—quite literally—a reporter. I got the sense reading Jeff's posts that most of the people he talked had never actually read Dave's work, so much as they saw "fallen high profile blogger," and flush with envy, reached for the can of Schadenfreude. And then the phone....
This is about people who don't want to have to compete, or be held accountable for the falsehoods they write.... No blogger better, and more routinely, defied the stereotype of simply opining. Dave traveled. Dave worked the phones. And Dave wrote stories. And he isn't alone...
It's all damaging to Goldberg's reputation. Most damaging to Goldberg's reputation, of course, is his claim that "Saddam had no relationship at all with al Qaeda" is a lie on the same plane as "Israel represents the greatest threat to world peace today".
Getting it right is simply not high on Goldberg's agenda, for of course, while Israel does not represent the greatest threat to world peace today, Saddam Hussein had no working relationship at all with Al Qaeda. And Jeffrey Goldberg isn't willing to admit that.
